About

I'm an atmospheric and climate scientist studying climate variability and change, atmospheric dynamics, Arctic climate, and terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics. In my research I combine observations, theory, and numerical modeling to advance our understanding of the Earth system. I'm currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

My current research focuses on developing methods to estimate CO₂ emissions and uptake using primarily satellite observations. Specifically, I use data assimilation and inverse modeling techniques to infer regional-scale CO₂ emissions and uptake from both natural and anthropogenic sources and sinks. Such methods are useful to study the natural carbon cycle and independently estimate anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions.

I'm also interested in studying climate change in the Arctic, and how those changes are connected to mid-latitude climate variability and weather extremes. You can read more about my research projects under Research.

News and activities

• 2023-12-05 Two new co-authored papers: Assessing arctic wetting: Performances of CMIP6 models and projections of future precipitation changes and Precipitation variability related to atmospheric circulation patterns over the Tibetan Plateau.
• 2023-11-08 My postdoc Ziqian Zhong has published a paper in Nature Communications about the reversed trend of diurnal asymmetric warming: Reversed asymmetric warming of sub-diurnal temperature over land during recent decades.
• 2023-09-29 Two new papers related to the carbon cycle: reduced fire carbon emissions over Equatorial Asia (Wang et al. 2023, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science), and the effect of vapor pressure deficit on ecosystem productivity (Zhong et al. 2023, Science Advances).
• 2023-08-12 We successfully held our first physical NSFC–STINT workshop on "Carbon cycle in the climate-vulnerable regions: modeling and observations" in Nanjing, China on 1–3 August 2023. The workshop gathered more than 40 scholars from China, Europe, North America, and Australia, and resulted in many fruitful discussions and potential future collaborations. This event was partly supported by Stiftelsen för internationalisering av högre utbildning och forskning (STINT). More information about the workshop (in Chinese) and some photos are available here: 中-美-欧气候脆弱区碳循环模拟与观测联合研讨会成功举办.
• 2023-04-03 Two recent co-authored papers, one on the Warm Arctic–Cold Eurasia pattern (Cai et al. 2023, Atmospheric Research), and the other about estimating PM2.5 and ozone concentrations using machine learning (Yan et al. 2023, Environmental Pollution).
• 2023-03-06 Our paper on the TRACE coupled atmosphere–carbon data assimilation system has been published by JAMES. Read more here: Regional CO₂ inversion through ensemble-based simultaneous state and parameter estimation: TRACE framework and controlled experiments.
• 2023-01-03 Happy New Year! I have started a new position as an Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology. At Chalmers, I will further develop techniques to estimate greenhouse gas emissions and removals, as well as continue research on climate variability and change with a focus on the polar regions.
• 2022-11-05 I was recently interviewed by Sveriges Radio (Radio Sweden) about monitoring emissions using satellites. You can listen to the full interview here (mainly in Swedish): Nya satelliter avslöjar dolda utsläpp av växthusgaser.
• 2022-05-31 I have been interviewed by Extrakt about my research on estimating carbon dioxide emissions using satellites. You can find the full article online in Swedish: Bilder från rymden avslöjar koldioxidutsläpp.
• 2022-05-29 We recently published an extensive review paper on permafrost in the Arctic and the Third Pole.