Fengpeng Sun

[PDF] (updated in 03/2016)

Research Interests

Regional Climate Variability and Change, Numerical Climate/Weather Modeling, Dynamical and Statistical Downscaling, Climate Change Impacts and Sustainability, Weather and Climate Extremes, Geoscience Data Analysis, Statistics and Probability

Education

Ph.D., Earth System Science (Climate Dynamics)
University of California, Irvine, California,  2008

Research Experience

Assistant Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles    2012–present

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of California, Los Angeles    2008–2012

Graduate Student Researcher, University of California, Irvine    2003–2008

Manuscripts in preparation

Sun F., A. Hall, M. Schwartz, N. Berg, and D. Walton, 2016: Inevitable End-of-century Loss of Spring Snowpack over California’s Sierra Nevada, to be submitted.

Sun F., A. Hall, N. Berg, D. Walton, and M. Schwartz, 2016: Projected Weakening of Orographic Rain Shadows Related to Precipitation Extremes Changes: A Case Study of the Sierra Nevada, in preparation.

Schwartz M., A. Hall, F. Sun, D. Walton, N. Berg, 2016: Significant End-of-21st-century Warming-driven Advances in Surface Runoff Timing in California’s Sierra Nevada, to be submitted.

Schwartz, M., A. Hall, F. Sun, N. Berg, and D. Walton, 2016: Projected Soil Moisture Declines in the California Sierra Nevada, in preparation.

Peer-reviewed Publications

Sun F., A. Hall, M. Schwartz, D. Walton, N. Berg, 2016: Twenty-First-Century Snowfall and Snowpack Changes over the Southern California Mountains. Journal of Climate, 29, 91–110, doi:10.1175/JCLI- D-15-0199.1. 

Walton D., A. Hall, F. Sun, M. Schwartz, and N. Berg, 2016: Downscaled CMIP5 projections of elevation dependent warming and snow cover loss in California’s Sierra Nevada. Journal of Climate, in review.

Schwartz M., A. Hall, F. Sun, 2015: Mean Surface Runoff Insensitive to Warming in a Key Mediterranean-type Climate: A Case Study of the Los Angeles Region. Journal of Climate, in review.

Jin Y., M. Goulden, N. Faivre, S. Veraverbeke, F. Sun, A. Hall, M. Hand, S. Hook and J. Randerson, 2015: Identification of Two Distinct Fire Regimes in Southern California: Implications for Economic Impact and Future Change. Environmental Research Letters, 10: 094005, doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/10/9/094005.

Sun F., D. Walton, and A. Hall, 2015: A Hybrid Dynamical-Statistical Downscaling Technique, Part II: End-of-Century Warming Projections Predict a New Climate State in the Los Angeles Region. Journal of Climate, 28, 4618–4636, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00197.1.

Walton D., F. Sun, A. Hall and S. Capps, 2015: A Hybrid Dynamical-Statistical Downscaling Technique, Part I: Development and Validation of the Technique. Journal of Climate, 28, 4597–4617, doi:10.1175/JCLI- D-14-00196.1.

Jousse A., A. Hall, F. Sun and T. Teixeira, 2015: Causes of Energy Fluxes Biases in a Stratocumulus Region. Climate Dynamics. doi: 10.1007/s00382-015-2599-9.

Berg N., A. Hall, F. Sun, S. Capps, D. Walton, B. Langenbrunner and D. Neelin, 2015: Twenty- First-Century Precipitation Changes over the Los Angeles Region. Journal of Climate, 28, 401–420, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00316.1.

Berg N., A. Hall, F. Sun, S. Capps, D. Walton, B. Langenbrunner and D. Neelin, 2014: 21st-Century Precipitation Changes over the Los Angeles Region: Part III of the “Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region” project. Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability Report III.

Sun F., A. Hall, D. Walton, S. Capps and K. Reich, 2013: Mid- and end-of-century snowfall in the Los Angeles region: Part II of the “Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region” project. Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability Report II.

Toniazzo T., F. Sun, C. R. Mechoso and A. Hall, 2013: A regional Modeling Study of the Diurnal Cycle in the Lower Troposphere in the Southeastern Tropical Pacific. Climate Dynamics, 41, 1899–1922, doi: 10.1007/s00382-012-1598-3.

Hall A., F. Sun, D. Walton, S. Capps, X. Qu, H.-Y. Huang, N. Berg, M. Schwartz, A. Jousse, R. Cerezo-Mota and M. Nakamura, 2012: Mid-century warming in the Los Angeles region: Part I of the “Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region” project. Los Angeles Regional Collaborative for Climate Action and Sustainability Report I.

Sun, F., A. Hall, and X. Qu, 2011: On the Relationship between Low Cloud Variability and Lower Tropospheric Stability in the Southeast Pacific. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 11, 9053–9065, doi:10.5194/acp-11-9053-2011.

Wyant, M. C., Wood, R., Bretherton, C. S., Mechoso, C. R., Bacmeister, J., Balmaseda, M. A., Barrett, B., Codron, F., Earnshaw, P., Fast, J., Hannay, C., Kaiser, J. W., Kitagawa, H., Klein, S. A., K ̈ohler, M., Manganello, J., Pan, H.-L., F. Sun, Wang, S., and Wang, Y., 2010: The PreVOCA Experiment: Modeling the Lower Troposphere in the Southeast Pacific. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 4757–4774, doi:10.5194/acp-10-4757-2010.

Sun F., and J.-Y. Yu, 2009: A 10–15year Modulation Cycle of ENSO Intensity. Journal of Climate, 22, 1718–1735, doi: 10.1175/2008JCLI2285.1.

Yu J.-Y., F. Sun and H.-Y. Kao, 2009: Contributions of Indian Ocean and Monsoon Biases to the Excessive Biennial ENSO in CCSM3. Journal of Climate, 22, 1850–1858, doi: 10.1175/2008JCLI2706.1.

Sun, F., and J.-Y. Yu, 2006: Impacts of Central America Gap Winds on the SST Annual Cycle in the Eastern Pacific Warm Pool. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L06710, doi:10.1029/2005GL024700.

Patent

Hall A., F. Sun, and S. Capps, 2011: 2km-resolution Climate Data for the Los Angeles Region. University of California, Patent No. 2012-389s.

Ph.D. Dissertation

Sun F., 2008: ENSO decadal modulation and tropical Pacific mean climate. University of California, Irvine Archives.

Analytical & Programming Skills

Sharp proficiency in data analysis and statistics in climate and geosciences research

Substantial modeling expertise in numerical weather/atmospheric, land and oceanic climate models

Skilled in programming languages

Working knowledge in

Teaching Experience


Professional Services

Manuscript Reviewer for:

Judge for:

Honors and Awards

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of California, Irvine, 2007

Climate Variability and Change Scholarship, American Meteorological Society, 2007

Outstanding Contributions to the Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, 2006-2007

Student Travel Grant, University of California, Irvine, 2005/2007

Bjerknes Scholarship, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen, 2006

IGPP fellowship, University of California, Irvine, 2003-2004

May 4th Medal for Outstanding Youth (top 10 of 20000), Nanjing University, 1999

Guanghua Scholarship, Guanghua Education Foundation, 1998

People’s Academic Prize for Academic Excellence, Nanjing University, 1997-1999


Computing Resource Allocations Awarded

National Science Foundation (NSF) TeraGrid & Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE)
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Selected First-author Presentations and Conference Proceedings

Sun, F., A. Hall, N. E. Berg, D. B. Walton, and M. Schwartz, 2016: Inevitable End-of- century Loss of Spring Snowpack over California’s Sierra Nevada, 28th Conference on Climate Variability and Change in 96th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, Abstract 1.4, January 11-14 (Invited “Hot Topics in Climate” Talk )

Sun, F., D. Walton, A. Hall, N. Berg and M. Schwartz, 2014: Snowpack Changes in the Sierra Nevada: High-Resolution Projections for the End of 21st Century, Eos Trans. AGU, 95(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A51H-3140, December 15-19 (Poster)

Sun, F., A. Hall, D. Walton, S. Capps, and K. Reich, 2013: Projecting Mid- and End- of-Century Climate Change in the Los Angeles Mountainous Region by a Combination of Dynamical and Statistical Downscaling Techniques, Eos Trans. AGU, 94(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A11A-0009, December 09-13 (Poster)

Sun, F., 2013: Downscaling Hydro-Climate Change in the Los Angeles Region and the Sierra Nevada, Mountain Research Initiative Key Contact Workshop: Global Change Research in Mountain Regions, Berkeley, December 08 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F. and A. Hall, 2013: Mid-Century Snowfall Projections in the Los Angeles Mountain Region, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Board Meeting, Los Angeles, California, February 19 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F., A. Hall, D. Walton, S. Capps, X. Qu, H.-Y. Huang, N. Berg, A. Jousse, M. Schwartz, M. Nakamura and R. Cerezo-Mota, 2012: Mid-Century Warming in the Los Angeles Region and its Uncertainty using Dynamical and Statistical Downscaling, Eos Trans. AGU, 93(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A34E-03, December 03-07 (Talk)

Sun, F. and A. Hall, 2012: The climatic future of the Los Angeles region, Climate Resolve, Los Angeles, California, March 7 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F., T. Toniazzo, C. R. Mechoso and A. Hall, 2010: Regional modeling studies on the diurnal and semidiurnal cycles of boundary layer off the west coast of South America, Eos Trans. AGU, 91(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A51A-0051, December 13-17 (Poster)

Sun, F., 2010: Regional climate simulations over the Southeast Pacific, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China, November 11 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F., 2010: ENSO decadal modulation and its mechanism, State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China, October 28 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F. and A. Hall, 2010: Regional modeling simulations for meteorological conditions for the Santiago wildfire in 2007, Wildfire in Southern California, Los Angeles, California, October 21 (Talk)

Sun, F. and A. Hall, 2010: Climate change and predictions in Southern California, Climate Change and Urban Forests in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, October 15 (Invited Talk)

Sun, F., X. Qu and A. Hall, 2009: An evaluation of LTS as a predictor of low cloud variability, Eos Trans. AGU, 90(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A13J-0441, December 14-18 (Poster)

Sun, F. and A. Hall, 2008: Stratocumulus cloud top height simulations in Southeast Pacific, UCLA VOCALS meeting, Los Angeles, California, November 14 (Talk)

Sun, F., 2008: ENSO modulation and its links to decadal climate variability in tropical Pacific, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, April (Talk)

Sun, F., 2008: A 10–15 year modulation Cycle of ENSO Intensity and its ENSO Asymmetry - Basic State Interaction Mechanism, U.S. CLIVAR Science Symposium, Irvine, California, July 14 (Poster)

Sun, F. and J.-Y. Yu, 2007: A 10–15year modulation cycle of ENSO intensity and its ENSO asymmetry-basic state interaction mechanism, Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract OS13A-1011, December 10-14 (Poster)

Sun, F., 2006: A decadal modulation cycle of ENSO intensity, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research Workshop, Bergen, Norway, September 19-22 (Talk)

Sun, F., 2006: Modeling studies on the Central America gap wind forcing to the eastern Pacific warm pool SST annual cycle, Multidecadal Climate Variability and Tele- connection Dynamics Bjerknes Summer School, Finse, Norway, September 10-18 (Talk)

Sun, F. and J.-Y. Yu, 2005: Impacts of Central America gap winds on the SST annual cycle in the eastern Pacific warm pool, Eos Trans. AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract A53B-05, December 05-09 (Talk)

Selected Media Reports and Appearances

Los Angeles Times: “Number of days with temperatures above 95 F to soar in L.A. County”

Reuters: “Los Angeles can expect number of extreme heat days to rise”

The New York Times: “District by District, Climate Change in Los Angeles”

Los Angeles Times: “Climate change could slash snowfall in Southern California mountains”

ScienceDaily: “Dramatic Loss in Snowfall for Los Angeles-Area Mountains Predicted”

Phys.org: “UCLA climate study predicts dramatic loss in local snowfall”

Los Angeles Times: “Study predicts more hot spells in Southern California”

TIME: “Why Dwindling Snow–Thanks Largely to Climate Change–Might Dry Out Los Angeles”

Associated Press: “Study: Southern Calif. could see record scorchers”

NPR/PBS/KQED: “Zooming in on L.A.’s Warming Climate”

Science Newsline Nature Earth: “Mercury rising: Greater L.A. to heat up an average 4 to 5 degrees by mid-century”