Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering
Dipl., University of Rome Tor Vergata, 1996; M.S., University of California (Los Angeles), 2003; Ph.D., 2007. Moore Postdoctoral Fellow, Caltech, 2007; Assistant Professor, 2009-17; Professor, 2017-.
Monsoons; tropical circulations; interactions between mesoscale and larger-scale circulations.
Research Options
Environmental Science and Engineering;
My research interests are in atmospheric dynamics, with a special emphasis on the use of observations and models to develop a theoretical understanding of important processes and balances that influence weather and climate. My work to date has been rooted in the tropics and has emphasized two particular scales (mesoscale and large-scale), but I find it difficult to attribute a particular interest to a specific scale. I am particularly interested in monsoons, because of the variety of scales they embody and the exciting research avenues they provide. By means of observations and modeling, my research on monsoons aims at understanding fundamental dynamical mechanisms which are implicated in their existence, their location and different geographical features, and which might help understand how monsoons change with changing climates.
Please see my research page for my publications list.
ESE 133. Global Atmospheric Circulations.9 units (3-0-6); second term, 2019-20.
Introduction to the global-scale fluid dynamics of atmospheres, beginning with a phenomenological overview of observed circulations on Earth and other planets and leading to currently unsolved problems. Topics include constraints on atmospheric circulations and zonal winds from angular momentum balance; Rossby wave generation, propagation, and dissipation and their roles in the maintenance of global circulations; Hadley circulations and tropical-extratropical interactions; energy cycle and thermodynamic efficiency of atmospheric circulations. The course focuses on Earth's atmosphere but explores a continuum of possible planetary circulations and relationships among them as parameters such as the planetary rotation rate chance. Not offered 2019-20.
Instructor: Staff
ESE 130. Atmosphere Dynamics.9 units (3-0-6); first term, 2018-19.
Introduction to geophysical fluid dynamics of large-scale flows in the atmosphere. Governing equations and approximations that describe these rotation and stratification dominated flows. Topics include: conservation laws, equations of state, geostrophic and thermal wind balance, vorticity and potential vorticity dynamics, shallow water dynamics, atmospheric waves.
Instructor: Bordoni
ESE 132. Tropical Atmosphere Dynamics.9 units (3-0-6); third term, 2017-18.
Phenomenological description of tropical atmospheric circulations at different scales, and theories or models that capture the underlying fundamental dynamics, starting from the large-scale energy balance and moving down to cumulus convection and hurricanes. Topics to be addressed include: large-scale circulations such as the Hadley, Walker, and monsoonal circulations, the intertropical convergence zone, equatorial waves, convectively coupled waves, and hurricanes.
Instructor: Bordoni
ESE 135. Topics in Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics.6 (2-0-4); third term, 2015-16.
A lecture and discussion course on current research in atmosphere and ocean dynamics. Topics covered vary from year to year and may include global circulations of planetary atmospheres, geostrophic turbulence, atmospheric convection and cloud dynamics, wave dynamics and large-scale circulations in the tropics, marine physical-biogeochemical interactions, and dynamics of El Niño and the Southern Oscillation.
Instructors: Bordoni, Thompson
Research Website