Events

Past Event

Research Seminar Series - Chia-Ying Lee

February 5, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
America/New_York
The Forum at Columbia University, 601 W. 125th St., New York, NY 10027 Meeting Room 301

Columbia Climate School's Office of Faculty Affairs is pleased to announce that Lamont Associate Research Professor Chia-Ying Lee will deliver our next research seminar, "On the Tropical Cyclone Risk assessment," on Wednesday, February 5, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Forum Room 301. 

If joining on Zoom, RSVP here. You will receive the Zoom link the day before the event.  If you cannot access this link, please email [email protected] to be added to the Zoom list.

This event is open in-person for CUID-holders only. Please register with your UNI.

A recent development in assessing the risk associated with tropical cyclones (TCs) involves the use of statistical-dynamical downscaling techniques, first proposed by Emanuel in 2006. This approach addresses a known gap between catastrophe models—used by the reinsurance industry to price natural catastrophe risk—and climate models, which are used by governments and academics to project climate change. By incorporating physical connections between large-scale environmental conditions and TCs into a simplified TC model, this method ensures that the resulting synthetic TCs are sensitive to the background climate.

This talk will first provide an overview of statistical-dynamical TC downscaling techniques and then focus on our group’s efforts to develop a global and open-source model—the Columbia Tropical Cyclone Hazard Model (CHAZ). I will discuss some of our ongoing research using this tool in academic studies to understand the influence of climate change on TC activity and to assess TC risk in both current and future climates. Additionally, I will highlight our collaborations with private-sector entities, such as the (re)insurance industry, as well as non-profit organizations, and discuss the challenges we face in these applications.

 

Contact Information

Anita Lam-Wright
646.338.2096