Nonlinear Processes in Geosciences

Tommaso Alberti

I am a researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in Rome, Italy. My research has an inter-disciplinary character and it mainly focuses on the understanding of processes occurring in geosciences, space sciences, and complex systems at different spatio-temporal scales. My investigations revolve around several key areas as weather and climate extremes with impacts on aviation turbulence, airports closures due to the adverse weather conditions, Acqua Alta events in Venice, flooding events after huge storms; turbulence and dissipation in both fluids and plasmas; and tipping points to develop statistical methods for identifying transition thresholds in complex systems at bifurcation points at different spatio-temporal scales with application to climate and paleoclimate, turbulence, and epidemiology.

NPG Paper of the Month: “Application of a local attractor dimension to reduced space strongly coupled data assimilation for chaotic multiscale systems”

Tommaso Alberti April 23, 2020

Local dynamical properties of a segment of an example run for the coupled Lorenz system. (a) Alignment of directions of error growth plotted along the x coordinate of the ocean subsystem. Large orange stars indicate high alignment of error growth in the unstable or neutral subspaces. (b) Finite-time Lyapunov exponents (FTLEs) computed over window τ = 4. (c) Local Kaplan-Yorke dimension calculated from FTLEs. (Source: Quinn, O’Kane, and Kitsios, Application of a local attractor dimension to reduced space strongly coupled data assimilation for chaotic multiscale systems, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 27, 51–74, 2020, https://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/27/51/2020/. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

This month the NPG Paper of the Month award is achieved by Courtney Quinn for her paper “Application of a local attractor dimension to reduced space strongly coupled data assimilation for chaotic multiscale systems” (https://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/27/51/2020/). Dr. Courtney obtained her PhD in Mathematics at the University of Exeter (UK) researching critical transitions in dynamical syst ...[Read More]

NP Interviews: the newly elected NP Division President François Schmitt

Tommaso Alberti March 4, 2020

The outcoming NP Division President François Schmitt.

Today’s NP Interviews hosts the newly elected NP Division President François Schmitt. François has a PhD degree from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris (1993), in atmospheric turbulence, and an Habilitation degree from the same university (2001). He has stayed in Belgium during 6 years as a post-doc, working in meteorology and in fluid mechanics. He is CNRS researcher in Wimereux (Nor ...[Read More]

NPG Paper of the Month: “On fluctuating momentum-exchange in idealised models of air-sea interaction”

Tommaso Alberti February 3, 2020

Probability density function of the energy (normalized so that the average is unity for each variable) lost by the atmosphere and gained by the ocean at t=300 and averaging time τ=0, atmosphere full-line, ocean dashed-line, and for averaging time τ=100, atmosphere dotted-line, ocean dashed-dotted-line. All are clearly non-Gaussian. (Source: A. Wirth, On fluctuating momentum exchange in idealised models of air–sea interaction, Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 26, 457–477, https://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/26/457/2019/. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

This month the NPG Paper of the Month award is achieved by Achim Wirth for his paper “On fluctuating momentum-exchange in idealised models of air-sea interaction” (https://www.nonlin-processes-geophys.net/26/457/2019/). Achim tells us about the importance of the results achieved with this paper for investigating the energy coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere. Achim obtained his PhD at th ...[Read More]

NP Division at the General Assembly 2020

Tommaso Alberti November 20, 2019

Each year the European Geosciences Union organizes the largest European geosciences event which is the EGU General Assembly. It usually attracts over than 15000 scientists from all over the world, including both established researchers and early career scientists, who contribute to more than a half of the participants. It consists of several sessions (usually more than 500), covering a wide spectr ...[Read More]