CIRES post doc Pragallva Barpanda joined PSL's Atmosphere Ocean Processes team in September 2020 to work with George Kiladis, Stefan Tulich and Juliana Dias. Her main research focuses on better understanding the atmospheric interaction between tropics and extratropics in sub-seasonal timescale. The current understanding based on linear theories of Rossby waves suggests that the midlatitude Rossby waves cannot transfer momentum across the critical latitude – a theoretical boundary between tropics and extratropics where midlatitude Rossby waves get absorbed and dissipated by wave-breaking. Yet, observations and numerical experiments support many instances when extratropical Rossby waves trigger equatorially trapped convectively coupled waves. Pragallva is particularly interested to understand the mechanisms by which such remote extratropical forcings interact with equatorial Kelvin waves and Madden Julian Oscillations. She uses a combination of reanalysis data and idealized atmospheric model experiments to address the question. In the future, she also wants to understand how climate change affects the tropical-extratropical interaction.

After pursuing a Master’s degree in Physics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, Pragallva received her PhD in atmospheric dynamics from the University of Chicago in 2020. Her PhD research focused on the dynamics of extratropical storm tracks in various timescales.

Outside of research, she likes to hike and bike in Colorado trails. Recently, she has also become interested in time-lapse photography of slowly evolving processes like clouds and plant growth.

Posted: May 5, 2021