Lecturer with rank of: Professor & Director of GFDL
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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I am the Director of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory whose mission is the production of timely and reliable knowledge on natural climate variability and change and in the development on the required earth system models. My own research interests in recent years have been on understanding the natural modes of climate variability, how these have contributed to recent climate, development of the capability to predict these, and to use this knowledge in practical seasonal forecasting.
One aspect of this is understanding the role of the oceans in this, and in developing the necessary global ocean climate observing system and combining these measurements with the output of ocean models through data assimilation to develop a realtime analysis capability and initial conditions for coupled climate forecasts. My past work has focused on the El Nino - Southern Oscillation phenomena. Ongoing and future studies will focus on the ocean's role in decadal and longer term variability and in developing the appropriate models and observing systems.
Leetmaa, A., R. W. Higgins, D. Anderson, P. Delecluse, M. Latif, 2001. Application of Seasonal to Interannual Predictions: A northern hemisphere perspective. Ocean Observations 99, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Australia.
Higgins, R. W., A. Leetmaa and V. E. Kousky, 2002. Relationships between Winter Weather Extremes, Climate Variability and Long-Term Trends in the United States, Part I: Temperature. J.Climate.
Higgins, R. W., A. Leetmaa and V. E. Kousky, 2002. Relationships between Climate Variability and Winter Temperature Extremes in the United States, J. Climate, Vol 15, 1, July 2002.