Welcome to the CCNY Research in Atmospheric Dynamics Group website.

We are a research group located at the City College of New York in New York City. Our work focuses on weather and climate. Currently, the group has active projects focused on storm hazards associated with hurricanes, frontal storms, and atmospheric rivers. The hazards we study are storm surge, wind storms, and inland flooding. If you are interested in learning more, contact Professor Booth.

Current Research Team

--- PI Professor Jimmy Booth
--- Ty Janoski (Postdoctoral Research Fellow)
--- Carlos Ordaz Osorio (PhD student)
--- Carolien Mossel (PhD student)
--- Melissa Crouch (MS EAS Student)
--- Greg Randazzo (MS EAS Student, co-advised by Spencer Hill)

Reseach in Atmospheric Dynamics (RAD) Group Alumni



!!! 2022 group photo (click for full-res) !!!

Former Team Members:

-*- Max Sehaumpai: BS Math/Computer Science Dec. 2023

* Tareen Haque: MS EAS Jan 2024

* Yuren Rangel: BS EAS Jul 2024

* Kevin Rodriguez: MS EAS Spring 2023

* Katherine Towey PhD April 2022 (click here) (pdf of thesis)
Current position: climate quant at MSCI

* Veeshan Narinesingh (website) : PhD January 2022 (click here) (pdf of thesis)
Current position: Postdoc at Princeton/GFDL

* Sheila Caceres-Ferreras BS EESS 2022 - now: Research Assistant Lamont-Doherty

* Carolien Mossel: MS EAS Fall 2021 - now: Returned to work with me on a PhD!

* Jiehao Luo: MS EAS Spring 2020 - now: NYC Mayor's Office of Management and Budget

* Jireh Garcia: BS Physics 2020 - now: PhD student attending Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago

* Katia Lamer: Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2019 - now: Reseach Scientist Brookhaven National Lab

* Rafael Uryayev: MS EAS Spring 2019 - now: Catastrophe Modeling Analyst

* Faycal Lamraoui: Postdoctoral Research Fellow 2017 - 2019 - most recently Harvard postdoc

* Elizama Pons-Montalvo: BS EAS, 2016 - most recently: Speech Pathologist

* Stanley Ko: BS EAS, 2015 - most recently Rutgers for Master's

* Ricardito Vargas: MS EAS Spring 2015 - now: at EPA

* Amana Hosten: BS EAS, 2015 - now: Technical Advisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

* Jeyavinoth Jeyaratnam (Research Technician and PhD student advised by Johnny Luo)

* Rocky Garcia: Chief Meteorological Engineer @ NASA Armstrong

* Mark Dempsey: Tornado chaser

Professor Jimmy Booth (click for CCNY webpage)


Jimmy is an atmospheric scientist. His current research interests are centered around hazardous weather. He has projects on: (1) statistical analysis of the hazards; (2) climate model assessment and development related to hazards; and (3) theoretical work on the physics of the storms that create the hazards.


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Jimmy has multiple projects related to hazardous weather that impact NYC. He has analyzed wind extremes, precipitation extremes, and coastal flooding for the region. He has worked with the NYC Emergency Management office and the NYC Panel on Climate Change. He also has collaborations with two of the primary climate model development labs in the United States: NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in NYC, and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton NJ.


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Jimmy is committed to the efforts of upward mobility for students and increasing diversity in STEM, which are the backbone of the work done at CUNY.


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Archived Video Recordings of Discussions
CUNY TV: Sustainability Matters
Spring 2024: Discussion on NYC Extreme Weather and Climate Sustainability with Rebecca Bratspies, hosted by Tria Case.



CUNY Science Goes to the Movies, created/directed/editted by Lisa Beth Kovetz
Spring 2023: Discussion with Lisa Beth Kovetz, Vee Narinesingh, and Joe Rao, focused on extreme weather and communication.



Spring 2022: Discussion with Lisa Beth Kovetz focused on climate change and "The Aeronauts" movie.

RESEARCH
Discussion with Veeshan Narinesingh about our 2023 GRL research paper. Recorded by Jason Redman of CCNY.


Active Funded Projects
The Climate Lighthouse: DOE-CCNY Urban Climate Hazard Resilience Center
Department of Energy
Earth System Modeling of Regional Sea Level Rise and Risk
NASA
CYGNSS-Based Analysis of Air-Sea Flux Impacts on Midlatitude Storm Development
NASA
Understanding Climate and Extreme Weather Events in the Greater New York Area
Department of Energy
A Terra-Aqua-SUOMI-NPP survey of environmental cloud controlling factors and associated uncertainties for the extratropical oceans
Funded by: NASA

Growth versus suppression of atmospheric rivers: building new theory by leveraging CYGNSS winds and NASA-GISS ModelE
Funded by: NASA

Examples of Previously Funded Projects
PREEVENTS Track 2: Collaborative Research: Geomorphic Versus Climatic Drivers of Changing Coastal Flood Risk
Funded by: National Science Foundation.
Characterization of Oceanic Post-Cold Frontal Clouds and their Model Representation
Funded by: Department of Energy Climate and Environmental Sciences Division, in support of the Atmospheric Systems Research program

Metrics For General Circulation Model Biases In Extratropical Cyclone Clouds And Precipitation: Evaluating Their Skill And Identifying Processes To Be Improved
Funded by: NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, in support of the Modeling, Analysis, Predictions and Projections (MAPP) Program.

Analysis of Global Precipitation Measurement observations to improve our understanding of midlatitude precipitation: a process-oriented study of extratropical cyclones
Funded by: NASA in support of the Precipitation Measurement Missions

Research Example

Publications
Please email me if you need a copy of any of these papers.

---- In reverse chronological order ----

Mossel, C., Hill, S.A., Samal, N.R. et al. Increasing extreme hourly precipitation risk for New York City after Hurricane Ida. Sci Rep 14, 27947 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-78704-9

Maduwantha, P., T. Wahl, S. Santamaria-Aguilar, R. Jane, J. F. Booth, H. Kim, G. Villarini, 2024: A multivariate statistical framework for mixed populations in compound flood analysis, Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1122, 2024

Ordaz Osorio, C., Booth, J. F., LeGrande, A. N., & Naud, C. M. (2024). Assessing the impact of climate change on atmospheric rivers: A modeling perspective. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2023JD040074. https://doi.org/10.1029/ 2023JD040074

LeGrande, A. N., Booth, J. F., Naud, C. M., Ordaz, C., & Crespo, J. A. (2024). Just how river‐like are atmospheric rivers? Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL105828.

Enriquez, A. R., T. Wahl, S. A. Talke, P. M. Orton, J. F. Booth, M. Agulles, S. Santamaria-Aguilar, 2023: MatFlood: An efficient algorithm for mapping flood extent and depth. Environmental Modelling & Software, vol. 169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2023.105829

Naud, C. M., G. S. Elsaesser, and J. F. Booth, 2023: Dominant Cloud Controlling Factors for low-level cloud fraction: subtropical versus extratropical oceans. Geophysical Research Letters. Accepted

Naud, C. M., J. Crespo, D. Posselt, J. F. Booth, 2023: Cloud and Precipitation in low-latitude extratropical cyclones conditionally sorted on CYGNSS surface latent and sensible heat fluxes. J. Clim., 36, no. 16, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0600.1

White, R. H., S. Anderson, J. F. Booth, G. Braich, C. Draeger, C. Fei, C. D. G. Harley, S. B. Henderson, M. Jakob, C.-A. Lau, L. Mareshet Admasu, V. Narinesingh, C. Rodell, E. Roocroft, K. R. Weinberger, G. West, 2023: The Unprecedented Pacific Northwest Heatwave of June 2021, Nature Communications, DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-36289-3

Narinesingh, V., Booth, J. F., Y. Ming, 2023: Northern Hemisphere Heat Extremes in a Warmer Climate: More Probable but Less Colocated with Blocking, Geophysical Research Letters, 50, e2022GL101211. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL101211

Enriquez, A. R., T. Wahl, H. E. Baranes, S. A. Talke, P. M. Orton, J. F. Booth, I. D Haigh, 2022: Predictable changes in extreme sea levels and coastal flood risk due to nodal and perigean astronomical tidal cycles. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JC018157

Towey, K. L., Booth, J. F., A. Rodríguez Enríquez, T. Wahl, 2022: Tropical cyclone storm surge probabilities for the east coast of the United States: A cyclone-based perspective. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. 22, 1287–1300, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1287-2022.

V. Narinesingh, Booth, J. F., Y. Ming, 2022: Blocking and General Circulation in GFDL Comprehensive Climate Models, Journal of Climate. Accepted.

Booth, J. F., V. Narinesingh, K. L. Towey, J. Jeyaratnam, 2021: Storm Surge, Blocking, and Cyclones: A Compound Hazards Analysis for the Northeast United States, Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. 60(11), 1531-1544.

Najibi, N., Mazor, A., Devineni, N., Mossel, C., & Booth, J. F., 2020: Understanding the spatial organization of simultaneous heavy precipitation events over the conterminous United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125, e2020JD033036. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033036

Narinesingh, V., J. F. Booth, S. Clark, Y. Ming, 2020: Atmospheric blocking in an aquaplanet and the impact of orography. Weather and Climate Dynamics, 1, 293–311, 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-293-2020

Naud, C. M., J. F. Booth, K. Lamer, R. Marchand, A. Protat, and G. M. McFarquhar, 2020: On The Relationship Between The Marine Cold Air Outbreak M Parameter And Low-Level Cloud Heights In The Midlatitudes. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125, e2020JD032465. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD032465

Lamer, K., C. M. Naud, and J. F. Booth, 2020: Relationships between precipitation properties and large-scale conditions during subsidence at the ARM eastern north Atlantic observatory. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. DOI: 10.1029/2019JD031848

Jeyaratnam, J., Booth, J. F., Naud, C. M., Luo, Z. J., & Homeyer, C. R., 2020: Upright convection in extratropical cyclones: A survey using ground‐based radar data over the United States. Geophysical Research Letters, 47, e2019GL086620. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL086620

Naud, C. M., J. Jeyaratnam, J. F. Booth, M. Zhou, A Gettelman, 2020: Evaluation of modeled precipitation in oceanic extratropical cyclones using IMERG. J. Climate, 33, no. 1, 95-113, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0369.1.

Tierney, G., Posselt, D.J. & Booth, J.F., 2019: The impact of Coriolis approximations on the environmental sensitivity of idealized extratropical cyclones. Clim Dyn 53, 7065–7080. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-04976-x

Catto, J.L., Ackerley, D., Booth, J.F., Champion A. J., Colle, B. A., Pfahl, S., Pinto, J. G., Quinting, J. F., Seiler, C., 2019: The Future of Midlatitude Cyclones. Curr Clim Change Rep 5, 407–420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-019-00149-4

González, J. E., Ortiz, L. , Smith, B. K., Devineni, N. , Colle, B. , Booth, J. F., Ravindranath, A. , Rivera, L. , Horton, R. , Towey, K. , Kushnir, Y. , Manley, D. , Bader, D. and Rosenzweig, C., 2019: New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report Chapter 2: New Methods for Assessing Extreme Temperatures, Heavy Downpours, and Drought. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1439: 30-70. doi:10.1111/nyas.14007

Orton, P., N. Lin, V. Gornitz, B. Colle, J. Booth, K. Feng, M. Buchanan, M. Oppenheimer, and L. Patrick, 2019: New York City Panel on Climate Change 2019 Report Chapter 4: Coastal flooding. Ann. New York Acad. Sci., 1439, 95-114, doi:10.1111/nyas.14011.

Naud C. M., J. F. Booth, Leo J. Donner and Charles J. Seman, Ming Zhao, Huan Guo, and Yi Ming, 2019: Extratropical Cyclone Clouds in the GFDL climate model: diagnosing biases and the associated causes. Journal of Climate. 32, 20. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0421.1

Gurumurthy P., P. Orton, S. Talke, N. Georgas, J. F. Booth, 2019: Mechanics and historical evolution of sea level blowouts in New York Harbor. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering; J. Mar. Sci. Eng., 7(5), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7050160

Maloney E., A. Gettelman, Y. Ming, J. D. Neelin, D Barrie, A. Mariotti, C.-C. Chen, D. R. B. Coleman, Y.-H. Kuo, B. Singh, H. Annamalai, A. Berg, J. F. Booth, S. J. Camargo, A. Dai, A. Gonzalez, J. Hafner, X. Jiang, X. Jing, D. Kim, A. Kumar, Y. Moon, C. M Naud, A. H Sobel, K. Suzuki, F. Wang, J. Wang, A. Wing, X. Xu, M. Zhao, 2019: Process-oriented evaluation of climate and weather forecasting models. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 0, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0042.1

Lamraoui, F., Booth, J. F., and Naud, C., M., 2019: The interaction between boundary layer and convection schemes in a WRF simulation of post-cold-frontal clouds over the ARM East North Atlantic site. JGR-Atmosphere, 124, 4699–4721. https:// doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029370

Naud, C., M., Booth, J. F., Naud, C. M., and F. Lamraoui, 2018: Post-Cold Frontal Clouds at the ARM Eastern North Atlantic site: An examination of the relationship between large-scale environment and low-level cloud properties. JGR-Atmosphere, 123, 12,117–12,132. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029015.

Booth, J. F., Naud, C. M., & Jeyaratnam, J., 2018: Extratropical cyclone precipitation life cycles: Asatellite-based analysis. GeophysicalResearch Letters, 45. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL078977

Lamraoui, F., J. F. Booth, and C. M. Naud, 2018: WRF hindcasts of cold front passages over the ARM Eastern North Atlantic Site: a sensitivity study. Monthly Weather Review. Accepted

Towey, K. L., J. F. Booth, A. Frei, and M. R. Sinclair, 2018: Track and Circulation Analysis of Tropical and Extratropical Cyclones that Cause Strong Precipitation and Streamflow Events in the New York City Watershed. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 19, 1027 - 1042, doi: 10.1175/JHM-D-17-0199.1

Small, J., R. Msadek, Y.-O. Kwon, J. F. Booth, and C. Zarzycki, 2018: Atmosphere surface storm track response to resolved ocean mesoscale in two sets of global climate model experiments. Climate Dynamics, Accepted

Naud, C. M., J. F. Booth, Lebsock, M. and M Grecu, 2018: Observational Constraint for Precipitation in Extratropical Cyclones: sensitivity to data sources. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 57, 991–1009, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-17-0289.1

Tierney, G., D. J. Posselt, and J. F. Booth, 2018: An Examination of Extratropical Cyclone Response to Changes in Baroclinicity and Temperature in an Idealized Environment, Climate Dynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-018-4115-5.

Booth, J. F., C. M. Naud, J. Willison, 2018: Evaluation of Extratropical Cyclone Precipitation in the North Atlantic Basin: An analysis of ERA-Interim, WRF, and two CMIP5 models. J. Climate, 31:6, 2345-2360.

Booth, J. F., E. Dunn-Sigouin, S. Pfahl, 2017: The relationship between extratropical cyclone steering and blocking along the North American East Coast. Geophysical Research Letters, 44. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075941.

Shimkus, C., M. Ting, J. F. Booth, S. B. Adamo, M. Madajewicz, Y. Kushnir, H. E. Rieder 2017: Winter storm intensity, hazards and property losses in the New York tri-state area. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Jul;1400(1):65-80.
https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nyas.13396

Hall, T. J. F. Booth, 2017: SynthETC: A Statistical Model for Severe Winter Storm Hazard on Eastern North America. Journal of Climate, 30:14, 5329-5343.

Booth, J. F., Y.-K. Kwon, S. Ko, J. Small, R. Madsek, 2017: Spatial Patterns and Intensity of the Surface Storm Tracks in CMIP5 Models. Journal of Climate, 30, 4965–4981.

Hamidi. A., N. Devineni, J. F. Booth, A. Hosten, R. R. Ferraro, R. Khanbilvardi, 2017: Classifying Urban Rainfall Extremes using Weather Radar Data: An Application to Greater New York Area, J. Hydrometeor. DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-16-0193.1

Booth, J. F., H. Reider, Y. Kushnir, 2016: Comparing hurricane and extratropical storm surge for the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast Coast of the United States for 1979-2013. Envir. Res. Lett. 11, 9. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/9/094004

Naud, C. M., J. F. Booth, A. D. Del Genio, 2016: The relationship between boundary layer stability and cloud cover in the post-cold frontal region. J. Climate, 29, 8129–8149, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0700.1.

Tedesco, M., T. Mote, X. Fettweis, E. Hanna, J. Jeyaratnam, J. F. Booth, R. Datta, and K. Briggs, 2016: Arctic cut-off high drives the poleward shift of a new Greenland melting record. Nat. Comm. 7, 11723.

Booth, J. F., H. Reider, D. E. Lee, Y. Kushnir, 2015: The paths of extratropical cyclones associated with wintertime high wind events in the Northeast United States. Journal of Applied Meterol. and Clim. 54, 1871-1885.

Colle, B. A., J. F. Booth, E. K. M. Chang, 2015: A review of historical and future changes of extratropical cyclones and associated impacts along the U.S. east coast. Current Climate Change Reports. Current Climate Change Reports 1, 125-143.

Booth, J. F., L. Polvani, P. O’Gorman, and S. Wang, 2015: Effective Stability in a Moist Baroclinic Wave, Atmospheric Science Letters, 16: 56–62. doi: 10.1002/asl2.520.

Naud, C. M., J. F. Booth, A. D. Del Genio, 2014: Evaluation of ERA-interim and MERRA Cloudiness in the Southern Oceans. J. Climate. 27, 2109-2124.

Booth, J. F., C. Naud, A. D. Del Genio, 2013: Diagnosing warm frontal cloud formation in a GCM: A novel approach using conditional subsetting. Journal of Climate, 26, 5827-5845.

Naud, C. M., J. F. Booth, D. J. Posselt, S. C. van der Heever, 2013: Multiple satellite observations of cloud cover in extratropical cyclones. J. Geophys. Res., 118, 9982–9996.

Booth, J. F., S. Wang, L. M. Polvani, 2013: Midlatitude storms in a moister world: lessons from idealized baroclinic life cycle experiments. Climate Dynamics, 41, 787 – 802, 10.1007/s00382-012-1472-3.

Booth, J. F., L. Thompson, J. Patoux, and K. A. Kelly, 2012: Sensitivity of midlatitude storm intensification to perturbations in the sea surface temperature near the Gulf Stream. Monthly Weather Review, 140, 1241–1256, 2012.

Booth, J. F., L. Thompson, J. Patoux, K. A. Kelly, S. Dickinson, 2010: The signature of the midlatitude tropospheric storm tracks in the surface winds. Journal of Climate. 23, 1160-1174.

Booth J. and I. Kamenkovich, 2008: Isolating the role of mesoscale eddies in mixing of a passive tracer in an eddy resolving model. Journal of Geophysical Research. 113, C05021, doi:10.1029/2007JC004510.

Teaching

Courses Regularly Taught
EAS 309: Fundamentals of Atmospheric Science
EAS 328: Global Enviromental Hazards
EAS 488: Climate and Climate Change


Recent Previous Courses
Click on the course title to go its webpage.

Spring 2020: EES 717: Earth Systems II
Taught at the CUNY Graduate Center, with Marc-Antoine Longpre.
Fall 2019: EAS 309 Fundamentals of Atmospheric Sciences
co-listed as: EAS B3090 and EES 79903 for graduate students.
Fall 2019: Introduction to Scientific Computing
Fall 2018: EAS 472 Environmental Research Projects

Affiliations and Background Info

CURRENT AFFILIATIONS AND APPOINTMENTS

At City College of New York, I am a member of the steering committee for the Melon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship and the City College Fellowship Programs. During Fall 2019 I served as the interim-director of the program.

In addition to being faculty at CCNY, I am:
- faculty in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department and the Physics Department at the Graduate Center of City University of New York.
- an affiliated scientist in the CUNY/NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST)
- an affiliated scientist at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS)

Academic Background Information
Fall 2003 - present : Faculty at CCNY
2012-2013 : Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University
2010-2012 : NASA Postdoctoral Fellow
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) &,
Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics,
Columbia University New York, NY.
2003-2010 : University of Washington
Doctor of Philosophy, Atmospheric Sciences
Masters of Atmospheric Sciences
2000-2003: University of Kentucky
Masters of Applied Mathematics
1996-2000: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Bachelors of Science in Public Health
Major: Environmental Science and Engineering

========================= A link for weather ======================
NWS Ensemble Forecast Page

GFDL T-Shield Forecast Page

Contact Information

The best way to reach me is email: jbooth@ccny.cuny.edu
My office:
City College of New York
160 Convent Ave
Marshak Building, Room 735 (Lab: 729)
Phone: 212-650-6471