Alex Hall, an associatie professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, specializes in regional climates, global climate change and climate modeling. He and colleagues at UC Berkeley are documenting the frequency and intensity of the Santa Ana winds that blow in Southern California and frequently contribute to wildfires.

 

Hall has particular expertise in mechanisms that govern the Earth’s climate and its sensitivity to historical increases in greenhouse gas emissions and other external forcing caused by human activity. He is an atmospheric physicist who utilizes observed data as well as numerical models of the atmosphere, ocean and land to understand the dynamics of climate variability and climate change. He also is researching methods to apply scientific understanding of global climate variability to regional climate models in an attempt to predict the effect on California’s weather patterns, ecosystems and human populations.