Hello, welcome to my webpage. My name is Yang Chen, and I am currently a researcher at the University of California, Irvine. I studied environmental engineering and got my BS and MS in Tsinghua University at Beijing, China. I then went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and got a PhD of atmospheric science there.

My research covers multiple aspects of the Earth and the climate system, and involves many phenomena in the atmosphere, ocean, and land. I am particularly interested in the relationships between wildfires and climate, as well as the impacts of fires on air quality and the terrestrial ecosystem.

Wildfires occur in many regions of the Earth (from tropical forests to boreal tundra), and their origins can be either natural or human-made. The frequency, severity, and extention of wildfires are often influenced by weather parameters and climate patterns. One objective of my research is to examine how large-scale and local climate can affect wildfire occurrences, and whether the climate information can be used to forecast the severity of a fire season. I, together with my collegues and collaborators, have established a website of the South American fire season forecast.

On the other hand, wildfires may change the climate via several pathways. Emission from fires, including trace gases and aerosol particles, can modify the radiative functioning of the atmosphere. In addition, wildfires affect many processes of the terrestrial ecosystem, thereby altering surface albedo and surface (latent and sensible) heat fluxes. Another aspect of my research includes better quantification of fire emissions, and their impacts on climate, air quality, and nutrient transport.

You can get more detailed information on my research and my background by browsing other pages of this website. You may also find links for several useful webpages, including our forecast page for South American fires, a very useful tool for timely extracting recently published papers about climate and the Earth system, and a collection of interactive online maps about climate, atmosphere, and ocean. And don't forget to check out a photo album of Ann Arbor, where I have lived for 6 years, and a list of fun places in Irvine, where I'm currently living.

Thanks again for the visit! Any suggestions on my research and this webpage are very welcome.

Best wishes,

Yang Chen