Adam H. Sobel

Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics

Adam H. Sobel studies weather and climate, with a focus on extreme weather events and a particular interest in the tropics. Phenomena include tropical cyclones, intraseasonal variability, precipitation, severe convection, and climate change. 

  • Postdoctoral fellow, University of Washington, 1997-1999
  • Professor of applied physics and applied mathematics and earth and environmental science, Columbia University, 2010-
  • Associate professor of applied physics and applied mathematics and earth and environmental science, Columbia University, 2003–2010
  • Assistant professor of applied physics and applied mathematics and earth and environmental science, Columbia University, 2000–2003
  • American Meteorological Society
  • American Geophysical Union
  • AMS Louis J. Battan Author’s Award for Storm Surge, 2016
  • AGU (Atmospheric Sciences Section) Ascent Award, 2014
  • Atmospheric Science Librarians International Choice Award (Popular Category) for Storm Surge (see publications), 2014
  • AXA Award from the AXA Research Fund, 2013
  • AMS Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award, 2010
  • Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Award for Excellence in Mentoring, 2010
  • AMS Editor’s award for Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 2009
  • NASA New Investigator Award, 2001
  • Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, 2000
  • Sobel, A. H.,  and C. S. Bretherton, 2000: Modeling tropical precipitation in a single column.  J. Climate, 13, 4378-4392.
  • Sobel, A. H., J. Nilsson, and L. M. Polvani, 2001:  The weak temperature gradient approximation and balanced tropical moisture waves.  J. Atmos. Sci., 58, 3650-3665.
  • Camargo, S. J., and A. H. Sobel, 2005:  Western north Pacific tropical cyclone intensity and ENSO.  J. Climate, 18, 2996-3006.
  • Sobel, A. H., E. D. Maloney, G. Bellon, and D. M. Frierson, 2008:  The role of surface fluxes in tropical intraseasonal oscillations.  Nature Geoscience, 1, 653-657.
  • Tippett, M. K., S. J. Camargo and A. H. Sobel, 2012:  Association of U.S. tornado occurrence with monthly environmental parameters.  Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L02801, doi:10.1029/2011GL050368.
  • Sobel, A. H., and E. D. Maloney, 2013: Moisture modes and the eastward propagation of the MJO. J. Atmos. Sci., 70, 187-192.
  • Sobel, A. H., S. J. Camargo, T. M. Hall, C.-Y. Lee, M. K. Tippett, and A. A. Wing, 2016: Human influence on tropical cyclone intensity. Science, 353, 242- 246, DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf6574. 
  • Lee, C.-Y., M. K. Tippett, A. H. Sobel, and S. J. Camargo, 2016a: Rapid intensification and the bimodal distribution of tropical cyclone intensity. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10625.
  • Nie, J., D. A. Shaevitz, and A. H. Sobel (2016), Forcings and feedbacks on convection in the 2010 Pakistan flood: Modeling extreme precipitation with interactive large-scale ascent, Journal of Advances in Modeling the Earth System, 8, 1055–1072, doi:10.1002/2016MS000663.
  • A. H. Sobel, 2014: Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future, Harper-Collins, published October 2014. (Popular science.)