Prof. Xiaoming SHI

Mountains alter the flow dynamics of the atmosphere, causing the spatial distribution of precipitation that correlates well with orography. They are also responsible for extreme rainstorms, which disrupt our society with flash floods and landslides. About 26% of the world’s population lives within mountains or their foothills, and over 40% live in river basins originating in mountainous regions.

At HKUST, Prof. Shi's group focus on improving the weather forecast and climate projection of orographic precipitation, especially those events related to convection in South China. They improve the numerical simulations of mountain weather by investigating and developing cumulus and turbulence parameterization schemes. The themes in their research involve the interaction between large-scale dynamics, turbulence, and complex terrain. They also advance our understanding of the global warming impact on orographic precipitation through high-resolution simulations of extreme weather events, with idealized or realistic setups. Besides establishing their research on insights of physics, Prof. Shi's group also applies sophisticated deep learning algorithms to enhance our strategies and tools for numerical simulations.