#SoCaltech: Anna Jaruga

“As we’ve seen across the globe this year, the climate of Earth is changing. Wanting to know what this change brings is no longer just a matter of scientific curiosity; it is important for everyone’s decision making and planning for the future. I am a part of a team building a new Earth system model to provide reliable climate change forecasts. I work with expertsin computer science, fluid dynamics, atmospheric sciences, and machine learning; experts in satellite observations at JPL [the Jet Propulsion Laboratory]; those studying the ocean and the biosphere; and the list goes on. Caltech and CliMA enable great collaborations. When I’m struggling with my work, I get through it by talking to other people, not by staring at my monitor alone. My part of the model development is about clouds. My aunt once told me that studying clouds is a very romantic thing to do, but clouds are actually very difficult to model and they introduce a lot of uncertainty into our forecasts. I come from Poland, which is a very cloudy country, so I had to learn to enjoy cloudy skies early on. My favorite clouds are the cumulus clouds: the small, puffy, white clouds that are beautiful to watch and typically signal good weather. They also happen to be one of the most challenging clouds to represent in numerical models. So, for me, they hold the promise of good times outdoors and the promise of a good challenge when at work.”

Anna Jaruga is a research scientist in the Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA), a consortium of researchers from Caltech, MIT, and JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. CliMA is building, from the ground up, a new type of climate model that is designed to provide more precise and actionable predictions. 

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.