Abdullah Al Fahad, Ph.D.
Climate Physicist at NASA GSFC
About
I am passionate about applying numerical models and atmospheric physics to unpack complex climate questions. I leverage programming tools to analyze large-scale datasets, identify patterns, and explore how the climate system responds to anthropogenic and natural forcing. I earned my Ph.D. in Climate Dynamics from George Mason University in Fall 2020 and joined NASA GSFC’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office later that year.
At NASA I focus on advancing air–sea–ice interaction research, climate model development, high-resolution climate modeling, and annual-to-decadal prediction. My current project brings together the Goddard Earth Observing System Model (GEOS) with the adjoint capabilities of the MIT general circulation model (MITgcm) to build a property-conserving coupled model and data assimilation system that supports studies of prediction and predictability.
Research Focus
- Air–sea–ice interaction in coupled climate systems
- Climate model development and evaluation
- High-resolution modeling of large-scale circulation
- Annual-to-decadal climate prediction and predictability
Toolkit
- Models
- GEOS, MITgcm, CESM, WRF
- Programming
- Python, MATLAB, R, NCL, GrADS, LaTeX, C, Bash scripting
- Machine Learning
- Scikit-learn, Deep Learning, Keras, TensorFlow, RNN (LSTM, GRU), kNN
In the Field
CESM Workshop, NCAR, Colorado (August 2017)
With Dr. Syukuro Manabe, 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Physics
NASA GEOS-MITgcm S2D climate prediction group meeting at MIT, Cambridge, MA (2022)
Multi-Year Climate Predictions: US CLIVAR, Boulder CO (March 2022)
Societally-Relevant Multi-Year Climate Predictions Workshop, Boulder CO (March 2022)
STEM Summer Camp workshop presenter (2019)
AGU Fall Meeting, Washington DC (December 2018)
GMU AOES graduate students (2019)
Dr. Burls lab with summer interns (August 2018)
FC Science Fair judge (May 2019)
Climate Dynamics hiking, Great Falls, VA (October 2016)
Summer interns presentation mentor (August 2019)
Latest News
New publication featured by NASA Science HQ and NASA NCCS: “The Role of Tropical Easterly Jet on the Bay of Bengal’s Tropical Cyclones: Observed Climatology and Future Projection.” Journal of Climate.
Attended the NASA GEOS-MITgcm group meeting on adjoint seasonal-to-decadal climate prediction in Boston/Cambridge, MA.
Promoted to Assistant Research Scientist at NASA GSFC.
Participated in the NASA ECCO meeting at Caltech, Pasadena, California. Group photo.
Attended the American Meteorological Society (AMS) 2023 Annual Meeting. Read the recap.
Selected for the Early Career Scientist Spotlight at NASA GSFC. Feature profile.
Quoted in the NASA Earth Observatory article exploring a recent Southern Hemisphere anticyclone. Read the story.
Group publication in Geophysical Research Letters: “Local Air-Sea Interactions at Ocean Mesoscale and Submesoscale in a Western Boundary Current.”
Co-authored paper on summer monsoon precipitation mechanisms in the International Journal of Climatology.
Successfully defended my Ph.D. thesis in Climate Dynamics at George Mason University under the mentorship of Dr. Natalie Burls.
Invited to co-lead the WCRP CMIP7 Data Analysis Young Scientist group.