Dr. Francis Tam is from Hong Kong. He graduated from CUHK, with an undergraduate and an M. Phil. degree in Physics. After getting his Ph.D in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at Princeton, Dr. Tam took up a postdoc at the International Pacific Research Center at Honolulu, Hawaii. He worked as a research scientist at the APEC Climate Center, Korea, before joining the City University of Hong Kong in 2008.

Research Interests:

• ENSO AND ENSO MODOKI

  How ENSO and ENSO Modoki influence our climate- including phenomena such as typhoons, synoptic-scale activity, the Madden-Julian Oscillation, storm tracks, etc
  
  

• MONSOON VARIABILITY AND MONSOON MODELING

  Variability of the monsoon system on various spatial-temporal scales; different ways to improve monsoon simulations in General Circulation Models
  
  

• SEASONAL CLIMATE PREDICTION

  The ability of multi-model ensembles in predicting the Asian climate in the board and the local scale a season ahead
  
  

On-going funded projects

• The Impact of a New Type of El Nino on the East Asian Climate as Inferred from Observations and Numerical Model Simulations
• Understanding the Role of Extra-tropical Forcing on the Western North Pacific Summer Monsoon Variability- A Regional Model Study
  
• Seasonal Prediction of Regional-Scale South China Summer Rainfall Variations- A Multi-Model Downscaling Approach

Classes

GE courses-

• Future SCIFI Technologies

Undergraduate level-

• Introduction to Atmospheric Science
• Physics of climate

Graduate level-

• Climate modeling

Publications since 2008

• Sohn, S.-J., J.-B. Ahn and C.-Y. Tam, 2013: Six-month lead downscaling prediction of winter-spring drought in South Korea based on multi-model ensemble, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, doi:10.1002/GRL.50133, 2013. (pdf)
• Chen, G., and C.-Y. Tam, 2012: A new perspective on the excitation of low-tropospheric MRG waves in association with energy dispersion, J. Atmos. Sci. 69, 1397-1403. DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-11-0331.1(pdf)
• Sohn, S.-J., C.-Y. Tam and J.-B. Ahn, 2012: Development of a multi-model-based seasonal prediction system for extreme droughts and floods: A case study for South Korea, Int. J. Climatol., DOI: 10.1002/joc.3464. (pdf)
• Sohn, S.-J., Y.-M. Min, J.-Y. Lee, C.-Y. Tam, I.-S. Kang, B. Wang, J.-B. Ahn, and T. Yamagata (2012), Assessment of the long-lead probabilistic prediction for the Asian summer monsoon precipitation (1983-2011) based on the APCC multimodel system and a statistical model, J. Geophys. Res., 117, D04102, doi:10.1029/2011JD016308. (pdf)
• Sohn, S.-J., C.-Y. Tam and C.-K. Park, 2011: Leading modes of East Asian winter climate variability and their predictability: An assessment of the APCC multi-model ensemble, J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 89, 1-20. DOI:10.2151/jmsj.2011-500. (pdf)
• Sohn, S.-J., C.-Y. Tam, K. Ashok and J.-B. Ahn, 2011: Quantifying the reliability of precipitation datasets for monitoring East Asian hydrological variations, Int. J. Climatol., DOI: 10.1002/joc.2380. (pdf)
• Feng, J.,W. Chen, C.-Y. Tam and W. Zhou, 2010: Different impacts of El Niño and El Niño Modoki on China rainfall in the decaying phases. Int. J. Climatol., DOI: 10.1002/joc.2217. (pdf)
• Chen, G., and C.-Y. Tam, 2010: The different impacts of two kinds of Pacific Ocean warming on tropical cyclone frequency over the western Pacific. Geophys. Res. Lett.,37, doi:10.1029/2009GL041708, 2010.
• Zhou, L.T., C.-Y. Tam, W. Zhou and J.C.L. Chan, 2010: Influence of South China Sea SST and ENSO on winter rainfall over South China. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 27(4), 832–844, doi: 10.1007/s00376–009-9102-7.
  
• Ashok, K., C.-Y. Tam and W.-J. Lee, 2009: The ENSO Modoki impact on the Southern Hemisphere storm track activity during extended austral winter. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, doi:10.1029/2009GL038847, 2009.
  
• An, K.-H., C.-Y. Tam and C.-K. Park, 2009: Improving the northeast Asian monsoon simulation: Remote impact of tropical heating bias correction. Mon. Wea. Rev.,137,797-803.
  
• Lee, D.Y., C.-Y. Tam and C.-K. Park, 2008: Effects of multi-cumulus convection ensembles on East-Asian monsoon rainfall simulations. J. Geophys. Res., 113, doi:10.1029/2008JD009847, 2008.
  
• Chu, J.-L., H. Kang, C.-Y. Tam, C.-K. Park and C.-T. Chen, 2008: Seasonal forecast for local precipitation over northern Taiwan using statistical downscaling. J. Geophys. Res.,113, doi:10.1029/2007JD009424, 2008.
  
• Li, T., F. Tam, X. Fu, T.-J. Zhou and W.-J. Zhu, 2008: Causes of intraseasonal SST variability in the tropical Indian Ocean. Atmos. Ocean. Sci. Lett., 1, 18-23.

Conference papers since 2008

• “Extreme drought predictions through various calibrations of downscaled multi-model ensemble precipitation forecasts.” Spring conference of the Korean Meteorological Society. April 21-22, 2011. Busan, Korea.
• Statistical and dynamical forecast of regional precipitation after mature phase of ENSO.” Annual meeting of the Korean Meteorological Society. October 14-15, 2010. Busan, Korea.
• “Global climate projections and their implications for East Asia.” October 6. 2009. Hong Kong. Invited talk at the ICCC2009 Workshop on Scientific Aspect of Climate Change.
  
• “Relative roles of convective parameterization and air-sea coupling on simulating the East Asian Monsoon evolution.” The 5th annual meeting of AOGS. August 10-14, 2009. Singapore.
  
• “Effects of Multi-Cumulus Convective Ensemble on East Asian Summer Monsoon Rainfall Simulation” The 5th annual meeting of AOGS. August 10-14, 2009. Singapore.
  
• “Global Hydrological Extreme Drought/Flood Monitoring and Prediction for Early Warning.” The 5th annual meeting of AOGS. August 10-14, 2009. Singapore.
  
• “Leading modes of East Asian winter monsoon variability and their predictability in a multi-model ensemble.” Workshop on climate change and climate prediction in the Pearl River Delta region. December, 15-16, 2008. HKO Headquarters.
  
• “Real-time monitoring for intraseasonal variations of the Asian summer monsoon.” The 4th annual meeting of AOGS. June 16-20, 2008. Busan, Korea.
  
• “Predictability of the Indian and the western North Pacific summer monsoon in the APCC multi-model ensemble.” The 4th annual meeting of AOGS. June 16-20, 2008. Busan, Korea.
  
• “APEC Climate Center Information system.” The 3rd AMY workshop. January 26-27, 2008. Yokohama, Japan.

Other selected publications and outputs

Weather, climate and geophysical fluid dynamics

• Saji, N. H., S. -P. Xie and C. -Y. Tam, 2006: Satellite observations of intense intraseasonal cooling events in the tropical South Indian Ocean. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, doi: 1029/2006GL026525, 2006.
  
• Tam, C.-Y., and T. Li, 2006: The origin and dispersion characteristics of the observed tropical summertime synoptic-scale waves over the western Pacific. Mon. Wea. Rev.,134, 1630-1646.
  
• Tam, C.-Y., and N.-C. Lau, 2005: Modulation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation by ENSO: Inferences from observations and GCM simulations. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 83, 727-743.
  
• Tam, C.-Y., and N.-C. Lau, 2005: The impact of ENSO on atmospheric intraseasonal variability as inferred from observations and GCM simulations. J. Climate, 18, 1902-1934.
  
• K. S. Smith, G. Boccaletti, C. C. Henning, I. N. Marinov, C. Y. Tam, I. M. Held and G. K. Vallis, 2002: Turbulent diffusion in the geostrophic inverse cascade. J. Fluid Mech., 469, 13-48.
  
• “Intraseasonal oscillations in a multi-cumulus convective ensemble experiment.” Symposium on predictability of climate variations in the Indo-Pacific sector. March 8-9, 2007. Tokyo, Japan.
  
• “Summertime synoptic-scale/TC activity over the western Pacific: Role of extratropical forcing.” Korea-Japan-China 2nd joint conference on meteorology. October 11-13, 2006. Ilsan city, Korea.
  
• “Summertime synoptic-scale variability over the Tropical western Pacific: Role of extratropical forcing.” The 27th conference on hurricanes and tropical meteorology. April 24-28, 2006. Monterey, California.
  
• “Dispersion characteristics of summertime synoptic-scale disturbances over the western Pacific.” The 2nd annual meeting of AOGS. June 20-24, 2005. Singapore.
  
• "Surface quasigeostrophic dynamics: eddy scales and tracer flux in forced-dissipative flow." The 13th conference on atmospheric and oceanic dynamics. June 4-8, 2001. Breckenridge, Colorado.

Physics

• Leung, P.T., Y.T. Liu, W.M. Suen, C.Y. Tam and K. Young, 1999: Perturbative approach to the quasinormal modes of dirty black holes. Phys. Rev. D, 59, 044034-044047.
  
• Leung, P.T., Y.T. Liu, W.M. Suen, C.Y. Tam and K. Young, 1998: Logarithmic perturbation theory for quasinormal modes. J. Phys. A, 31, 3271-3286.
  
• Leung, P.T., Y.T. Liu, C.Y. Tam, and K. Young, 1998: Numerical solution for quasinormal modes for potentials with exponential tails. Phys. Lett. A, 247, 253-260.
  
• Leung, P.T., Y.T. Liu, W.M. Suen, C.Y. Tam and Young, K, 1997: Quasinormal modes for dirty black holes. Phys. Rev. Lett., 78, 2894-2897.