Congratulations to Dr. Josef Werne, who was one of eight University of Pittsburgh faculty members who were awarded Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Awards by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. To read more about this year's award recipients, see this PittWire article.
This graphic from his proposal shows the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds during austral summer (Dec-Jan-Feb, left) and Austral winter (June-July-Aug, Right). Red is the highest wind speed. These are the strongest time-averaged winds in the world, and they migrate north/south on an annual cycle, but also as a function of longer-term climate change. These winds are important for bringing rainfall to Chile, Australia, and New Zealand, and they also have a strong influence on the carbon flux between the ocean and atmosphere in the Southern Ocean, which is important to the global climate. The Fulbright is aimed at understanding this important climate system better by combining the ongoing study of Chilean lake cores with lake cores from Australia and New Zealand.