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- Franco Catalano
Franco Catalano
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I joined the climate modelling lab in 2019 as a permanent researcher. I have a strong background in multiscale modelling of climate and I hold a PhD in Hydraulics Engineering. The main focus of my research is on global and regional scale climate variability and predictability and land-atmosphere interactions.
I am currently involved in the PNRR ICSC (National Research Centre for High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing) Earth & Climate (Spoke 4) Research Program, aimed at developing a new generation of Earth System Models (ESMs).
In recent years, I have been involved in the following international research projects funded under EU Horizon2020: CRESCENDO (Coordinated Research in Earth Systems and Climate: Experiments, kNowledge, Dissemination and Outreach), SECLI-FIRM (The Added Value of Seasonal Climate Forecasting for Integrated Risk Assessment), S2S4E (Sub-seasonal to Seasonal climate forecasting for Energy). My work in CRESCENDO contributed to the activities of the Land Surface, Snow and Soil Moisture MIP (LS3MIP), in the framework of of the WCRP’s Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) and the Climate and Cryosphere project (CliC). Besides, I have been involved in several other relevant international projects focused on seasonal-to-decadal climate prediction and land-climate interactions.
Among other activities, I have been a visiting scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), working on the development of the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) technique for the study of local winds dynamics and on multiscale climate modelling and analysis.
I am part of the Land and Vegetation WG of the European Community Earth System Model EC-Earth and I have contributed to the development of the mesoscale model WRF.
Main research activities:
- Seasonal to interannual climate variability and predictability;
- Interactions and feedbacks between atmosphere and land-surface;
- Land-surface parameterization in Earth System Models;
- Vegetation, urban and orographic effects on regional and global climate variability.