Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Tom Dror Schwartz

2024 Visiting Fellow Post Doc

Research Interests

I'm Tom Dror (she/her), a postdoctoral researcher at CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder, embedded in the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory, working in the Clouds, Aerosol, and Climate Group. My passion for clouds drives my research, which focuses on the coupling between land and atmosphere and its effect on clouds, particularly in the tropics and the Amazon forest. I am also fascinated by ocean–atmosphere interactions and explore related topics when time allows. For these investigations, my primary tools are measurements of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, especially from satellites.

 

Current Research

My current research focuses on the interactions between land cover and the atmosphere, with an emphasis on how forest loss and degradation influence cloud properties, radiative fluxes, and precipitation. Using a combination of satellite observations, ground-based measurements, and modeling, I investigate how deforestation in the Amazon and other tropical regions alters cloud regimes, drives state-dependent feedbacks, and impacts the regional and global climate system. I am particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms by which land–atmosphere coupling shapes cloud organization, cloud-top heights, and surface energy fluxes, and how these processes can inform climate predictions in a rapidly changing environment.

Research Categories

Atmosphere, Climate and Weather
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Visiting Fellow

2024

to

2026 -
A Holistic Perspective on Natural Climate Mitigation through Forestation” - This study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the net effects of forestation efforts, as well as reduce the uncertainties associated with both vegetation and clouds in weather and climate models. By bridging scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and atmospheric physics and integrating various spatiotemporal scales, it seeks to adopt a comprehensive approach to climate mitigation through forestation.

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P.I.(s)

About CECA

CECA connects and creates a supportive environment for graduate students and postdocs who come from various academic units to do research in CIRES.