Kerry Andrew Emanuel (born April 21, 1955) is an American professor of

meteorology Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...

currently working at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. In particular he has specialized in atmospheric

convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the c ...

and the mechanisms acting to intensify

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

Research

He hypothesized in 1994 about a superpowerful type of hurricane which could be formed if average

sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (SST), or ocean surface temperature, is the ocean temperature close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies according to the measurement method used, but it is between and below the sea surface. Air mas ...

increased another 15C more than it's ever been (see " hypercane"). In a March 2008 paper published in the ''

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society The ''Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society'' is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. ''BAMS'' is the flagship magazine of AMS and publishes peer reviewed articles of interest and significance for the ...

'', he put forward the conclusion that

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

is likely to increase the intensity but decrease the frequency of hurricane and cyclone activity. Gabriel Vecchi, of

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

said of Emanuel's announcement, "While his results don't rule out the possibility that global warming has contributed to the recent increase in activity in the Atlantic, they suggest that other factors—possibly in addition to global warming—are likely to have been substantial contributors to the observed increase in activity."

Lorenz Center

Along with Daniel H. Rothman, Emanuel co-founded the MIT Lorenz Center in 2011, named for Edward N. Lorenz.

2012 threats

In 2012, Emanuel served as keynote speaker for a conference for Republican voters concerned about climate change. Following the conference, the blog

Climate Depot Marc Morano (born 1968) is a former Republican political aide who founded and runs the website ClimateDepot.com. ClimateDepot is a project of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), a US non-profit organisation that promotes climate ...

posted Emanuel's email address. After the conference and the exposure of Emanuel's email address on blogs, Emanuel received a large volume of emails "laced with menacing language, expletives, and personal threats of violence," according to editor James West of '' Mother Jones''.

Nuclear power views

In 2013, with other leading experts, he was co-author of an open letter to policy makers, which stated that "continued opposition to nuclear power threatens humanity's ability to avoid dangerous climate change."

Recognition

He was named one of the ''Time'' 100 influential people of 2006. In 2007, he was elected as a member of the

U.S. National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Natio ...

. He was elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2019. He was elected a

Foreign Member of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

in 2020.

References

Selected publications

*Emanuel, K.A.(1994): ''Atmospheric Convection,'' Oxford University Press. *Emanuel, K.A.(2005): ''Divine Wind: The History And Science Of Hurricanes,'' *Emanuel, K.A.(2005)
"Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years"
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' *Emanuel, K.A.(2007)
''Phaeton’s Reins - The human hand in climate change''
''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

''. *Emanuel, K.A.(2007): ''What We Know About Climate Change,'' The MIT Press & Boston Review. *Emanuel, K.A.(2008)
"Hurricanes and Global Warming: Results from Downscaling IPCC AR4 Simulations"
''

External links

Emanuel's website
* *Brian Tang and Kerry Emanuel (2010)
"Mid-level ventilation's constraint on tropical cyclone intensity"

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences The ''Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences'' (until 1962 titled ''Journal of Meteorology'') is a scientific journal published by the American Meteorological Society. It covers basic research related to the physics, dynamics, and chemistry of the ...

, Volume 67, Issue 6 . *Brian Tang and Kerry Emanuel (2012)
"A ventilation index for tropical cyclones"

, Volume 93, Issue 12. {{DEFAULTSORT:Emanuel, Kerry 1955 births Living people People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni American meteorologists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal recipients Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Meteorological Society Foreign Members of the Royal Society