Dr. Nishant Malik is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the US. His research focuses on problems in applied mathematics, especially regarding complex systems like the climate. Specifically, he shares his recent work on analysing time series of past climate data.
To learn more about Dr. Malik's work, please visit: https://nishant-malik.github.io/
Some key ideas we discuss in this podcast:
- A system: a collection of smaller units
- Dynamical/dynamics: describing something that is constantly changing (ex. weather)/the branch of physics that studies these objects or systems.
- A complex system: a system with many changing parts that interact with each other.
- Regime: a particular behaviour of complex systems that is mostly maintained until a large, sudden change. Ex. Weather stays mild in a region until its local lake has completely dried up.
- Differential equation: specific types of equations that you can read about here (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_equation). All we need to know is they often describe relationships in physics, are hard to solve, and allow us to use one variable to predict another.
- A stochastic Process: a random process. This CANNOT be described with differential equations.
- A deterministic Process: a process where the final value / output can be predicted based on the initial value / input. This CAN be described with differential equations.
- Time series: a sequence of data ordered by time. Ex. Temperature at a weather station recorded every minute.
- Network analysis: learn more here (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_theory#Network_analysis)
- Paleoclimatology: the study of Earth's past climate.
- Speleothems: cave formations that can be studied to give clues about the past.
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ENSO: El Nino-Southern Oscillation. A recurring climate pattern that changes the temperature of waters in the Pacific Ocean. You can learn more here (www.weather.gov/mhx/ensowhat). Visuals made with musicvid.org