New Research Group Led by Wei-Ting Hsiao Explores Weather-Climate Interaction
Scientists often treat weather and climate separately. They consider small-scale and short-term weather phenomena on the one hand, and large-scale and long-term climate processes on the other. However, this distinction is somewhat technical and has been due to a lack of appropriate tools for studying both. In reality, weather and climate are deeply interconnected, and the interaction goes both ways: The climate influences the weather, and weather influences the climate. Exploring this two-way interaction is the goal of a new research group in Sarah Kang’s Climate Dynamics department at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Led by atmospheric scientist Wei-Ting Hsiao, the team will use the ICON climate model, which can resolve processes at the kilometer scale, such as storm systems, in a global climate-scale context.
In the beginning, the group’s research will focus on tropical convection and clouds. Hsiao is particularly interested in how these detailed processes interact with the Walker Circulation, a dominant atmospheric circulation pattern in the tropics that influences weather and climate worldwide. “I feel like our knowledge of weather phenomena has been underutilized in climate science”, says Hsiao. “I hope that my unique background will help to improve our understanding of how small-scale processes shape large-scale climate patterns, and vice versa.”
Hsiao’s previous work on tropical convection and rainfall variability has addressed critical gaps in sub-seasonal weather prediction and climate modeling. In 2018, he earned a Bachelor of Science from National Taiwan University. He then moved to Colorado State University (US) for his master’s degree, which he completed in 2021, and received a PhD at the same institution in 2024. Since then, he has worked with Dr. Allison Wing in the Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science at Florida State University (US). In 2024, Hsiao participated in the ORCESTRA campaign, which was coordinated by the MPI-M. In relation to this work, he also visited director Bjorn Steven’s Climate Physics department for three weeks in 2025. Spending time in Hamburg already allowed him to experience his now new workplace and to establish lasting connections within the institute: “It feels like I have friends here already, and I look forward to continue interacting with these great colleagues and brainstorm about weather and climate science.”