I am Tirthankar Chakraborty (commonly go by TC), an Earth scientist in the Earth System Modeling Group under the Atmospheric, Climate, and Earth Sciences Division of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in the US. I am currently working on developing and improving urban representation in land models using various observational products, including satellite-derived estimates, and examining extreme events over coastal cities.

My broad research interest is in biosphere-atmosphere interactions and I have worked on this topic at multiple scales using various methods. I received my PhD from the Yale School of the Environment in 2021 with a focus on Earth & Environmental Science. For my dissertation, I worked on developing a surface energy budget perspective to aerosol-climate interactions by combining theory and global climate modeling. A major focus was on the importance of the diffuse radiation fertilization effect for terrestrial processes and uncertainties in diffuse radiation in current-generation modeling and observational systems, some of which I tried to bias-correct using machine learning algorithms. Previously, my master's thesis was on urban climate, particularly the urban heat island effect, which I have continued working on over the years using satellite measurements, crowdsourced weather station data, and modeling frameworks.

I think cities will be the nexus of climate adaptation in the future and I am very interested in optimal strategies for minimizing heat stress and its disparities in cities. While I have done field and lab work in the past, most of my current research involves sitting in front of the computer and coding. I received the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science Energy Early Career grant in 2023 to improve urban representation in Earth system models through planetary-scale data-model integration.

I frequently use the Google Earth Engine platform for large-scale geospatial analysis and algorithm development, and occasionally offer a workshop on its Javascript API. I have used this platform to develop web applications to visualize and disseminate global to regional geospatial datasets. I have also written community tutorials on using the platform (Beginner's Cookbook, Customizing Base Map Styles, Creating Web Apps). I am currently a Google Developer Expert for Earth Engine.

If you want to collaborate or want more information about my work, check out my projects and publications or reach out to me through: