Salata Scholars Seminar Series: Greening the Black Gold & Modeling Tropical Islands in Climate Models

Salata Scholars Seminars are dedicated to climate, sustainability, and environmental work done by Harvard students and fellows. Its goal is to embrace the interdisciplinary nature of sustainability research that can’t be confined to a single Harvard school and help like-minded people connect with each other. Each week, there will be one or two brief talks followed by vegan dinner and discussion. In Fall 2024, we will meet weekly on alternating Tuesdays at noon (HUCE, 26 Oxford St., Cambridge) and Wednesdays at 6pm (Salata Conference Room 3.5, 79 JFK St., Cambridge).

Greening the Black Gold: Transforming Saudi Arabia’s Oil-Driven Economy Through Sustainable Energy Innovations
Noura Mansouri, HKS, MPA
In this talk, I will explore the journey of Saudi Arabia’s transformation from an oil-dependent economy to a leader in sustainable energy. The presentation will highlight key strategies, innovative technologies, and policy frameworks that are paving the way for a greener future, while addressing the global challenge of transitioning to sustainable energy. Through this lens, I will also discuss the implications for other oil-producing nations and the potential for creating a sustainable energy future that aligns with global climate goals.

Modeling Tropical Islands in Climate Models
Nathanael Wong, GSAS, PhD Candidate in Earth and Planetary Sciences, GSAS
The climatology of small tropical islands has always been difficult to reproduce in models as high spatial resolutions that have high computational costs are necessary to resolve them. In this study, we propose an alternative method of modelling island climatology by coupling small-domain cloud-resolving models to a large-scale reference climatology using the Weak Temperature Gradient (WTG) approximation, with the strength of the WTG-adjustment as an analogue to island size. This is best shown in the diurnal cycle of precipitation, which tends to initiate and peak earlier in the day the stronger the WTG implementation (i.e. the smaller the island size, or closer to the coast/ocean). We compare these model results to large-domain model simulations where large-scale circulations can be explicitly simulated and show that this framework can potentially help us accurately model different aspects of island climatology that would be relevant in the context of the Maritime Continent.