Jiang is a Project Scientist at the Paleo & Polar Climate Section of the Climate & Global Dynamics Laboratory. Jiang received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 and did his postdoc training at the University of Michigan, before joining NCAR in 2020.

Jiang's research focuses on understanding how the climate system responds to a range of external forcings in Earth’s past and future. Jiang is interested in learning the physical processes that govern climate sensitivity, large-scale ocean circulation, and ocean-atmosphere coupled variability through a combination of numerical modeling and paleoclimate data.

Jiang is a co-developer of the water isotope-enabled Community Earth System Model.

Jiang is a co-chair of the Paleoclimate Working Group of the Community Earth System Model and a founding steering committee member of the Paleoclimate Advances Webinar Series.

Selected Publications

(To be submitted) Zhu, J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Brady, E., Eidhammer, T., Gettelman, A., Feng, R., McCluskey, C., Investigating the State Dependence of Cloud Feedback Using a Suite of Perturbed Parameter Ensembles. Journal of Climate. [PREPRINT]

Zhu, J., Poulsen, C. J., & Otto-Bliesner, B. L. (2024). Modeling Past Hothouse Climates as a Means for Assessing Earth System Models and Improving the Understanding of Warm Climates. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-032320-100333

Dutta, D., Jucker, M., Sherwood, S. C., Meissner, K. J., Sen Gupta, A., & Zhu, J. (2023). Early Eocene low orography and high methane enhance Arctic warming via polar stratospheric clouds. Nature Geoscience, 16(11), 1027–1032. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01298-w

Lofverstrom, M., & Zhu, J. (2023). Tropical Precipitation Woes in the Community Earth System Model Version 2. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(21), e2023GL104416. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL104416

Walters, A. P., Tierney, J. E., Zhu, J., Meyers, S. R., Graves, K., & Carroll, A. R. (2023). Climate system asymmetries drive eccentricity pacing of hydroclimate during the early Eocene greenhouse. Science Advances, 9(31), eadg8022. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg8022

Tierney, J. E., Zhu, J., Li, M., Ridgwell, A., Hakim, G. J., Poulsen, C. J., Whiteford, R. D. M., Rae, J. W. B., Kump, L. R. (2022). Spatial patterns of climate change across the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(42), e2205326119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2205326119

Zhu, J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Garcia, R., Brady, E. C., Mills, M., Kinnison, D., & Lamarque, J.-F. (2022). Small Impact of Stratospheric Dynamics and Chemistry on the Surface Temperature of the Last Glacial Maximum in CESM2(WACCM6ma). Geophysical Research Letters, 49(20), e2022GL099875. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099875 [DATA ON ESGF]

Zhu, J., Otto-Bliesner, B., Brady, E., Poulsen, C.J., Shaw, J.K., Kay, J.E. (2022). LGM paleoclimate constraints inform cloud parameterizations and equilibrium climate sensitivity in CESM2. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems,14(4), e2021MS002776. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021MS002776 [DATA ON ESGF] [WILEY TOP DOWNLOADED ARTICLE] [WILEY TOP CITED ARTICLE]

Thompson, A. J., Zhu, J., Poulsen, C. J., Tierney, J. E., Skinner, C. B. (2022). Northern Hemisphere vegetation change drives a Holocene thermal maximum. Science Advances, 8(15), eabj6535. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj6535

Osman, M. B., Tierney, J. E., Zhu, J., Tardif, R., Hakim, G. J., King, J., & Poulsen, C. J. Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum. Nature, 599(7884), 239–244. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03984-4 [NEWS RELEASE]

Zhu, J., & Poulsen, C. J. (2021). Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate forcing and  ocean dynamical feedback and their implications for estimating climate sensitivity. Clim. Past, 17(1), 253–267. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-253-2021

Zhu, J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Brady, E. C., Poulsen, C. J., Tierney, J. E., Lofverstrom M., DiNezio, P. (2021). Assessment of equilibrium climate sensitivity of the Community Earth System Model version 2 through simulation of the Last Glacial Maximum. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2020GL091220. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL091220 [NEWS RELEASE]

Zhu, J., & Poulsen, C. J. (2020). On the Increase of Climate Sensitivity and Cloud Feedback With Warming in the Community Atmosphere Models. Geophysical Research Letters, 47(18), e2020GL089143. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL089143

Tierney, J. E., Poulsen, C. J., Montañez, I. P., Bhattacharya, T., Feng, R., Ford, H. L., Hönisch, B., Inglis, G. N., Petersen, S. V, Sagoo, N., Tabor, C. R., Thirumalai, K., Zhu, J., Burls, N. J., Foster, G. L., Goddéris, Y., Huber, B. T., Ivany, L. C., Kirtland Turner, S., … Zhang, Y. G. (2020). Past climates inform our future. Science, 370(6517), eaay3701. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aay3701 [NEWS RELEASE]

Tierney, J. E., Zhu, J., King, J., Malevich, S. B., Hakim, G. J., & Poulsen, C. J. (2020). Glacial cooling and climate sensitivity revisited. Nature, 584(7822), 569–573. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2617-x [FREE ACCESS] [NEWS RELEASE]

Zhu, J., Poulsen, C. J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L. (2020) High climate sensitivity in CMIP6 model not supported by paleoclimate. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0764-6 [FREE ACCESS] [NEWS RELEASE]

Zhu, J., Poulsen, C. J., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Liu, Z., Brady, E. C., Noone, D. C. (2020). Simulation of early Eocene water isotopes using an Earth system model and its implication for past climate reconstruction. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 537, 116164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116164 [DATA]

Zhu, J., & Poulsen, C. J. (2019). Quantifying the cloud particle-size feedback in an Earth system model. Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 10910–10917. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL083829 [DATA]

Zhu, J., Poulsen, C. J., & Tierney, J. E. (2019). Simulation of Eocene extreme warmth and high climate sensitivity through cloud feedbacks. Science Advances, 5(9), eaax1874. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax1874 [DATA] [NEWS RELEASE]

Brady, E., Stevenson, S., Bailey, D., Liu, Z., Noone, D., Nusbaumer, J., … Zhu, J. (2019). The Connected Isotopic Water Cycle in the Community Earth System Model Version 1. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 11, 2547–2566. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019MS001663 [DATA]

Thibodeau, B., Not, C., Zhu, J., Schmittner, A., Noone, D., Tabor, C., . . . Liu, Z. (2018). Last century warming over the Canadian Atlantic shelves linked to weak Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(22), 12376–12385. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080083

Lu, Z., Liu, Z., Zhu, J., & Cobb, K. M. (2018). A Review of Paleo El Niño-Southern Oscillation. Atmosphere, 9(4), 130. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9040130

Zhu, J., Liu, Z., Brady, E. C., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Marcott, S. A., Zhang, J., . . . Noone, D. (2017). Investigating the direct meltwater effect in terrestrial oxygen-isotope paleoclimate records using an isotope-enabled Earth system model. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(24), 1250–12510. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076253

Zhu, J., Liu, Z., Brady, E., Otto-Bliesner, B., Zhang, J., Noone, D., . . .Tabor, C. (2017). Reduced ENSO variability at the LGM revealed by an isotope-enabled Earth system model. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(13), 6984–6992. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073406

Liu, W., Xie, S.-P., Liu, Z., & Zhu, J. (2017). Overlooked possibility of a collapsed Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in warming climate. Science Advances, 3(1), e1601666. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601666 [NEWS RELEASE]

Zhu, J., Liu, Z., Zhang, J., & Liu, W. (2015). AMOC response to global warming: dependence on the background climate and response timescale. Climate Dynamics, 44(11), 3449–3468. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2165-x

Zhu, J., Liu, Z., Zhang, X., Eisenman, I., & Liu, W. (2014). Linear weakening of the AMOC in response to receding glacial ice sheets in CCSM3. Geophysical Research Letters, 41(17), 6252–6258. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060891

Liu, Z., Zhu, J., Rosenthal, Y., Zhang, X., Otto-Bliesner, B. L., Timmermann, A., . . .Timm, O.E. (2014). The Holocene temperature conundrum. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(34), E3501–E3505. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1407229111 [NEWS RELEASE] [NEWS RELEASE in CHINESE]