Land-Human-Atmosphere/Climate Interactions
		Liming Zhou Professor Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences  1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222 Email: lzhou at albany.edu Phone: (518) 442-4445; Fax: (518) 442-5825 Google Scholar Citations (h-index: 59): 24,199 (9/16/2025) Web of Science Citations (h-index: 51): 14,088 (9/16/2025) Curriculum Vitae Research Highlights Current Group Members
	Education Ph.D., Geography, Boston University, USA, 2002 M.Sc., Meteorology, Nanjing Institute of Meteorology, P.R. China B.Sc., Meteorology, Nanjing Institute of Meteorology, P.R. China Honors and Awards Chancellor’s Excellence Award in Research and Creative Activities, 2024 President’s Excellence Award in Research and Creative Activities, 2023 Director's Award for Collaborative Integration, NSF, 2009 NASA Earth System Science Fellow, NASA, 1999-2001 Employment Professor, SUNY Albany, USA, 2019-present Associate Professor, SUNY Albany, USA, 2012-2018 Research Associate Professor, SUNY Albany, USA, 2011-2012 Program Director/Associate Program Director, Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics, NSF, USA, 2008-2011 Research Scientist, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, 2002-2008 Weather Forecaster, Central Meteorological Observatory, China, 1994-1998 Research assistant, Open Lab. for Weather Forecast, National Meteorological Center, China, 1994-1998 Research Interests Climate change and variability over subtropical deserts Climate change and it impact on tropical rainforests Renewable wind energy and its impacts on weather and climate Land-human-atmosphere/climate interactions Remote sensing and its applications in land surface and climate modeling Remote sensing of vegetation dynamics and vegetation Academic Service Review manuscripts for top-notch geophysical journals including Nature and its family journals, PNAS, AGU journals, AMS journals and other international journals Review proposals submitted to NASA and NSF Guest editor in PNAS, 2024-2025 Editorial Board member in Scientific Reports, 2016-2025 Editorial Board member in Remote Sensing, 2016- Selected Recent Publications Since 2000 (out of 126 peer-referred journal papers) Wang, F., Xue, M., Zhou, L. et al. Contrasting age-dependent leaf acclimation strategies drive vegetation greening across deciduous broadleaf forests in mid- to high latitudes. Nature Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-02096-5, 2025. Cai, W., Reason, C., Mohino, E., Rodriguez-Fonseca, B., Malherbe, J., Santoso, A., Li, X., Chikoore, H.., Nnamchi, H., McPhaden, M.J., Keenlyside, N., Taschetto, A.S., Wu, L., Ng, B., Liu, Y., Geng, T., Yang, K., Wang, G., Jia, F., Lin, X., Li, S., Yang, Y., Wang, J., Zhang, L., Li, Z., Wilfried, P., Zhou, L., Zhang, X., Engelbrecht, F., Li, Z., Mutemi, J.N., Climate impacts of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation in Africa. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 6, 503-520. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-025-00705-7, 2025. Zhou, L., Hua, W., Nicholson, S., Clark, J.P., Interannual teleconnections in the Sahara temperatures associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) during boreal winter, Climate Dynamics, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-023-06962-w, 62, 1123-1143, 2024. Wu, D., Grodsky, S.M., Xu, W., Liu, N., Almeida, R.M., Zhou, L., Miller, L.M., Baidya Roy, S., Xia, G., Agrawal, A.A., Houlton, B.Z., Flecker, A.S., Xu, X., Observed impacts of large wind farms on grassland carbon cycling, Science Bulletin, 68 (23), 2889-2892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2023.10.016, 2023. Zhang, S., Zhou, L., Zhang, L., Yang, Y., Yang, D., Wei, Z., Zhou, S., Yang, D., Yang, X., Wu, X., Zhang, Y., Li, X., and Dai, Y., Reconcile disagreement on global rive flood change in a warming climate. Nature Climate Change, 12, 1160-1167. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01539-7. 2022. Zhao, G., Li, Y., Zhou, L., Gao, H., Evaporative water loss of 1.42 million global lakes. NCOMMS-21-24284, Nat Commun 13, 3686. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31125-6, 2022. Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Wei, N., Ho, S-P., Li, J., Rising planetary boundary layer height over the Sahara Desert and Arabian Peninsula in a warming climate, Journal of Climate, 34(10), 4043-4068, https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/clim/34/10/JCLI-D-20-0645.1.xml. Zhou, L., Diurnal asymmetry of desert amplification and its possible connections to planetary boundary layer height: a case study for the Arabian Peninsula, Climate Dynamics, 56, 3131-3156 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-05634-x, 2021. Zhou, L., Baidya Roy, S., and Xia, G., Weather, climatic and ecological impacts of onshore wind farms, in Comprehensive Renewable Energy, Second Edition, edited by Letcher, L., Elsevier, ISBN: 9780124095489. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819727-1.00018-2), 2020. Jiang, Y., Zhou, L., Tucker, C.J., Raghavendra, A., Hua, W., and Liu, Y.Y., and Joiner, J., Widespread Increase of boreal summer dry season length over the Congo rainforest, Nature Climate Change, 9, 617-622, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0512-y, 2019. Li, Y., Piao, S., Li, L.Z.X., Chen, A., Wang, X., Ciais, P., Huang, L., Lian, X., Peng, S., Zeng, Z., Wang, K., and Zhou, L., Divergent hydrological response to large-scale afforestation and vegetation greening in China, Science Advances, 4(5), eaar418, 2018. Zeng, Z., Piao, S., Li, L.Z.X., Zhou, L., Ciais, P., Wang, T., Li, Y., Lian, X., Wood, E.F., Friedlingstein, P., Mao, J., Estes, L.D., Myneni, R.B., Peng, S., Shi, X., Seneviratne, S.I. and Wang, Y., Climate mitigation from vegetation biophysical feedbacks during the past three decades, Nature Climate Change, 7, 432-436, doi:10.1038/nclimate3299, 2017. Zhou, L., Desert amplification in a warming climate, Scientific Reports 6, 31065; doi: 10.1038/srep31065, 2016 (supporting info). Zhou, L., Chen, H., Hua, W., Dai, Y., and Wei, N., Mechanisms for stronger warming over drier ecoregions observed since 1979, Climate Dynamics, 47(9), 2955-2974, DOI 10.1007/s00382-016-3007-9, 2016. Zhou, L., Chen, H. and Dai, Y., Stronger warming amplification over drier ecoregions observed since 1979, Environ. Res. Lett. 10, 064012, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/10/6/064012, 2015 (supporting info) Shen, M., Piao, S., Jeong, S-J., Zhou, L., Zeng, Z., Ciais, P., Cheng, D., Huang, M., Jin, C-S., Li, L.Z.X., Li, Y., Myneni, R.B., Yang, K., Zhang, G., Zhang,Y., and Yao, T., Evaporative cooling over the Tibetan Plateau induced by vegetation growth, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 112(30), 9299-9304, doi/10.1073/pnas.1504418112, 2015. Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Myneni, R.B., Ciais, P., Saatchi, S., Liu, Y.Y., Piao, S., Chen, H., Vermote, E.F., Song, C. and Hwang, T., Widespread decline of Congo rainforest greenness in the last decade, Nature, 509, 86-90, DOI: 10.1038/nature13265, 2014 (supporting info, Q&A, press released by Nature, NASA, and UAlbany). Peng, S., Piao, S., Zeng, Z., Ciais, P., Zhou, L., Li, L., Myneni, R.B., Yin, Y. and Zeng, H., Afforestation in China cools local land surface temperature, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 111 (8), 2915-2919, 2014. Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Chen, H., Dai, Y. and Harris, R.A, Effects of topography on assessing wind farm impacts using MODIS data, Earth Interactions, 17 (13), 1-18, 2013 Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Baidya Roy, S., Dai, Y. and Chen, H., Diurnal and seasonal variations of wind farm impacts on land surface temperature over Western Texas, Climate Dynamics, 41 (2), 307-326, DOI 10.1007/s00382-012-1485-y, 2013. Zhou, L., Tian, Y., Baidya Roy, S., Thorncroft, C., Bosart, L.F., and Hu, Y., Impacts of wind farms on land surface temperature, Nature Climate Change, 2,539-543, 2012 (supporting info, Q&A, press released by Nature, NSF, NASA, and UAlbany) Zhou, L., R. E. Dickinson, A. Dai, and P. Dirmeyer, Detection and attribution of anthropogenic forcing to diurnal temperature range changes from 1950 to 1999: Comparing multi-model simulations with observations, Climate Dynamics, 35(7), 1289-1307, DOI: 10.1007/s00382-009-0644-2, 2010 Zhou, L., R. E. Dickinson, P. Dirmeyer, A. Dai, and S.-K. Min, Spatiotemporal patterns of changes in maximum and minimum temperatures in multi-model simulations, Geophy. Res. Lett.,36, L02702, doi:10.1029/2008GL036141, 2009. Zhou, L., Dai, A., Dai, Y., Vose, R.S, Zou, C-Z., Tian, Y., and Chen, H., Spatial patterns of diurnal temperature range trends on precipitation from 1950 to 2004, Climate Dynamics, 32, 429-440, DOI 10.1007/s00382-008-0387-5, 2009. Zhou, L., Dickinson, R.E., Tian, Y., Chen, H., and Dai, Y., Asymmetric response of maximum and minimum temperatures to soil emissivity change over the Northern African Sahel in a GCM, Geophy. Res. Lett., 35, L05402, doi:10.1029/2007GL032953, 2008. A contributing author, Chapter 7: Couplings Between Changes in the Climate System and Biogeochemistry in The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, 2007 (SBN 978-0-521-88009-1). Zhou, L., Dickinson, R.E., Tian, Y., and Vose, R.S., Impact of vegetation removal and soil aridation on diurnal temperature range in a semiarid region - Application to the Sahel, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 104 (46), 17937-17942, 2007. Zhou, L., Kaufmann, R.K., Tucker, C.J., Myneni, R.B., The Green Wave in Our Changing Planet: The View from Space, edited by King, M., Parkinson, C., Partington, K.C., and Williams, R.G., Cambridge University Press, 2007 (ISBN-13: 9780521828703). Zhou, L., R.E. Dickinson, and Y. Tian, Derivation of a soil albedo dataset from MODIS using principal component analysis - Norther Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Geophy. Res. Lett., 32, L21407, doi:10.1029/2005GL024448, 2005. Zhou, L., R.E. Dickinson, Y. Tian, J. Fang, Q. Li, R.K. Kaufmann, C.J. Tucker, and R.B. Myneni, Evidence for a significant urbanization effect on climate in China, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA., 101(26), 9540-9544, 2004 (Press released by GT). Zhou, L., Dickinson, R.E., Tian, Y., Jin, M., Ogawa, K., Yu, H., and Schmugge, T., A sensitivity study of climate and energy balance simulations with use of satellite derived emissivity data over the northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula. J. Geophys. Res., 108(D24), 4795, doi:10.1029/2003JD004083, 2003. Zhou, L., Dickinson, R.E., Ogawa, K., Tian, Y., Jin, M., Schmugge, T., and Tsvetsinskaya, E., Relations between albedos and emissivities from MODIS and ASTER data over North African desert. Geophy. Res. Lett., 30 (20), 2026, doi:10.1029/2003GL018069, 2003. Zhou, L., Dickinson, R.E., Tian, Y., Zeng, X., Dai, Y., Yang, Z., Schaaf, C.B., Gao, F., Jin, Y., Strahler, A., Myneni, R.B., Yu, H., Wu, W., and Shaikh, M., Comparison of seasonal and spatial variations of albedos from Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Common Land Model. J. Geophys. Res., 108(D15), 4488, doi:10.1029/2002JD003326, 2003. Zhou, L., Kaufmann, R.K., Tian, Y., Myneni, R.B, and Tucker, C.J., Relation between interannual variations in satellite measures of vegetation greenness and climate between 1982 and 1999. J. Geophys. Res.,108 (D1), 10.1029/2002JD002510, 2003. Zhou, L., Tucker, C.J., Kaufmann, R.K., Slayback, D., Shabanov, N.V, and Myneni, R.B., Variations in northern vegetation activity inferred from satellite data of vegetation index during 1981 to 1999. J. Geophys. Res., 106, 20069-20083, 2001 (Press released by NASA-HQ, NASA-GSFC, AGU and BU). Myneni, R.B, Dong, J., Tucker, C.J., Kaufmann, R.K., Kauppi, P.E., Liski, J. Zhou, L., Alexeyev, V., and Huges, M.K., A large carbon sink in the woody biomass of northern forests. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 98(26), 14784-14789, 2001 (Press released by NASA-HQ, EFI and BU).
Last Updated: September 16, 2025