Miraj Kayastha

A professional portrait of Miraj Kayastha.

Background: 

I earned my Master’s degree from Michigan Tech in 2021, majoring in Civil Engineering. Currently as a PhD candidate at Michigan Tech, I collaborate with my advisor Dr. Pengfei Xue. My research centers on the regional climate modeling of the Great Lakes, aiming to enhance our predictive understanding of the Great Lakes climate. Central to my work is the prediction of climate change’s impact on the Great Lakes. My published research covers the development of regional climate models, projections of Great Lakes water levels under climate change, developing future storylines for lake-effect snow storms, and the long-term reconstruction of Great Lakes surface temperature using deep-learning.

Current Projects: 

  • Evaluation of lake heatwaves in the Great Lakes
  • Development of a publicly accessible state-of-the-art future climate projection dataset for the Great Lakes

Achievements/Contributions:

Publications:

  1. Kayastha, M. B., Huang, C., Wang, J., Qian, Y., Yang, Z., Chakraborty, T., et al. (2024). How could future climate conditions reshape a devastating lake-effect snow storm? Earth’s Future, 12, e2024EF004622. doi:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF004622
  2. Kayastha, M. B., Liu, T., Titze, D., Havens, T. C., Huang, C., & Xue, P. (2023). Reconstructing 42 Years (1979-2020) of Great Lakes Surface Temperature through a Deep Learning Approach. Remote Sensing, 15(17), 4253. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15174253
  3. Kayastha, M. B., Huang, C., Wang, J., Pringle, W. J., Chakraborty, T. C., Yang, Z., Hetland, R. D., Qian, Y., Xue, P. (2023). Insights on Simulating Summer Warming of the Great Lakes: Understanding the Behavior of a Newly Developed Coupled Lake‐Atmosphere Modeling System. Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 15(7), doi:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003620
  4. Kayastha, M. B., Ye, X., Huang, C., & Xue, P. (2022). Future rise of the Great Lakes water levels under climate change. Journal of Hydrology, 612, 128205. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128205

Presentations:

  1. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, T., Qian, Y., and Hetland, R. (2024) How Could Lake-Effect Snow Storms Evolve in a Warming Future Climate? IAGLR 67th Annual Conference on Great Lakes Research, Windsor, Canada, May 20-24, 2024
  2. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, T., Qian, Y., and Hetland, R. (2024) How Could Lake-Effect Snow Storms Evolve in a Warming Future Climate? EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, April 14-19, 2024
  3. Kayastha, M. B., Xue, P., Huang, C., Wang, J., Yang, Z., Pringle, W., Chakraborty, TC., Qian, Y. (2022) Amplified Warming of the Great Lakes due to Lake-Atmosphere Feedback Processes. AGU Fall Meeting, Chicago, Illinois, December 12-16, 2022

Future Goals: 

My next step in research would be to pursue my interest in climate modeling through a PostDoc position. I would like to potentially broaden my research area from the Great Lakes to something more global, while also improving my modeling and data analysis skills.