Contact Information
Urbana, IL 61801
Biography
Updates: I am currently recruiting undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdocs who are interested in climate science and atmospheric physics. Please email me if you are interested in joining.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences (CliMAS) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to joining UIUC in 2024, I was briefly a postdoc at the University of Miami. I was a postdoc in the Advanced Study Program at the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 2021-2023. I completed my PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in 2021 at Princeton University. I completed my B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Physics in 2016 from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
Research Interests
Climate science, atmospheric physics, climate change, global warming, climate variability, radiative forcing, climate feedbacks, radiative transfer, clouds, climate modeling, and satellite observations.
Research Description
How Earth gains and loses energy is key to its habitability because perturbations to the planetary radiation balance alters the entire climate system. Clouds, aerosols, greenhouse gases, land, ocean, and ice, all interact with radiation. Therefore, changes in these constituents manifest as radiative changes at the top-of-the-atmosphere observable from space. We now not only have continuous satellite observations, but also climate models that represent the Earth system better than ever before. My research program takes full advantage of this unprecedented and timely opportunity to provide physical mechanisms and theories that explain how these radiative changes cause Earth to accumulate heat. Clouds are central to Earth’s heat budget as they cover two-thirds of the planet. My research not only provides a process-based understanding of how radiation responds to clouds, but also how clouds respond to surface warming, leading to a holistic understanding of the feedback loop.
Education
Ph.D. Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Princeton University, 2021
B.S. Mathematics and Minor in Physics, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2016
Awards and Honors
U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research Advanced Study Program Fellowship, 2021-2023
Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology Award, 2019-2021
High Meadows Environmental Institute Mary and Randall Hack ’69 Graduate Award for Water and the Environment, 2019-2020
High Meadows Environmental Institute Princeton Energy and Climate Scholar, 2018-2020
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Center for Climate Sciences Summer School, 2018
University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Award, 2013 & 2015
Courses Taught
Spring 2025: ATMS 512 - Clouds and Climate
Fall 2025: ATMS 140 - Climate and Global Change
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
External Links
Note: if you get a "you do not have access to Sites" error when opening my Personal Website (linked at the top of the page), try opening it in a different browser (e.g., Safari, Firefox, etc.) or an Incognito browser.
Recent Publications
Hodnebrog, Ø., Myhre, G., Jouan, C., Andrews, T., Forster, P. M., Jia, H., Loeb, N. G., Olivié, D. J. L., Paynter, D., Quaas, J., Raghuraman, S. P., & Schulz, M. (2024). Recent reductions in aerosol emissions have increased Earth’s energy imbalance. Communications Earth and Environment, 5(1), Article 166. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01324-8
Raghuraman, S. P., Medeiros, B., & Gettelman, A. (2024). Observational Quantification of Tropical High Cloud Changes and Feedbacks. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129(7), Article e2023JD039364. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD039364
Raghuraman, S. P., Soden, B., Clement, A., Vecchi, G., Menemenlis, S., & Yang, W. (2024). The 2023 global warming spike was driven by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 24(19), 11275-11283. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11275-2024
Raghuraman, S. P., Paynter, D., Menzel, R., & Ramaswamy, A. V. (2023). Forcing, Cloud Feedbacks, Cloud Masking, and Internal Variability in the Cloud Radiative Effect Satellite Record. Journal of Climate, 36(12), 4151-4167. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0555.1
Raghuraman, S. P., Paynter, D., Ramaswamy, V., Menzel, R., & Huang, X. (2023). Greenhouse Gas Forcing and Climate Feedback Signatures Identified in Hyperspectral Infrared Satellite Observations. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(24), Article e2023GL103947. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL103947