The large scale circulation of the troposphere: How the mutual interactions between the Hadley circulation, the zonal jet streams and mid latitude waves shapes the global circulation. How the different dynamical regimes affect the dominant wave modes, the characteristics of internal variability, and the distribution of extreme events.
The large scale circulation of the stratosphere: The interaction of planetary scale Rossby waves with the polar jets in the stratosphere, how it affects internal variability, and how the dynamics interacts with radiation and ozone.
Waves and instabilities in geophysical flows: The fundamental processes which shape geophysical fluid flows, like shear flow instabilities, nonlinear equilibration of waves with the mean flow, interaction of waves and turbulence, jet formation and sharpening.