Dr. Hughes’s research focuses on improving the understanding of key orographic meteorological physical processes, especially those important to the mid-latitude water cycle and those potentially impactful to ocean circulation and sea ice cover in the Arctic. Her primary tools in this endeavor are dynamically-downscaled reanalysis datasets, generated using a state-of-the-art regional climate model (i.e., the Weather Research and Forecasting model and the Regional Arctic System Model [RASM]) with reanalysis data as the lateral boundary conditions (e.g., ERA Interim).