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This group studies nonsmooth systems, or systems with discontinuous right-hand sides, and their applications to climate models.

The nonsmooth systems focus group formed as a response to the growing interest in the interface between climate science and nonsmooth dynamical systems. Many nonsmooth phenomena occur in nature: for example, threshold-type phenomena such as condensation or earthquakes, or systems that natural involve a discontinuous change in behavior such as the action of a volcano erupting. On the mathematical side, smoothing techniques are often used to simplify mathematical analysis, but this creates a system with distinct behavior from its nonsmooth counterpart. This group seeks to investigate what the intersection of nonsmooth dynamical systems and climate science can contribute to either fields.