EAPS
PAOC Colloquium: Tapio Schneider (Caltech)
Date |
Time |
Location |
October 17th, 2016 |
12:00pm-1:00pm |
Ida Green Lounge (9th Floor), Building 54, Cambridge, MA, United States |
Title: The response of tropical low clouds to climate change
Abstract: Uncertainties in how tropical low clouds respond to climate change continue to dominate climate projections. They have resisted reduction for decades. Because of a convergence of what is feasible computationally on large scales (general circulation models) and small scales (large-eddy simulations), and because of the wealth of detailed observations that are now available, substantial progress on the low-cloud problem is now within reach. In this talk, I will describe recent progress in:
(a) constraining the low-cloud response to climate change observationally,
(b) understanding how the large-scale energy balance controls the low-cloud response, and (c) simulating the low-cloud response with large-eddy simulations that are driven in a way that respects the large-scale energy balance.
The results consistently indicate a positive feedback from tropical low clouds on global warming.
For more information, please see our PAOC Colloquium event page at:
https://paocweb.mit.edu/events/calendars/colloquium