Department of Atmospheric Sciences University of Washington

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Department of Atmospheric SciencesUniversity of
Washington
Seattle, Washington USA
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Seattle, Washington
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(No Transcript)
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NASA MODIS Image July 20, 2002
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NASA MODIS False Color Image July 20, 2002
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Annual Variation of Climate The Annual Cycle
Temperature
18C
4C
Precipitation
UW Atmospheric Sciences
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UW Atmospheric Sciences
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University of Washington

• Founded in 1861
• Operated by the
• State of Washington

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University of Washington

• 3,400 Faculty
• 23,500 Faculty and Staff
• 31,000 Undergraduate Students
• 12,000 Graduate and Professional Students
• 643 Acre main Campus

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Department of Atmospheric SciencesUniversity of
Washington
Established 1947 18 Teaching Faculty 7 Research
Faculty 60 Graduate Students 60 Undergraduate
Students 8 Post-doc Research Associates 35 Staff
Members 13 Emeritus Faculty
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Department of Atmospheric SciencesCollaborations

• Departments School of Oceanography, Applied
  Mathematics, Earth and Space Sciences, Fisheries,
  Forestry, Civil and Environmental Engineering, .
  . .
• Programs Joint Institute for the Study of the
  Atmosphere and Ocean, Program in Climate Change,
  Environmental Statistics, . . .
• Institutions Pacific Marine and Environmental
  Laboratory of the National Oceanographic and
  Atmospheric Administration. Applied Physics Lab -
  Polar Science Center.

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Department of Atmospheric SciencesCollaborations
PMEL
Polar Science Center - APL
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• The PCC facilitates UW interdisciplinary climate
  science research, graduate education and
  outreach.
• Joint effort of Atm. Sci., ESS, Oceanography,
  APL, JISAO, and Civil Engr.
• Offers graduate climate course sequence, seminar
  series, and annual summer institute (Sept. 11-13
  2007, Friday Harbor The effect of CO2 on ocean
  biology and land surface processes).
• PCC also hopes to begin a graduate certificate
  program in climate science (GCeCS) in Autumn
  2007. Open to all grads.
• Interested? Talk to PCC Director Chris Bretherton
  (710ATG) or go to www.washington.edu/depts/uwpcc/.

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Department of Atmospheric SciencesMain Thematic
Areas

• Air Quality
• Climate Change
• Weather Prediction

www.atmos.washington.edu
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Department of Atmospheric SciencesMain
Disciplinary Areas

• Dynamics

Battisti, Bitz, Bretherton, Durran, Hakim,
Hartmann, Kamenkovich, Mass, Rhines, Sarachik,
Stoelinga, Wallace (Some Ocean and Sea Ice)

• Physical Meteorology

Ackerman, Fu, Grenfell, Houze, Smull, Warren,
Wood

• Atmospheric Chemistry

Alexander, Anderson, Covert, Hegg, Jaeglé,
Thornton
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Teaching and Mentoring
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Graduate Placement

• Research Universities Alaska-Fairbanks,
  Arizona, UBC, Colorado State(3), UC Irvine, U.
  Miami, NC State , Oregon State, Scripps Inst.
  Ocean., SUNY Stony Brook, Texas AM(2), U of Utah
  (4), U. Washington(4), Wisconsin(5), Wyoming . .
  .
• Research Labs National Center for Atmospheric
  Research(NSF), Goddard Space Flight
  Center(NASA), Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab
  (NOAA), Lawrence Livermore Lab (DOE)

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Department of Atmospheric SciencesMethodologies

• Theory and Modeling

• Diagnostic Studies

• Experimental Studies - Lab, Field and Remote

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Atmospheric Chemistry
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Cheeka Peak Observatory Olympic Peninsula, WA
UW Atmospheric Sciences
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Anthropogenic Perturbations to Air Quality
Effects of biomass burning over Africa
Long range transport of Asian pollution
Column NO2
Fires
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Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions
Cycling of Mercury in the Ocean
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Aerosol Chemistry
Chemistry and Climate Feedbacks

• How does aerosol organic matter affect
  heterogeneous reaction rates?

N2O5
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Field Work
We use a combination of
Laboratory Measurements
Satellite Retrieval
Global Modeling
Faculty Becky Alexander Tad Anderson David
Covert Dean Hegg Lyatt Jaeglé Dan Jaffe Joel
Thornton
to answer these questions
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Weather Climate
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Mesoscale DynamicsProf. Durran

• Flow over topography
• Lee vortices
• Gravity wave drag
• Mesoscale predictability
• Thin tropical cirrus

With Alex Reinecke, Lucas Harris and Prof. Hakim
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Numerical Simulation of Vortex Shedding
Mountain contours Vertical vorticity
and Horizontal-wind vectors
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Regional Weather Forecasting

• High-Resolution Mesoscale Modeling using MM5 and
  WRF
• Mesoscale Ensemble Prediction
• Post-processing of Model High Resolution and
  Ensemble Forecasts (Grid-based bias removal and
  Bayesian Model Averaging)
• Documentation of major forecast busts over the
  Pacific
• Strong interactions with the National Weather
  Service and local weather-related agencies.

24-h MM5 forecast of SLP, T, wind
Forecast Spread from Ensembles
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Model Physics and Data Assimilation

• Improvement of model microphysics (IMPROVE
  project)
• Synoptic and mesoscale data assimilation
• New project on PBL parameterization improvement
• Research on the structure and dynamics of NW
  windstorms and western weather features forced by
  terrain (e.g., flow in the Columbia River Gorge)

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Downscaling Regional Climate Change

• Regional climate simulations at high resolution
  to explore the west coast implications of global
  climate change.
• Forcing the MM5 using global circulation models
  for ten year periods (2020-2030, 2045-2055,
  2070-2080)

The NW may be cooler and cloudier during the
summer!
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Studies of Mountain Precipitation using radar
aircraft to study physics of extreme mountain
precipitation
Mesoscale Alpine Programme
Italy
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The Tropical Rainfall Measuring MissionRadar on
a satellite being used to study precipitation in
the Indian monsoon and other parts of the tropics
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RAINEX 2005 Flights into Hurricanes Katrina
Ritato study hurricane dynamics and improve
forecasts of hurricane intensity
Rita-MM5
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Fires in Oregon
Ship Tracks
Marine Stratocumulus Clouds
Smoke from Fires
NASA MODIS Image July 29, 2002
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• Improving understanding, model simulations, and
  prediction of the Southeast Pacific Climate
  System

Field Program
Regional pollution
Mesoscale ocean eddies
Stratocumulus clouds
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The problem with climate models is clouds! What
can we do about them?

• Collect data, retrieve cloud properties, improve
  understanding of cloud processes a cirrus
  example

Research projects - Tropical cirrus
lifecycle - Retrieval of cloud properties
using lidar and radar - Analysis of ARM
tropical data
Tom Ackerman
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• Large-scale cloud-resolving modeling at UW-
• a tool for understanding tropical dynamics
• Convection-water vapor-cloud-surface feedbacks
• Walker and Hadley circulations
• MJO and equatorial and easterly waves
• Tropical cyclones
• Cumulus parameterization

Bretherton
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Improved PBL and shallow cumulus
CAM3-UW

• UW faculty are leading developers of improved
  representations of cloud, turbulence, radiation
  and sea-ice in our national climate models such
  as NCARs CCSM and Community Atmosphere Model
  (CAM3).

Obs
better
Default CAM3
worse
Bretherton
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Cloud Top Height Satellite Retrievals versus
Ground-based Radar Obs.
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Radiative properties of ice, snow, sea ice
cryosphere-atmosphere interactions
Radiative effects of impurities in snow,
especially human-produced impurities, like soot.
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• Future projects for graduate students
• Soot in Arctic snow and its contribution to
  Arctic warming
• 2. Ocean surfaces on Snowball Earth

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Global Tropospheric Stratospheric Temperature
Trends for 1979-2004
Troposphere
Stratosphere
Fu Johanson (Our Changing Planet A View from
Space, Edited by King et. al, Cambridge
University Press, 2006)
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Summary
This presentation is just a sampler, and did not
include all of the present or future projects
that will be ongoing in the department. For
more details talk to specific faculty while here,
visit faculty web sites, and contact faculty
directly later. If you need guidance on with
whom to talk about specific topics, ask any
faculty member, or the current graduate students,
or work through Sam, Greg or myself.