Collaborative Research: The Role of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Pan-Arctic River Discharge and Surface Hydrological Processes on Climate

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The proposed research addresses the question "How will the coupled arctic climate system respond to changes in riverine discharge of freshwater, and how to the temporal and spatial variability of freshwater discharge and changes therein interact with the dynamics of high latitude climate?". The project proposes to perform a series of numerical simulations using existing models that incorporate sea ice, atmosphere and ocean processes. Science questions will be posed through model runs in which sea ice, ocean, and land surface models are run off-line, and aspects of the off-line climatologies will be prescribed in partially coupled runs of the fully coupled system. The results of the partially coupled runs will be compared with results of fully coupled, ensemble climate simulations in order to isolate the effects of interactions among the land, sea ice, ocean and atmosphere.