Coupling the Land Surface to Radiative and Hydrological Processes in a Climate Model

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will investigate physical and biological interactions between land surface processes and climate in the context of climate modeling. The PI's motivation is his recognition that current climate modeling objectives require much more comprehensive and realistic land surface parameterizations and data use. How the land surface communicates to the atmosphere through its flux and radiative properties and so modifies clouds and precipitation, and how these are modified by aerosols, still needs to be better understood. Some specific questions include: - How do the modeled land processes contribute to precipitation? - How can land surface processes be characterized in terms of sensitivity and feedbacks? - What characterizes the dynamics of soil moisture and runoff? - How are clouds and aerosols coupled to land? - What bounds can be placed on the classical climate sensitivity and how is it related to coupling to the underlying surface? He will address some aspects of these questions with regional foci, the Amazon and northern and northwest China. Broader Impacts: The grant funding is almost entirely to support student research. Their training should provide the US and the world will highly capable new scientists in a very important research area. Since all of the PI's current students are either of African, African-American, or Chinese origin and the majority of them are female, the project should promote the education of underrepresented minorities. Moreover, the broad issue to which it is specifically targeted is improvement of content and application of climate models for use in national efforts to provide better forecasts of climate variability and in international assessments of the human contributions to climate change.