Modeling the Effects of Climate Change on the Pacific Northwest: Mesoscale Processes and Climate Impacts

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will assess the impact of climate change on the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Key to the responses in this region is the complex topography and coastal geometry. Thus, the PIs concentrate on the impacts on mesoscale processes occurring at much finer spatial resolution than is captured in current global climate models used for climate change studies. A regional atmospheric model will be used to downscale current and future climate from present day atmospheric analyses and several future climate model projections. The project will study the influence of climate change on orographic and convective precipitation, marine influences, snow and soil-moisture feedbacks, and ENSO teleconnections for the Pacific Northwest. The project has broad impacts through estimation of vulnerabilities of regional natural resources (e.g., water, fisheries, and forests) to climate change and variability. The project will create modeling and computational capabilities for regional applications research. Through several collaborations, high-resolution output from the regional model will be linked to hydrological and air-quality applications for climate impacts studies and distributed to local natural resource and planning agencies. The PI is also a research scientist in the Climate Impacts Group of the U. Washington Center for Science in the Earth System, and through this affiliation has direct interface to stakeholder communities. Two graduate students will be involved.