Our next Atmosphere-Ocean Seminar will be Tuesday, 14th November, at 11:30, where we will be welcoming Dr. William Jones, from the University of Oxford.
Click here to join via MS Teams.
The role of atmospheric circulation in climate change
Deep convective clouds (DCCs) are among the most physically imposing phenomena in the atmosphere. Responsible for a range of extreme weather events, including rainfall and flooding, tornadoes, hail and lightning, DCCs also play a key role in regulating the temperature of the troposphere through the cloud radiative effect (CRE) of their cirrus anvils. Changes in anvil CRE are, however, among the most uncertain climate feedbacks. Anvil CRE could vary substantially in response to changes in the diurnal cycle and lifecycle of convection, but these processes are relatively under-explored, particularly over land. New insights can be provided by applying novel cloud tracking techniques to observations from the latest generation of geostationary weather satellites. In this talk, I will present research into the impact of the diurnal cycle of deep convection on CRE, the relation between the intensity and organisation of convection and the lifetime and structure of anvils, and the impact of these processes on anvil cloud CRE over their lifetime.