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Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences at a Glance

Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences at a Glance. The mission of the atmospheric sciences is to understand and predict weather, climate, and related disasters. Weather-related Disasters: Tropical Cyclones (Hurricanes, Typhoons, Cyclones).

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Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences at a Glance

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  1. Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences at a Glance

  2. The mission of the atmospheric sciences is to understand and predict weather, climate, and related disasters

  3. Weather-related Disasters: Tropical Cyclones(Hurricanes, Typhoons, Cyclones) Global distribution of the paths of major tropical cyclones during the last 150 years. On average, ~ 80 per year around the world. U.S. Fatalities: normal year 21, Katrina 1836 U.S. Property loss: normal year $5400 million, Katrina $84000 million

  4. Weather-related Disasters: Tornadoes U.S. Annual mean fatalities 56, annual mean loss $777 million

  5. Weather-related Disasters: Winter Storms U.S. Annual mean fatalities 57, annual mean loss $329 million

  6. Weather-related disasters in U.S. Blizzards Extreme precipitation Fire Tornadoes Thunderstorms Hurricanes

  7. Climate-related Disasters over the world Example 1: El Nino

  8. Climate-related Disasters over the world Example 2: Global Warming

  9. National prediction centers and research labs Spatial Scale Climate Change Global warming AMO PDO Ice age Glacial cycle Abrupt change Globe Climate ENSO QBO Continent Monsoon Madden-Julian Oscillation Tropical waves Annular modes Diurnal variation Heat wave Midlatitude cyclone Tropical cyclone Weather State Mesoscale convective system Thunderstorm Tornado City Football field Shallow convection Boundary layer turbulence 1 mm Cloud/precipitation 1 m Radiation Composition 10-4m 10-15sec 1sec 1min 1day 1mon 1yr 10yr 100yr 100,000yr Time Scale

  10. The modern climatology (meteorology) was born in the 1940s (a very young science!), but has been growing very fast! Carl-Gustaf Rossby (1898-1957) Generally considered as the “father of modern meteorology”. Founder of the “Chicago School of Meteorology”.

  11. Observing the atmosphere: Surface weather stations Now

  12. Observing the atmosphere: Upper-air sounding stations Now (>1000)

  13. Observing the atmosphere: Weather Radar First weather radar (NOAA NSSL) Current NEXRAD Doppler radar (NOAA NWS)

  14. Observing the atmosphere: Shipborne radar From Mapes and Lin (2005)

  15. Observing the atmosphere: Aircraft NASA unmanned Global Hawk used for hurricane research (from NASA) NOAA P3

  16. Observing the atmosphere: Satellite TIROS-1 (1960) World’s first weather satellite NASA’s Earth Observation System A-Train Satellites

  17. Climate Modeling on World’s Fastest Supercomputers Japan’s Earth Simulator (World’s #1 in 2004, #20 now) OSC’s new IBM machine World’s top 50 now

  18. National prediction centers and research labs Spatial Scale Climate Change Global warming AMO PDO Ice age Glacial cycle Abrupt change Globe Climate ENSO QBO NCAR CGD/ NASA GISS/ NOAA GFDL/ Continent Monsoon Madden-Julian Oscillation Tropical waves Annular modes NOAA Environmental Modeling Center/ NOAA Climate Prediction Center/ NOAA ESRL PSD/ NASA GMAO/ Columbia Univ IRI/ Diurnal variation Heat wave Midlatitude cyclone Tropical cyclone Weather State NOAA National Hurricane Center/ NOAA Hurricane Research Division/ NOAA Storm Prediction Center/ NOAA National Severe Storm Lab/ NCAR MMM/ Mesoscale convective system Thunderstorm Tornado City Football field Shallow convection Boundary layer turbulence 1 mm Cloud/precipitation 1 m Radiation Composition 10-4m 10-15sec 1sec 1min 1day 1mon 1yr 10yr 100yr 100,000yr Time Scale

  19. World’s Major Climate Modeling Centers

  20. National agencies for research funding • National Science Foundation (NSF) • NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO) • NASA Earth Science • DOE Climate and Environmental Science

  21. Summary • The mission of meteorology is to understand and predict weather- and climate-related disasters (e.g. tornados, hurricanes, El Nino and global warming). • 3 scales: weather, climate, climate change • The modern climatology (meteorology) was born in the 1940s (a very young science!), but has been growing very fast! Now we have a global observational network with many satellites, ships, radars and surface stations, as well as very comprehensive prediction models running on the world’s largest computers. • National prediction centers and research labs

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