Title: Atmospheric energy budget and pattern effect:Implications for precipitation and geoengineering studies
Lecturer: Dr. Shipeng Zhang (Princeton University / NOAA GFDL)
Inviter: Prof. Minghuai Wang
Time: Thursday September 12, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Venue: Lecture Hall D103, School of Atmospheric Sciences
Abstract: The relationship between global-mean precipitation and temperature, known as hydrological sensitivity (η) is constrained by the atmospheric energy budget. However, its magnitude remains uncertain. Our analysis reveals that varying sea surface temperature (SST) patterns significantly influence how the atmosphere cools, leading to changes in rainfall and η. Differences in warming patterns are as important as different treatments of atmospheric physics in determining the spread of η in climate models - a factor that has previously been overlooked. Furthermore, we found that both the magnitude and spread of η among GCMs are reduced by approximately 30% when focusing on later years in coupled simulations, especially as warming becomes more pronounced in the eastern tropical Pacific and southern oceans. In the second part of the talk, I will also discuss the forcing and SST pattern effect in the context of geoengineering, using the GFDL-ESM4.1 model.
Brief introduction to the speaker: Dr. Shipeng Zhang is currently a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University and NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). He completed his DPhil in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Planetary Physics at the University of Oxford. Before that, he received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Nanjing University. Dr. Zhang’s research interests primarily focus on understanding and assessing the impacts of human activities on the climate system using global climate models, including aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions, geoengineering, and aerosol impacts on general circulations.