GFDL seminar schedule

Upcoming GFDL events & seminars

• March 17, 2011: Morphology and genesis of long-tailed tracer anomaly probability distribution functions (pdfs) in the troposphere
  Ben Lintner (Rutgers)
  In prior work, we documented the existence of longer-than-Gaussian tails in the probability distribution functions (pdfs) of column-integrated anomalies for a wide range of tropospheric trace species, including water vapor, CO2, and CO, in satellite observations, meteorological reanalyses, and global chemical transport model (CTM) simulations. The occurrence of longer-than-Gaussian tails has implications for issues such as inverse modeling of pollutant and greenhouse gas source emissions and assessment of changes in extreme events under climate change. Here, we explore the morphology and genesis of long-tailed tracer anomaly pdfs for tropospheric constituents such as water vapor, CO2, CO, NOx, CH2O, and O3. In particular, we document the role of tropospheric transport acting across maintained three-dimensional (3D) gradients in producing ubiquitous long-tailed behavior in these constituents, although non-transport related processes acting on particular constituents (e.g., rainout of water vapor) are likely to influence the structural details of the pdfs, such as the point at which the tail separates from the pdf Gaussian core, the tail slope, and asymmetries between the positive and negative tails. Case studies focusing on synoptic-timescale tracer anomalies in the tails of the pdfs as simulated by the GEOS-Chem global CTM are used to illustrate meteorological conditions under which models can produce non-Gaussian excursions. Further by comparing observed pdfs and those simulated by GEOS-Chem, we demonstrate how the pdfs are potentially useful tools for diagnosing model strengths and weaknesses on both global and regional scales.
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• March 23, 2011: Information on CMIP5 Data: QC & METAFOR Questionnaire
  IPCC QC Process (GFDL)
  V. Balaji, Ron Stouffer & Aparna Radhakrishnan
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• March 30, 2011: Projecting the response of an endangered marine vertebrate to climate change: Reconciling terrestrial versus oceanic impacts
  Vince Saba (AOS)
  TBA
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• March 31, 2011: TBA
  Steven Platnick (NASA)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 6, 2011: New insights on hydrometeorology from land-atmosphere harmonic response to daily radiation
  Pierre Gentine (Columbia)
  In this talk I investigate the role of the harmonics of radiation on the coupled land-atmosphere system. I will first focus on the land-surface heat fluxes and demonstrate some new fundamental understanding of the energy partitioning at the land surface. In particular, I will show how the time scale of the radiation forcing is crucial to comprehend the response of the coupled system. A counter-intuitive finding is that soil heat flux acts as a high-pass filter of radiation, whereas sensible and latent (evapotranspiration) concentrate the lower daily frequencies. I will highlight several important consequences of these results for land-surface modeling and remote sensing of brightness temperature. I will then show how the high-frequency soil heat flux spectrum leads to systematic errors in the closure of the surface energy budget both in models and field measurements and propose a correction method to achieve better closure. Finally, I will discuss how inaccuracies in the surface energy balance on the soil and lower atmosphere (~10m) may impact data assimilation of remote sensing or meteorological variables. I suggest how the results of my work may inform the design of new remote sensing platforms and improve data assimilation strategies of land-surface variables such as soil moisture and heat fluxes.
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 7, 2011: TBA
  Louisa Emmons (TBA)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 13, 2011: Overview of CM3 Formulation and Simulation Characteristics
  Leo Donner (GFDL)
  na
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 14, 2011: Nonlinearity Writ Large: the intersection of geophysical science, governmental policy, and world affairs
  William Hooke (AMS Policy Program)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 21, 2011: TBA
  Fiamma Staneo (WHOI)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 27, 2011: Sensitivity study of the aerosol indirect effect in AM3
  Chris Golaz (GFDL)
  NA
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• April 28, 2011: TBA
  Duane Waliser (Jet Propulsion Lab - NASA)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 5, 2011: TBA
  Tim Li (U of Hawaii)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 12, 2011: Optimal Methods and Inferring Climate Change
  Stephen Leroy (Harvard)
  While the IPCC regards detection of global climate change and attribution to human influence (in part) as positively solved problems, it regards the next frontiers of detection and attribution at regional scale and inter-decadal climate prediction as unsolved. Bayesian methods can be used to address both of these problems. Optimal detection using an ensemble of models is best posed in a Bayesian context, and when done, it reveals optimal fingerprinting as a way to infer climate change in any variable at any scale given arbitrary data. The resulting inference accounts for both internal variability of the climate and uncertain physics in climate models. The method is the foundation of the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO), a climate monitoring satellite constellation, which can be used to infer climate sensitivity using global, accurate data. The talk will encompass optimal fingerprinting and CLARREO.
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 18, 2011: TBA
  Massimo Bollasina (AOS)
  TBA
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 19, 2011: Michael Mann
  Michael Mann
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• May 26, 2011: TBA
  Marjy Friedrichs (Virginia Institute of Marine Science)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 2, 2011: TBA
  Ben Kirtman (Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 9, 2011: Attribution Science and Services
  Martin Hoerling (NOAA)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 16, 2011: TBA
  Prabhat (Lawrence Berley National Lab -HPCRD)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 23, 2011: TBA
  Thomas C. Peterson (NOAA)
  TBA
  Time: 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room
• June 29, 2011: TBA
  Chris Sabine (NOAA/PMEL)
  TBA
  Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
  Location: Smagorinsky Seminar Room