Speaker: Brian Soden, University of Miami
Title: "Aerosols, Clouds and Recent Trends in Earth's Energy Imbalance"
Abstract:
Differences in modeling the effective radiative forcing from aerosol-cloud interactions represent the largest source of uncertainty in historical anthropogenic forcing. This uncertainty limits our ability to constrain estimates of climate sensitivity and make accurate projections of future climate change. The forcing from aerosols, even in recent decades, is not well known, but evidence suggests that the cooling effect of aerosols has weakened over the past several decades. This reduction in aerosols is believed to be a possible contributor to the growing imbalance in Earth’s energy budget, which has nearly doubled over the past two decades. This talk will discuss the use satellite observations of aerosol and cloud properties to: i) better constrain climate model estimates of the effective radiative forcing from aerosol-cloud interactions; ii) quantify the contributions of aerosol-cloud interactions to the recent trends in Earth’s Energy Imbalance; iii) examine other potential causes of the observed trend in EEI.
Bio:
Brian Soden is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. He specializes in the use of satellite observations to test and improve computer simulations of Earth's climate. His areas of interest include understanding climate feedback processes, the atmospheric hydrological cycle, and the response of extreme weather events to global warming.
In person attendance at this seminar is only open to Columbia University affiliates.
