J8.10
Effects of mesoscale terrain on climate change signal in the western U.S
Jinwon Kim, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Effects of mesoscale terrain on climate change signal in the western US
Jinwon Kim Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
An abstract submitted to the 13th Symposium on Global Change and Climate Variation
Effects of mesoscale terrain on the regional climate change signal due to an increase of atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration in western U.S. will be presented. The regional-scale climate change signal to be discussed here was obtained by dynamically downscaling a GCM-projected climate change scenario using the coupled MAS-SPS.
Impacts of climate change due to increased GHG on the water resources of the western US are important concerns. Water resources of the region depend on seasonal variation of precipitation and surface hydrologic cycle, which is characterized by extreme seasonal contrasts in precipitation and snow budget. Precipitation characteristics and snow budget depends on near-surface temperature fields, which in turn, depend on the atmosphere-land interactions. Understanding atmosphere-land interactions in a projected climate state is important for understanding the impacts of climate change on the hydrolcimate and water resources of the western US.
Effects of mesoscale terrain on regional-scale climate change signals in the western US will be presented. The focus of this presentation is the effects of terrain elevation and soil moisture feedback on precipitation characteristics, near-surface air temperature, and snow budget in the western US. Impacts of the projected changes in the regional-scale surface hydrologic cycle on the seasonal variation of surface runoff will also be presented.
Joint Session 8, Surface/Atmosphere Interactions: Part I (Joint with 13th Symposium on Global Change and Climate Variations and 16th Conference on Hydrology)
Thursday, 17 January 2002, 8:30 AM-4:45 PM
Previous paper Next paper