Overview I: Atmospheric Sciences at a Glance

The mission of the atmospheric sciences is to understand and predict weather, climate, and

related disasters

RadiationCloud/precipitation

Shallow convection Boundary layer turbulence

Mesoscale convective system ThunderstormTornado

Heat waveMidlatitude cycloneTropical cyclone

Diurnal variation

Madden-Julian Oscillation Tropical wavesAnnular modes

100,000yr100yr10yr1yr1mon1day1min1sec10-15sec

Global climate system

Globe

Continent

State

City

Football field

1 mm

1 m

Spatial Scale

Time Scale

10-4 m Composition

Monsoon

ENSOQBO

Global warmingAMOPDO

Ice ageGlacial cycleAbrupt change

Weather

Climate

Climate Change

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

Weather-related Disasters: Tornadoes

U.S. Annual mean fatalities 56, annual mean loss $777 million

Weather-related Disasters: Winter Storms

U.S. Annual mean fatalities 57, annual mean loss $329 million

Weather-related Disasters in US

Hurricanes

Blizzards Extreme cold

Flooding Lightning Fire Tornadoes

Hails

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

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

Effects on society

Hurricane Sandy in 2012http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeaG1jRLIBw

Weather/Climate and Business- Insurance companies

History of Atlantic hurricane activity

The $15 billion insurance loss of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 led to the insolvency of 12 insurance companies and significant market disruption.

Climate Change & Economy/Engineering

- Green Economy

• Renewable energy• Green buildings• Clean transportation• Water management• Waste management• Land management

Weather/climate and International Relationships: Water conflict

From The African Water Page

Six nations share the watershed of the Mekong, which is affected by unconstrained development, natural droughts, and climate change

Climate and History/Politics- Collapse of Maya civilization

and Chinese ancient dynasties

Droughts

The Atmospheric Sciences:Predicting weather and climate

Video: Flying into hurricanes•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAyfHqEW3gk

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”.

Observing the atmosphere: Surface weather stations

Observing the atmosphere: Upper-air sounding stations

Observing the atmosphere: Weather Radar

First weather radar (NOAA NSSL)

Current NEXRAD Doppler radar (NOAA NWS)

Observing the atmosphere: Shipborne radar

From Mapes and Lin (2005)

Observing the atmosphere: Aircraft

NOAA P3NASA unmanned Global Hawk used for hurricane research(from NASA)

NASA’s Earth Observation System

A-Train Satellites

Observing the atmosphere: Satellite

TIROS-1 (1960) World’s first weather satellite

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

World’s Major Climate Modeling Centers

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.