Atmospheric Sciences 571

Advanced Physical Climatology

Autumn 2000 Possible Research Paper topics:

 

Listed below are some possible topics for research papers for ATMS 571. A general topic is given, together with a few references that should get you started. I have tried to provide recent references, so you can find your way back into the literature. You may want to search for other references using MGA or UWIN. The objective is to construct a good 10 page paper that provides an up-to-date overview of the topic that would be accessible by other graduate students, interesting to read, and factual. Feel free to construct your own topic. Paper proposals are due soon.

 

1. Do we understand solar absorption by clouds?

Zender, C. S., B. Bush, S. K. Pope, A. Bucholtz, W. D. Collins, J. T. Kiehl, F. P. J. Valero and J. Vitko, 1997: Atmospheric absorption during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (ARESE). Journal Of Geophysical Research Atmospheres, 102, 29901-29915.

Crisp, D., 1997: Absorption of sunlight by water vapor in cloudy conditions: a partial explanation for the cloud absorption anomaly. Geophysical Research Letters, 24, 571-4.

Zhang, M., R. D. Cess and J. Xiaodu, 1997: Concerning the interpretation of enhanced cloud shortwave absorption using monthly-mean Earth Radiation Budget Experiment/Global Energy Balance Archive measurements. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102, 25899- 905.

Li, Z. Q., L. Moreau and A. Arking, 1997: On solar energy disposition: A perspective from observation and modeling. Bulletin Of The American Meteorological Society, 78, 53-70.

 

2. Is the Southern Ocean the key to understanding Climate?

Boyd, P. W., A. J. Watson, C. S. Law, E. R. Abraham, T. Trull, R. Murdoch, D. C. E. Bakker, A. R. Bowie, K. O. Buesseler, H. Chang, M. Charette, P. Croot, K. Downing, R. Frew, M. Gall, M. Hadfield, J. Hall, M. Harvey, G. Jameson, J. LaRoche, M. Liddicoat, R. Ling, M. T. Maldonado, R. M. McKay, S. Nodder, S. Pickmere, R. Pridmore, S. Rintoul, K. Safi, P. Sutton, R. Strzepek, K. Tanneberger, S. Turner, A. Waite and J. Zeldis, 2000: A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization. Nature, 407, 695-702.

Broecker, W. S., 1998: Paleocean circulation during the last deglaciation: A bipolar seesaw? Paleoceanography, 13, 119-121.

Broecker, W. S., S. L. Peacock, S. Walker, R. Weiss, E. Fahrbach, M. Schroeder, U. Mikolajewicz, C. Heinze, R. Key, T. H. Peng and S. Rubin, 1998: How much deep water is formed in the Southern Ocean? Journal Of Geophysical Research Oceans, 103, 15833-15843.

Sarmiento, J. L., T. M. C. Hughes, R. J. Stouffer and S. Manabe, 1998: Simulated response of the ocean carbon cycle to anthropogenic climate warming. Nature, 393, 245-249.

 

3. Do Anthropogenic Aerosols directly cool the planet?

Charlson, R. J., S. E. Schwartz, J. M. Hales, R. D. Cess, J. A. Coakley, J. E. Hansen and D. J. Hofmann, 1992: Climate Forcing by Antropogenic Aerosols. Science, 255, 423-430.

Hansen, J., M. Sato and R. Ruedy, 1995: Long-term changes of the diurnal temperature cycle: Implications about mechanisms of global climate change. Atmos. Res., 37, 175-209.

Karl, T. P., R. W. Knight, G. Kukla and J. Gavin, 1995: Evidence for radiative effects of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols in the observed climate record. Aerosol Forcing of Climate. R. J. Charlson and J. Heintzenberg, Eds., John Wiley & Sons, 363-382.

Mitchell, J. F. B. and T. C. Johns, 1997: On modification of global warming by sulfate aerosols. Journal Of Climate, 10, 245-267.

 

4. Do Anthropogenic Aerosols Enhance Cloud Reflection?

Hansen, J. E., M. Sato, A. Lacis and R. Ruedy, 1997: The missing climate forcing. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B., 352, 231-240.

Hansen, J., M. Sato and R. Ruedy, 1995: Long-term changes of the diurnal temperature cycle: Implications about mechanisms of global climate change. Atmos. Res., 37, 175-209.

Karl, T. P., R. W. Knight, G. Kukla and J. Gavin, 1995: Evidence for radiative effects of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols in the observed climate record. Aerosol Forcing of Climate. R. J. Charlson and J. Heintzenberg, Eds., John Wiley & Sons, 363-382.

 

5. Will Greenhouse Warming Desertify the Corn Belt?

Wetherald, R. T. and S. Manabe, 1995: The mechanisms of summer dryness induced by greenhouse warming. Journal Of Climate, 8, 3096-3108.

Gregory, J. M., J. F. B. Mitchell and A. J. Brady, 1997: Summer drought in northern midlatitudes in a time-dependent CO2 climate experiment. Journal Of Climate, 10, 662-686.

 

6. What have we learned from Modeling the Ice Ages?

Kageyama, M. and P. J. Valdes, 2000: Impact of the North American ice-sheet orography on the Last Glacial Maximum eddies and snowfall. Geophys. Res. Lett., 27, 1515-1518.

Sellwood, B. W., P. J. Valdes and G. D. Price, 2000: Geological evaluation of multiple general circulation model simulations of Late Jurassic palaeoclimate. Palaeogeography-Palaeoclimatology-Palaeoecology, 156, 147-160.

Joussaume, S., K. E. Taylor, P. Braconnot, J. F. B. Mitchell, J. E. Kutzbach, S. P. Harrison, I. C. Prentice, A. J. Broccoli, O.-A. Abe, P. J. Bartlein, C. Bonfils, B. Dong, J. Guiot, K. Herterich, C. D. Hewitt, D. Jolly, J. W. Kim, A. Kislov, A. Kitoh, M. F. Loutre, V. Masson, B. McAvaney, N. McFarlane, N.-N. De, W. R. Peitier, J. Y. Peterschmitt, D. Pollard, D. Rind, J. F. Royer, M. E. Schlesinger, J. Syktus, S. Thompson, P. Valdes, G. Vettoretti, R. S. Webb and U. Wyputta, 1999: Monsoon changes for 6000 years ago: results of 18 simulations from the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). Geophysical Research Letters, 26, 859-62.

Dong, B. and P. J. Valdes, 1998: Simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum climates using a general circulation model: prescribed versus computed sea surface temperatures. Climate Dynamics, 14, 7-8.

Hall, N. M. J. and P. J. Valdes, 1997: A GCM simulation of the climate 6000 years ago. Journal Of Climate, 10, 3-17.

Felzer, B., T. I. Webb and R. J. Oglseby, 1998: The impact of ice sheets, CO2, and orbital insolation on Lte Quaternary climate: sensitivity experiments with a general circulation model. Quaternary, Sci. Rev., 17, 507-534.

 

7. Do we understand the ocean’s role in past rapid climate fluctuations?

Manabe, S. and R. J. Stouffer, 2000: Study of abrupt climate change by a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. Quat. Sci. Rev., 19, 285-299.

Manabe, S. and R. J. Stouffer, 1999: Are two modes of thermohaline circulation stable? Tellus A, 51, 400-411.

Sakai, K. and W. R. Peltier, 1997: Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations in a coupled atmosphere-ocean climate model. Journal of Climate, 10, 949-70.

Paillard, D., 1998: The timing of Pleistocene glaciations from a simple multiple- state climate model. Nature, 391, 378-381.

Marotzke, J. and P. H. Stone, 1995: Atmospheric transports, the thermohaline circulation, and flux adjustments in a simple coupled model. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 25, 1350-64.

 

8. The role of water vapor in climate sensitvity.

Schneider, E. K., B. P. Kirtman and R. S. Lindzen, 1999: Tropospheric water vapor and climate sensitivity. J. Atmos Sci, 56, 1649-58.

Hall, A. and S. Manabe, 2000: Effect of water vapor feedback on internal and anthropogenic variations of the global hydrologic cycle. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 6935 -6944.

 

9. The Carbon Cycle and Global Warming

Gloor, M., S. M. Fan, S. Pacala and J. Sarmiento, 2000: Optimal sampling of the atmosphere for purpose of inverse modeling: A model study. Global-Biogeochemical-Cycles, 14, 407-428.

Fan, S., M. Gloor, J. Mahlman, S. Pacala, J. Sarmiento, T. Takahashi and P. Tans, 1998: A large terrestrial carbon sink in North America implied by atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide data and models. Science, 282, 442-446.

Stephens, B. B., R. F. Keeling, M. Heimann, K. D. Six, R. Murnane and K. Caldeira, 1998: Testing global ocean carbon cycle models using measurements of atmospheric O2 and CO2 concentration. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 12, 213-230.

Keeling, R. F., S. C. Piper and M. Heimann, 1996: Global and hemispheric CO2 sinks deduced from changes in atmospheric O2 concentration. Nature, 381, 218-221.

 

10. Is it important to understand atmospheric dynamics in order to understand climate?

Held, I. M., 1993: Large-scale dynamics and global warming. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 74, 228-41.

 

11. Do tropical convective clouds limit tropical SST?

Ramanathan, V. and W. Collins, 1991: Thermodynamic regulation of ocean warming by cirrus clouds deduced from observations of the 1987 El Nino. Nature, 351, 27-32.

Bony, S., K. M. Lau and Y. C. Sud, 1997: Sea surface temperature and large-scale circulation influences on tropical greenhouse effect and cloud radiative forcing. Journal Of Climate, 10, 2055-2077.

Lau, K.-M., C.-H. Sui, M.-D. Chou and W.-K. Tao, 1994: An inquiry into the cirrus-cloud thermostat effect for tropical sea-surface temperature. Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 1157-1160.

 

12. Do we understand the Cretaceous Climate?

Barron, E. J., P. J. Fawcett, D. Pollard and S. Thompson, 1994: Model simulations of Cretaceous climates: the role of geography and carbondioxide. in Palaeoclimates and their modelling: with special reference to the Mesozoic era. J. R. L. Allen, Eds., Chapman and Hall, 99-108.

Markwick, P. J., 1998: Fossil crocodilians as indicators of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic climates: implications for using palaeontological data in reconstructing palaeoclimate. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 137, 3-4.

Markwick, P. J., D. B. Rowley, A. M. Ziegler, M. L. Hulver, P. J. Valdes and B. W. Sellwood, 2000: Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic global palaeogeographies: Mapping the transition from a "hot-house" to an "ice-house" world. GFF, 122 Part 1, 103.

Markwick, P. J., P. J. Valdes, B. W. Sellwood and R. T. Pierrehumbert, 2000: 'Equability' in an unequal world: The early Eocene revisited. GFF, 122 Part 1, 101-102. (QE1 .G497)

 

13. Can ozone depletion and greenhouse warming combine to produce rapid climate change?

Hartmann, D. L., J. M. Wallace, V. Limpasuvan, D. W. J. Thompson and J. R. Holton, 2000: Can ozone depletion and global warming interact to produce rapid climate change? Proceedings-of-the-National-Academy-of-Sciences-of-the-United-States-of-America, 97, 1412-1417.

Shindell, D. T., R. L. Miller, G. A. Schmidt and L. Pandolfo, 1999: Simulation of recent northern winter climate trends by greenhouse-gas forcing. Nature, 399, 452-455.

 

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