Seminar by Anne Sophie Daloz, Senior Researcher, CICERO
Evaluating snow and the snow-albedo effect in the CORDEX flagship pilot study Land Use and Climate Across Scales (LUCAS)
Abstract:
Seasonal snow cover plays a major role in the climate system of the Northern Hemisphere via its effect on land surface albedo and fluxes. In climate models the parameterization of interactions between snow and atmosphere remains a source of uncertainty and biases in the representation of local and global climate. Here, we evaluate the ability of an ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) coupled with different land surface models to simulate snow– atmosphere interactions over Europe in winter and spring. We use a previously defined index, the snow-albedo sensitivity index (SASI), to quantify the radiative forcing associated with snow cover anomalies. By comparing RCM-derived SASI values with SASI calculated from reanalyses and satellite retrievals, we show that an accurate simulation of snow cover is essential for correctly reproducing the observed forcing over middle and high latitudes in Europe. The choice of parameterizations, and primarily the choice of the land surface model, strongly influences the representation of SASI as it affects the ability of climate models to simulate snow cover accurately.
The talk is in Aud 2 in the Geology Building. It is also possible to follow at Zoom.
Videolink to the lecture will be sent to the mailinglists alle@geo and geohyd-info@geo. If you want to subscribe to the geohyd-info@geo list send an email to Anita.
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About the seminar
This seminar is offered by the Section for Geography and Hydrology, Dept. of Geosciences, University of Oslo. The GEOHYD-seminars are announced as lunch seminars so bring your lunch if you want to.
The seminars are open for everyone interested, and especially students are welcome.
The Lunch Seminar Team
– Louise and Henning