Global Warming Seminar Series: "The Role of Clouds and Water Vapor in Climate Change"

Abstract

The Role of Clouds and Water Vapor in Climate Change:

I will begin with a brief primer on the physics of climate change, and how it is represented in climate models, and how the models are tested with observations. This will be followed by a discussion of how clouds and water vapor modulate the Earth's climate through their radiative effects, through the effects of the large latent heat of water on atmospheric energetics, and by rapidly transporting energy, mass, and momentum across thick layers of air.