Monthly Archives: October 2018

Determining the Earth’s energy and water cycles

Posted on 26 October, 2018 by

By Christopher Thomas The Earth’s energy and water cycles govern the distribution and movement of energy and water in the atmosphere, oceans and land. Both energy and water are constantly being transported between different regions of the globe, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Data processing, earth observation, Energy budget, ENSO, Hydrology, Solar radiation, Water cycle | Leave a comment

Storylines of regional climate change

Posted on 22 October, 2018 by

By Giuseppe Zappa  An outstanding question for climate science is quantifying how global warming will regionally affect the aspects of climate that are most directly relevant to society, such as precipitation, windiness and extremes. But achieving this task is proving … Continue reading →

Posted in Atmospheric circulation, Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, Greenhouse gases, Numerical modelling, Stratosphere, Troposphere | Leave a comment

How the Hadley Cells work

Posted on 15 October, 2018 by

By Gui-Ying Yang The Hadley Cell, named after British meteorologist George Hadley who discovered this tropical atmospheric overturning circulation, is one of the basic concepts in weather and climate. Figure 1 shows the zonal mean overturning circulation in a latitude height … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, earth observation, Equatorial waves, extratropical cyclones, Tropical convection, Troposphere, Waves, Wind | Tagged | Leave a comment

Mechanisms of Climate Change in the Indian Summer Monsoon

Posted on 8 October, 2018 by

By Jon Shonk Over one billion people are reliant on the rainfall of the Indian Summer Monsoon. During the wet season, which usually spans June to September, some parts of India receive over 90% of their total annual rainfall. Deficits … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Climate change, Climate modelling, drought, Environmental hazards, Flooding, Monsoons, Numerical modelling, Oceans | Leave a comment

Image conscious atmospheric science

Posted on 1 October, 2018 by

By Giles Harrison A frequently-heard mantra in physics is “Like charges repel and unlike charges attract”. At face value this paraphrase of Coulomb’s Law seems useful for clouds too, as, quite apart from the obvious example of thunderclouds, water drops … Continue reading →

Posted in Clouds, earth observation, Measurements and instrumentation, Microphysics, Numerical modelling, University of Reading | Tagged | Leave a comment