Calendar Event Details
SPECIAL SEMINAR: Ben Kravitz
Affiliation: PNNL
Event Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Location: H114
Time: 10:00 AM
What we know about Geoengineering from climate models (and what we don't)
The term geoengineering describes a set of technologies designed to deliberately offset some of the climate effects of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In this talk, I go through the results of climate model simulations of geoengineering. In particular, I focus on results from the Geoengineering Model Inter-comparison Project (GeoMIP), a worldwide effort to coordinate climate model simulations of geoengineering across multiple models. There are many processes in the climate system that are well represented in climate models, giving us confidence that some of the conclusions one can make about the potential effects of geoengineering, even if those models simulate geoengineering in a highly idealized way, are likely valid. However, there are a substantial number of uncertainties in whether these models can represent more complex processes, such as stratospheric circulation or aerosol microphysical growth that severely limits the knowledge that can be gained from geoengineering simulations. Ultimately, addressing these uncertainties requires model validation using real-world observations; I highlight several potential sources of observations that could be used to test and validate these models.
Posted or updated: Friday, February 20, 2015
Print-friendly page (new window) • Back to the Calendar