Water Isotopes and Climate Workshop

Submitted by LinaKang on Fri, 2019-06-28 03:38
The Water Isotopes and Climate Workshop will be organized by US CLIVAR in Boulder, Colorado during October 1-3, 2019. The goal of the workshop is to bring together a broad group of researchers, including observationalists and modelers, from across various climate-related disciplines. The workshop encourages the participation of scientists internationally.
 

Many of today’s grand challenges in climate science revolve around the water cycle. How sensitive are low-level clouds to climate variations? How do large-scale precipitation patterns and extremes evolve with natural and anthropogenic forcings? How do shifts in the hydrological cycle affect ecosystem structure and function, and vice versa?

Water isotope ratios are powerful tools for uncovering the mechanisms driving past, present, and future changes in the global water cycle. With the ability to “tag” moisture as it travels through the atmosphere, ocean, biosphere, and cryosphere, isotopes ratios provide insights into key processes that shape regional to global hydrological variability. The preservation of water isotopes in a diverse array of proxy records makes them an important bridge between past and present climate variability, with key implications for future climate change impacts.
Workshop topics are likely to include (but are not limited to): 

  • Performing paleoclimate data model comparisons for water-isotope based proxy systems, including paleoclimate data assimilation schema 

  • Improving observational networks for water isotopes in the ocean, biosphere and atmosphere

  • Challenges and advantages of incorporating stable water isotope physics in GCMs 

  • Using water isotopes to evaluate and improve model physics and parameterizations

  • Understanding the relationship between water isotopes and the large-scale circulation of the atmosphere and ocean

  • Evaluating atmosphere-land surface and atmosphere-biosphere interactions

  • Investigating the global hydrologic cycle, including continental recycling and atmospheric moisture transport

  • Elucidating the roles of water vapor, clouds, and precipitation processes in controlling climate sensitivity

  • Understanding internal climate variability from sub-seasonal to centennial time-scales.

  • Integrating paleoclimate data sets with modern observations and climate models toward improved understanding of climate variability and change

 
More details about the workshop and how to register can be found online at https://usclivar.org/meetings/water-isotopes-workshop.