1 / 56

Climate change and the cryosphere

Climate change and the cryosphere. Outline. Background, climatology & variability Role of snow in the global climate system Contemporary observations of climate change Cryospheric indicators of climate change Future global & regional projections & implications of climate change.

kacy
Download Presentation

Climate change and the cryosphere

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Climate change and the cryosphere

  2. Outline • Background, climatology & variability • Role of snow in the global climate system • Contemporary observations of climate change • Cryospheric indicators of climate change • Future global & regional projections & implications of climate change

  3. Background, climatology & variability

  4. 20th Century Climatology Observed GFDL Ref: Masuda

  5. Current snow coverage 1 April 2013

  6. Departure from average 1 April 2013

  7. Seasonal climatology

  8. Observed & GFDL Northern Hemisphere Snow Extent (x106 km2), 1973-2000

  9. Mean annual maximum monthly snow water equivalent (mm) in Canada, 1980-1997(Brown et al. 2003)

  10. Current SWE in the Prairies

  11. Monthly Eurasian standardized snow cover extent anomalies

  12. Interannual variability Source: Karl et al. (1993).

  13. Role of snow in the global climate system

  14. Annual cycle of daily discharge in Skeena River (1955-2004) freshet

  15. Contribution of snow to river runoff Source: Barnett et al. (2005).

  16. Teleconnections Definition: Atmospheric interactions between widely separated regions that have been identified through statistical correlations (in space and time). For example, the El Niño teleconnection with the Southwest United States involves large-scale changes in climatic conditions that are linked to increased winter rainfall.

  17. Correlation coefficient between annual Eurasian snow extent anomalies & discharge anomalies the following year in 64 rivers of northern Canada Source: Déry et al. (2005), JGR.

  18. Observed 20th century climate change

  19. Warming air temperatures Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/

  20. 20th century climate & trends Reference: Déry and Wood (2005)

  21. Trends in global surface air temperature

  22. Trends in global surface precipitation

  23. Cryospheric indicators of global change • Snow depth, swe, density, albedo & temperature (heat content) • Duration of snow cover & growing season • Snowmelt/spring freshet date • Soil moisture

  24. Snow depth Source: Curtis et al. (1998), Int. J. Climatology

  25. Annual cycle of daily snow accumulation (SWE) at Barkerville

  26. Trend (%) in April 1st swe, 1950-1997 Source: Mote et al. (2005), BAMS

  27. Albedo Source: Stone et al. (2002), JGR.

  28. Trend (days/year) in snow cover duration, 1972-2000

  29. Snowmelt Date Source: Stone et al. (2002), JGR.

  30. Reference: Déry and Brown (2007)

  31. Annual cycle of daily runoff for the Little Swift River near Barkerville

  32. Trend in centre of volume in river discharge across western N. America Source: Stewart et al. (2005), J. Climate.

  33. Future projections & implications of global change

  34. Components of the climate system

  35. IPCC 4th Assessment

  36. IPCC 4th Assessment

  37. Expected indicators of climate change IPCC 3rd Assessment

  38. IPCC 4th Assessment

  39. IPCC 4th Assessment

  40. IPCC 4th Assessment Runs

  41. Trends in Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent Source: Déry et al. (2006), JGR.

  42. Projected change in seasonal snow cover frequency based on GFDL CM2 simulations (21st - 20th century) -0 Projected change in frequency

  43. Trends in Northern Hemisphere snow mass

  44. Projected change in seasonal snow water equivalent (swe) based on GFDL CM2 simulations (21st - 20th century) -1 Projected change in swe (mm)

  45. Regional climate (baseline) • Source: PCIC (http://www.pcic.uvic.ca)

More Related