Speaker: Tiffany Shaw, University of Chicago
Title: "Fast upper level jet stream winds get faster under climate change"
Abstract:
Earth's upper-level jet streams influence the speed and direction of travel of weather systems and commercial aircraft, and are linked to severe weather occurrence. Climate change is projected to accelerate the average upper-level jet stream winds. However, little is known about how fast (>99th percentile) upper-level jet stream winds will change. Here we show that fast upper-level jet stream winds get faster under climate change using daily data from climate model projections across a hierarchy of physical complexity. Fast winds also increase ~2.5 times more than the average wind response. We show that the multiplicative increase underlying the fast-get-faster response follows from the nonlinear Clausius–Clapeyron relation (moist-get-moister response). The results can be used to explain projected changes in commercial flight times, record-breaking winds, clear-air turbulence and a potential increase in severe weather occurrence under climate change.
Bio:
Prof. Tiffany Shaw is a Professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago. She received her PhD in Physics from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on the physics of the atmosphere and climate system past, present and future. She seeks to understand the underlying mechanisms controlling the response to climate changes so that we can have greater confidence in climate predictions. Prof. Shaw is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Physical Society.
In person attendance at this seminar is only open to Columbia University affiliates.