Collaborative Research: Convection and Rainfall Enhancement over Mountainous Tropical Islands

合作研究：热带山区对流和降雨增强

基本信息

批准号：
1740533
负责人：
Timothy Cronin
金额：
$ 35.04万
依托单位：
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1740533&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Convection Rainfall Enhancement

项目摘要

More rain falls over tropical islands than nearby ocean areas. This enhancement of island rainfall occurs for multiple reasons, including triggering of thunderstorms by daytime heating of islands and associated sea breezes, as well as by winds blowing over mountainous islands. Although island rainfall may seem like a local subject of study, an improved understanding of it has several benefits that cut across study of global weather and climate. For example, rainfall over the large islands of the western Tropical Pacific (such as Borneo, Papua New Guinea, and Sumatra) influences wind patterns along the equatorial Pacific basin at both weather (a few weeks) and climate (seasonal) time scales. Also, a deeper understanding of tall thunderstorms in the tropics remains a major obstacle to better weather forecasts and reducing uncertainty in climate change projections. Connected with this, studying island rainfall may help address questions about whether it tends to rain more over wet or dry soils and why; these questions are important for understanding the persistence of floods and droughts. Finally, understanding how island rainfall depends on the temperature of the nearby ocean remains a challenge. This temperature-dependence is important not only for the societal impacts of rainfall extremes in a changing climate, but also because dissolved minerals found in the runoff from all land - but particularly tropical islands - can regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide content and global temperature over periods of millions of years. The goal of this project is to address these questions that cut across weather, current climate, and past climate, by using high-resolution numerical model simulations of the atmosphere to investigate how island rainfall enhancement depends on multiple factors of the island environment. These factors include the temperature of the nearby ocean, the wetness and height of the island, the strength of the winds impinging on the island, and the size of the region simulated in the numerical model. This research project will advance knowledge about the tropical convection processes that regulate the climate, by studying how tropical convections are influenced by local aspects of the island environment. The research project supports a graduate student who will gain training in climate dynamics and preparation for a career in teaching and research in academia or commercial weather prediction, thus sustaining the pool of human resources required for excellence in climate research. Publicly available instructional videos will be produced to illustrate central concepts associated with island thunderstorms and rainfall, including sea-breezes and the pattern of thunderstorm triggering over the day. A set of tools for analyzing the output generated by the high-resolution numerical model of the atmosphere will be made available to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers.

与附近的海洋地区相比，在热带岛屿上降雨更多。出于多种原因，发生这种岛屿降雨量的增强，包括通过白天加热岛屿和相关的海风引发雷暴，以及通过在山区岛上吹风来触发雷暴。尽管岛屿降雨似乎似乎是一个当地的研究主题，但对其的了解的改进有几种好处，这些好处削减了对全球天气和气候的研究。例如，西部热带太平洋（例如婆罗洲，巴布亚新几内亚和苏门答腊）的大岛上的降雨会在天气（几周）和气候（季节性）时间尺度上影响赤道太平洋盆地的风模式。此外，对热带地区高雷暴的更深入了解仍然是更好的天气预测并减少气候变化预测的不确定性的主要障碍。与此相关的是，研究岛屿降雨可能有助于解决有关它是否倾向于在湿土或干燥的土壤上降雨的问题以及原因；这些问题对于理解洪水和干旱的持久性很重要。最后，了解岛屿降雨如何取决于附近海洋的温度仍然是一个挑战。这种温度依赖性不仅对于不断变化的气候下极端降雨的社会影响很重要，还因为在所有土地（尤其是热带岛屿）中发现的溶解矿物质可以调节百万年前的大气二氧化碳含量和全球温度。该项目的目的是通过使用大气的高分辨率数值模型模拟来研究跨天气，当前气候和过去气候的这些问题，以调查岛屿降雨增强如何取决于岛屿环境的多种因素。这些因素包括附近海洋的温度，岛上的湿度和高度，撞向岛上的风的强度以及数值模型中模拟的区域的大小。该研究项目将通过研究热带对流如何受到岛屿环境的当地方面的影响，可以提高有关调节气候的热带对流过程的知识。该研究项目支持一名研究生，该研究生将获得气候动态的培训，并为学术界或商业天气预测的教学和研究职业做准备，从而维持卓越气候研究所需的人力资源库。将制作公开可用的教学视频，以说明与岛屿雷暴和降雨相关的中心概念，包括海上冻结和一天中雷暴的模式。一组用于分析大气中高分辨率数值模型产生的输出的工具将提供给本科生，研究生和博士后研究人员。