Variability and change in mountain climates
About half the fresh water used by humans originates in mountains. In regions like the western United States, winter snowpack provides vital water resources during the dry summer melt season. I’m interested in the mechanisms controlling the amount and distribution of mountain precipitation and snowpack, and their implications for how mountain climates might change in a warmer world.
The response of the global hydrologic cycle to climate change, and its isotopic footprint.
The hydrologic cycle plays an important role in the atmospheric heat engine. Most water vapor in the atmosphere evaporates from tropical oceans, where much of the sun’s energy is absorbed, while most condensation occurs at higher altitudes and/or latitudes, where temperatures are cooler. This movement of heat from warm to cool regions drives the atmospheric motions that characterize our weather and climate. I use a hierarchy of models to try to better understand this energy transport, its response to climate change, and its connection to stable water isotopes, which are widely used as proxies of past hydroclimate change.