UW Aquatic & Fishery Sciences Quantitative Seminar

Dargan Frierson

UW Department of Atmospheric Sciences

Tropical Rainfall: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

In the tropics, some of the rainiest places on Earth exist just a few hundred kilometers away from the driest deserts. We describe the basics of what determines these rainfall patterns, and some new work that solves for the location of the tropical rain bands based on fundamental energetic constraints. This framework provides insight into the current position of the rain bands north of the equator, a southward shift which occurred in the 1970-80s (leading to the largest drought of the century), and future changes with global warming.