Arctic Climate and Weather Extremes: Causes and Consequences

讲座简介

Climate and weather extremes have more frequently occurred over the Arctic Ocean, including consecutive occurrence of record lows of summer sea ice extent and record highs of winter surface air temperatures. Although knowledge about interannual variability and long-term trends of Arctic climate change has been extensively improved, Arctic extremes have been less addressed. The presentation will synthesize recent research efforts on Arctic extremes from observational evidence to dynamic and thermodynamic drivers. The identified underlying physical mechanisms will be elucidated. Meanwhile, challenging questions on the topic will be also highlighted.  

主讲人简介

Professor Xiangdong Zhang from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences and International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks has conducted integrative researches on northern high and mid latitude climate variability and changes, including atmospheric circulation dynamics, water and energy cycle, storm track dynamics, atmosphere-sea ice-ocean-hydrology interactions, and extreme climate, weather, and hydrology events. His research has been published at prestigious journals including Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, and so on. He is now a co-chair of the U.S. CLIVAR Working Group of Arctic Change and Possible Influence on Midlatitude Climate and Weather, a co-lead of the task team of the international CliC-CLIVAR Northern Ocean Regional Panel on Advancing the Understanding of Climate Variability Due to Arctic–Midlatitude Linkages.