CAREER: Exploring the Role of Vapor Buoyancy in Clouds, Circulation and Climate

职业：探索蒸气浮力在云、环流和气候中的作用

• 批准号: 2048268
• 负责人: Da Yang
• 金额: $ 81.03万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-10-01 至 2026-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2048268&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Exploring; Role; Vapor; Buoyancy

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The buoyancy effect of water vapor arises from its lower molecular mass compared to dry air. Because water vapor is a trace gas in Earth’s atmosphere, its buoyancy effect is often considered to be negligibly small. It is thus overlooked in studies of climate and large-scale dynamics. However, the principal investigator (PI) has recently shown that cold air rises in the tropical free troposphere due to this buoyancy effect of water vapor – a finding that calls for greater attention on the topic. Hence, to advance our understanding of vapor buoyancy, the work will investigate how vapor buoyancy affects temperature, clouds, and circulation in the tropical atmosphere. This project will help mitigate the uncertainty surrounding future climate change and improve the representation of vapor buoyancy in climate models. Additionally, the project will create new college course materials and establish an education program that provide active learning experiences for high school and university students in the Sacramento area, who are mostly from underrepresented groups. The project will test the hypothesis that vapor buoyancy warms the dry regions of the tropical atmosphere, which can subsequently affect outgoing longwave radiation, static stability, cloud distribution and, thereby, climate sensitivity. The research approach includes analyzing satellite observations, performing numerical simulations of varying complexity, and diagnosing state-of-art climate simulations. The education program will improve teaching on atmosphere and climate at both the university and K-12 levels by implementing hands-on rotating tank experiments. For university students, the PI will develop new course modules and class projects on how water vapor influences large-scale circulations, complementing existing materials that mainly focus on dry dynamics. The PI will also organize training workshops for high-school teachers in the Sacramento area.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。与干燥空气相比，水蒸气的浮力效应源于其较低的分子质量。由于水蒸气是地球大气中的一种微量气体，它的浮力效应通常被认为是微不足道的。因此，在气候和大尺度动力学研究中，它被忽视了。然而，首席研究员(PI)最近发现，由于水蒸气的浮力效应，热带自由对流层中的冷空气上升--这一发现需要对这一主题给予更多关注。因此，为了促进我们对水蒸气浮力的理解，这项工作将研究水蒸气浮力如何影响热带大气中的温度、云和环流。该项目将有助于缓解围绕未来气候变化的不确定性，并改进气候模型中水汽浮力的表示。此外，该项目将创建新的大学课程材料，并建立一个教育计划，为萨克拉门托地区的高中生和大学生提供积极的学习体验，他们大多来自代表性不足的群体。该项目将检验这样一种假设，即水汽浮力使热带大气的干燥地区变暖，从而可能影响发出的长波辐射、静态稳定性、云分布，从而影响气候敏感性。研究方法包括分析卫星观测，执行不同复杂性的数值模拟，以及诊断最先进的气候模拟。该教育计划将通过实施实际操作的旋转水槽实验，改善大学和K-12级别的大气和气候教学。对于大学生，PI将开发关于水蒸气如何影响大范围环流的新课程模块和课程项目，补充主要关注干动力学的现有材料。PI还将为萨克拉门托地区的高中教师组织培训研讨会。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。