Using Hothouse Climates to Generalize Understanding of Convection, Clouds, and Circulation

利用温室气候来概括对对流、云和环流的理解

• 批准号: 2210757
• 负责人: Robin Wordsworth
• 金额: $ 39.62万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2210757&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; Hothouse; Climates; Generalize; Understanding

Convection – the turbulent motion of ascending air parcels – is one of the hardest processes to capture in global models of Earth’s atmosphere. Yet, it is critically important to our planet’s past, present, and future climate. Because Earth’s present-day convection occurs over a narrow range of conditions, to reach a deep understanding of this phenomenon, there is a strong need for additional modeling and theoretical work that probes conditions beyond our current climate. In this project, a sophisticated model that can resolve convection and cloud formation directly will be used to perform investigations over a wide range of conditions. The model results will yield new insights into climate conditions on Earth in the distant past and on other planets. Importantly, they will also be used to “stress-test” existing theories of convection and its influence on planetary climate. The research focuses on very hot atmospheres (as occurred during Earth’s distant past) that are distinguished by their high humidity. Whereas tropical air in today’s climate contains at most a few percent of water vapor, this project will simulate atmospheres that are so warm that water vapor becomes a major atmospheric constituent. It is currently unknown how cloud updraft speeds, areal coverage, and large-scale circulations such as hurricanes behave under such conditions. The research will offer a new view into the behavior of convection and climate during exotic periods of Earth’s history, such as the aftermath of global Snowball glaciation events. Such glimpses of “alien” versions of our own planet are powerful tools for piquing curiosity and drawing students into geoscience. The investigator will leverage an existing relationship with the Harvard Museum of Natural History to communicate research findings to the public and broaden engagement from the diverse populations that visit the museum.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.

对流——上升气流的湍流运动——是地球大气全球模型中最难捕捉的过程之一。然而，它对地球过去、现在和未来的气候至关重要。由于地球当前的对流发生在一个狭窄的条件范围内，为了深入了解这一现象，强烈需要额外的建模和理论工作来探索超出我们当前气候的条件。在这个项目中，一个可以直接解决对流和云形成的复杂模型将用于在广泛的条件下进行调查。该模型的结果将对遥远过去的地球和其他行星的气候状况产生新的见解。重要的是，它们还将用于“压力测试”现有的对流理论及其对行星气候的影响。这项研究的重点是非常热的大气（发生在地球遥远的过去），其特点是高湿度。鉴于今天气候中的热带空气最多只含有百分之几的水蒸气，这个项目将模拟一个非常温暖的大气，水蒸气成为大气的主要成分。目前尚不清楚云上升气流的速度、覆盖面积以及飓风等大规模环流在这种条件下的表现。这项研究将为地球历史上一些特殊时期的对流和气候行为提供一个新的视角，比如全球雪球冰川事件的后果。这种对我们自己星球的“外星”版本的一瞥是激发好奇心和吸引学生进入地球科学的有力工具。调查员将利用与哈佛自然历史博物馆的现有关系，向公众传播研究成果，并扩大参观博物馆的不同人群的参与。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Moist Convection Is Most Vigorous at Intermediate Atmospheric Humidity

潮湿对流在中等大气湿度下最强烈

• DOI: 10.3847/psj/acb0cb
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: The Planetary Science Journal
• 作者: Seeley, Jacob T.;Wordsworth, Robin D.
• 通讯作者: Wordsworth, Robin D.