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SUMMARY:Climate Challenges - Prof. Rowan Suttion\, University of Reading. 
 Prof. Seymour Laxon\, University College London. Dr Phillip Goodwin\, Univ
 ersity of Cambridge. Prof. David Fowler\, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
 .
DTSTART:20121018T130000Z
DTEND:20121018T163000Z
UID:TALK40841@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Alex Archibald
DESCRIPTION:Please join us for this special CCfCS symposium which focuses 
 on a range of Climate Challenges.\n\n*David Fowler.*\n_Challenges in predi
 cting the feedbacks between Biosphere-Atmosphere exchange of trace gases a
 nd climate._\nThe surface –atmosphere exchange of many of the trace gase
 s at the heart of environmental issues (CH<sub>4</sub>\, O<sub>3</sub>\, N
 O\, NO<sub>2</sub>\, NH<sub>3</sub>\, HNO<sub>3</sub>) are very sensitive 
 to changes in climate\, either through changes in the partitioning of sens
 ible and latent heat at the surface or directly through the effect of surf
 ace temperature and moisture on biological activity. These interactions ha
 ve the potential to generate important feedbacks in the Earth system and y
 et current chemistry–climate models have simplistic schemes to simulate 
 the exchange processes.\nThe challenge is to incorporate sufficient unders
 tanding of the process into ES models and by bringing them into line with 
 current understanding\, to quantify\ncredible feedbacks over the coming de
 cades.\n\n*Rowan Sutton.*\n_Challenges in understanding and predicting reg
 ional climate change._\nThe behaviour\, in the recent past and near future
 \, of Earth’s mean surface air temperature\, whilst still subject to som
 e significant uncertainties\, is quite well understood.  By contrast\, und
 erstanding and predicting the behaviour of climate on regional and smaller
  scales is vastly more challenging.  Yet it is information about these sca
 les that is urgently required to inform the development cost-effective ada
 ptation strategies. This talk will discuss the challenges involved in unde
 rstanding and predicting regional climate change\, and illustrate some rec
 ent areas of progress. The key role of numerical climate simulators – of
 ten known as climate models – will be highlighted\, including the strate
 gies used to assess the trustworthiness of these tools.\n\n*Phil Goodwin.*
 \n_Challenges in understanding and predicting climate change on thousand y
 ear timescales._\nUnderstanding and predicting the effects of carbon emiss
 ions on Earth’s climate over the next 100 years is of pressing importanc
 e to society. However\, the impacts of today’s carbon emissions will not
  be confined to the next century\, but will instead last for many thousand
 s of years. This talk will discuss the challenges involved in understandin
 g and predicting the impact of today’s carbon emissions on climate varia
 bles a thousand years from now. The climate variables considered will be m
 ean surface air-temperatures\, mean ocean temperatures and the component o
 f sea level rise due to thermal expansion. Recent theory and climate model
  output will be highlighted\, suggesting that a thousand years from now bo
 th warming and sea level rise will be nearly linearly linked to the total 
 amount of carbon emitted during the present fossil fuel era.\n\n*Seymour L
 axon.*\n_Challenges in understanding current and future changes in the Ear
 th’s polar ice masses._\nIn September 2012 the Arctic sea ice extent min
 imum crashed through the previous record in 2007. This rate of decline\, m
 uch faster than predicted by models\, may be due an inadequate representat
 ion of the feedbacks and processes. The contributions of ice sheets to sea
  level rise in the last IPCC excluded the effects of climate dynamics and 
 current estimates of ice sheet mass balance vary considerably. Due to the 
 inhospitable nature of the polar regions large scale synoptic measurements
  of changes in the polar ice masses can only be obtained from satellites. 
 We will present the most recent observations of changes in the polar ice u
 sing state of the art satellite techniques and examine what these mean for
  the future of the Earth’s polar ice masses.
LOCATION:Pfizer  Lecture Theatre\,  Department of Chemistry
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