Observed Atlantic major hurricane frequency has exhibited pronounced multidecadal variability since the 1940s. However, the cause of this variability is debated. This study explores the causes of the recent decline of Atlantic major hurricane frequency over the period 2005-2015, using various observational datasets and modeling results from a 500-year control simulation of a fully coupled earth system model, GFDL’s ESM2G. Read More…
GFDL Research Highlights
January 22nd, 2018 - Potential for Western United States Seasonal Snowpack Prediction
The majority of annual precipitation in the Western United States accumulates between October and April, falling as snow in the mountains. As a result, snow accumulation forms mountain snowpack, peaking in early spring and melting into the summer, dominating runoff and influencing lower elevation streamflow. Variations in snowpack influence warm season water supply, wildfire risk, ecology, and industries like agriculture dependent on snow and downstream water availability. Read More…
December 20th, 2017 - A New Paradigm for Diagnosing Contributions to Model Aerosol Forcing Error
Aerosol radiative forcing and its uncertainty are seen as major challenges that climate models face in reproducing observed temperature records. Climate models, such as those reporting results for the Fourth and Fifth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, exhibit a persistently large range of aerosol radiative forcing, both natural and anthropogenic. For this research, the authors carried out a systematic evaluation of the impact of radiative errors on simulated aerosol radiative effect across the diversity of aerosol distributions resulting from the same experiment, to address a persistent ambiguity in climate sensitivity. Read More…
Land surface processes modulate the severity of heat waves, droughts, and other weather extreme events. Vegetation and surface moisture conditions have been shown to impact both the severity and duration of heat wave events, as well as future aridity over land. An earth system model, GFDL’s ESM2G, was used to investigate the regional impacts of historical anthropogenic land use/land cover change (LULCC) on combined extremes of temperature and humidity Read More…
Estuaries are very important to coastal communities, both socially and economically. Estuaries are also essential links in the life cycles of numerous ecologically and economically important marine and freshwater resources. This research highlights potential future changes to the Chesapeake Bay estuarine environment. In particular, the authors look at how climate change may impact Chesapeake Bay temperature and salinity, properties that exert strong controls on marine resource habitats, as well as migration, spawning phenology, recruitment and occurrence of pathogens. Read More…
The low frequency variability in the North Atlantic Ocean temperature has been shown to exhibit various important climate impacts at global and regional scales. Understanding the physical mechanism for this low frequency variability in the North Atlantic Ocean temperature is crucial for achieving successful future predictions of North Atlantic ocean temperature and the associated climate impacts. Read More…
July 17th, 2017 - Projection of American dustiness in the late 21st century due to climate change
Mineral dust is one of the most abundant atmospheric aerosols by mass. It is lifted to the atmosphere by strong wind from dry and bare surfaces. This study identifies key factors influencing dust activity in the U.S. and uses the projected changes of these influential factors to understand dust activity in the future. Read More…
Within the United States, ground-level ozone has been recognized since the 1940s and 1950s as an air pollutant that is detrimental to public health. Ground-level ozone responds to varying global-to-regional precursor emissions and climate, with implications for designing effective U.S. air quality control policies under the lowered national air quality standard (70 ppb set in 2015). This study examines these conjoined processes with observations and global chemistry-climate model hindcasts (GFDL-AM3) over the course of 35 years, from 1980 to 2014. Read More…
January 23rd, 2017 - Reconciling Ocean Productivity and Fisheries Yields
The authors explore the complex relationship between phytoplankton production and fish, using recent critical advances in our knowledge of global patterns in fish catch and fishing effort, as well as the plankton food webs that connect phytoplankton and fish. A high-resolution global earth system model, developed at GFDL, was used to assess the potential magnitude of future changes in fish yield under climate change. This model has ten times the resolution of a typical climate model and includes comprehensive plankton dynamics. Read More…
Modeling the dynamics of marine populations at a global scale – from phytoplankton to fish – is necessary in order to quantify how climate change and other broad-scale anthropogenic actions affect the supply of marine-based food. In this study, the abundance and distribution of fish biomass in the ocean is estimated, by coupling a size-based fish food web model to retrospective ocean physics and biogeochemistry simulations covering the past 60 years. The authors focused on the spatial distribution of biomass, identifying highly productive regions – shelf seas, western boundary currents and major upwelling zones. Read More…