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CEE Seminar: Impact of Snowdarkening Effects by Light Absorbing Aerosols on Tibetan Snowcover and Subsequent Influence on the Asian Summer Monsoon: A Possible Mechanism for the Blanford Hypothesis

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Tuesday, February 12, 2019
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
William Lau, NASA-Goddard

Over a century ago, Blanford (1884) found significant relationship between snowcover in the Himalayas and the Indian monsoon, referred to in the modern era, as the Blanford Hypothesis (BH). Despite a large number of studies on the BH, the fundamental mechanisms linking the physics of snowcover, snowmelt, and monsoon dynamics remain poorly known. Here, we investigate the impact of snow darkening by deposition of light-absorbing aerosols (LAAs) on snow cover over the Himalayas-Tibetan Plateau (HTP) and subsequent influence on the Asian summer monsoon using the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System Model Version 5 (GEOS-5) that possesses improved aerosol physical package, that include detailed radiative transfer by LAAs, i.e., dust, black carbon and organic carbon, as well as emission, transport, and deposition processes in the atmosphere and in snow.....