הסמינר השבועי של בית ספר ללימודי הסביבה ע"ש פורטר

פרופ' קולין פרייס – יישומים של נתוני ברקים במחקר של מזג אוויר ואקלים

ההרצאה בשפה העברית

תקציר:

Thunderstorms, and lightning in particular, are a major natural hazard to the public, aviation, power companies, and wildfire managers.  Lightning causes great damage and death every year, but also tells us about the inner working of storms.  Since lightning can be monitored from great distances from the storms themselves, lightning may allow us to provide early warnings for severe weather phenomena such as hail storms, flash floods, tornadoes and even hurricanes.    Lightning itself may impact the climate of the Earth by producing nitrogen oxides (NOx), a precursor of tropospheric ozone, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.  Thunderstorms themselves influence the climate system by the redistribution of heat, moisture and momentum in the atmosphere.   What about future changes in lightning and thunderstorm activity?  Many studies show that higher surface temperatures produce more lightning, but future changes will depend on what happens to the vertical temperature profile in the troposphere, as well as changes in water balance, and even aerosol loading of the atmosphere.  Finally, lightning itself may provide a useful tool for tracking climate change in the future, due to the non-linear link between lightning, temperature, upper tropospheric water vapour, and cloud cover.

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