I will discuss why clouds are crucial to climate and climate change and why they remain one of the greatest challenge of climate science. I will first focus on the role of clouds for global climate change and the magnitude of global-mean warming. I will then discuss why the magnitude of global-mean warming is a crucial but insufficient metric for many changes at the regional scales, and highlight how clouds set regional , climate change by shaping the atmospheric circulation. Finally, I will discuss ongoing work that attempts to numerically represent the climate system at cloud-resolving scales, and how this promises to lead to both fundamental progress in solving the cloud puzzle and actionable climate science.
About the lecture series
The climate crisis is one of the fundamental challenges of our times, and it will further intensify over the next decades. Accordingly, achieving "climate neutrality by 2030" is part of the sustainability strategy of the University of Vienna. In an effort to support this goal, the Faculty of Physics is organising a series of colloquia (sponsored by the VDSP) on crucial scientific insights regarding climate change.
