AOPP Seminar - Multiscale Physics of Earth's Clouds

Abstract: The complexity of clouds not only puzzles the casual observer but also challenges our understanding of Earth's climate system. The processes that make clouds so hard to capture span a wide range of scales, from the formation of cloud droplets on aerosol particles to shifts between cloud regimes as large-scale conditions change. At intermediate scales, cloud fields organize into mesoscale patterns. In this talk, I will describe nonlinear transitions between distinct mesoscale states and how they arise from the coupling of mesoscale processes with processes at smaller and larger scales. My examples will focus on shallow clouds and aerosol-cloud interactions. This perspective illustrates how concepts from dynamical-systems theory and stochastic physics can complement process-based atmospheric science in understanding cloud dynamics across scales