Weather Wonders

The stratosphere extends from about 10 to 50 kilometers above Earth's surface and plays a crucial role in regulating our climate. It contains the ozone layer, which absorbs and scatters the majority of the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. The stratosphere is also home to the polar vortex which is a large-scale circulation pattern centered near the poles, characterized by strong winds circulating around cold air masses. Disruptions in the polar vortex (such as the one happening right now above our heads!) can lead to severe weather events over Europe. Come and learn about why the stratosphere is an important part of the climate system.

Mountainous regions are large and varied and the meltwater released from glaciers drives wealth and sustains wellbeing of people especially in developing countries. These pristine regions are also among the most sensitive of all major ecosystems to climate change. Snowfall is the principal source of mass for the world’s glaciers but over the next decades increased melting will deplete up to 40% of their snow, equivalent to hundreds of cubic km of water supply in water-dependent economies. These caveats pose a global threat to the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people, but how much water the mountain cryosphere provides and how its role will change remain remarkably uncertain. Existing observations of the amount of snow and intensity of snowfall events in high-mountain regions are too sparse, small-scale, and infrequent. Although this is seen as a matter of great importance, there remains no global initiative to measure mountain water resources. This talk shall cover novel methods of measuring snowfall in these regions and give a discourse on how modern scientific tools could be deployed to forecast extreme snowfall events in remote mountainous regions where currently no weather and travel advisories are issued.