Speaker: Lejo Flores, Professor of Geosciences, Boise State University
In the western US, seasonal snowpacks are critically important natural reservoirs of water that are declining due to climate warming. Regional climate models are important tools for alpine hydrological research but require careful configuration to appropriately represent key processes in the land-atmosphere system. Cloud microphysics schemes simulate hydrometeor evolution and control predictions of precipitation, radiation, and therefore attributes of snowpack accumulation and melt. Flores will present research evaluating how the choice of cloud microphysics scheme influences predictions of mountain snowpack evolution and report on implications for hydrologic and atmospheric research.