"Integrating multiscale measurements and models for key climate questions", the fifth in a series of Gordon Conferences on Radiation and Clouds, will be held July 29 to August 3, 2007 at Colby Sawyer College, New London, New Hampshire. This conference will bring together, and foster discussion among, scientists studying various aspects of atmospheric radiative transfer. The conference will have a first-rate, international line-up of 22 speakers and 9 discussion leaders that will ensure continuity of the scientific excellence that has been a hallmark of Gordon Conferences for 75 years. The grant supports students, postdocs, and other young investigators as well as invited speakers and discussion leaders who will interact with the younger scientists.
Intellectual Merit The meeting will focus on insights from new types of satellite and in situ data and from new approaches to modeling processes in the climate system. The program on measurements will highlight syntheses of new satellite data on cloud, aerosols and chemistry, and syntheses of satellite and sub-orbital observations from field programs. The program on modeling will address both the evaluation of cloud-resolving and regional aerosol models using new types of measurements and the evidence for processes and physics missing from global models. The Conference will focus on two key climate questions. First, what factors govern the radiative interactions of clouds and aerosols with regional and global climate? Second, how well do we understand the interaction of radiation with land surfaces and with the cryosphere? The areas to be covered by the conference include: properties of clouds from multiple sensors; properties of aerosols from multiple sensors; new methods for synthesizing measurements and models; multi-scale models of cloud systems; regional aerosol models: simulation of "chemical weather"; the challenges of Earth system modeling; the climatic role of mixed-phase clouds; new theory and observations of cloud/aerosol interactions; modeling and measurement of the changing cryosphere.
Broader Impacts The students who participate will benefit by obtaining a better understanding of the application of measurements to modeling climate processes and simulations of the Earth system. Established researchers should benefit by an exposure to recent advances and new ideas in this field. Overall, the exchanges of ideas are expected to benefit society by encouraging further exploration and discoveries of the climate system, thereby increasing our capability for making useful predictions and assessments of anthropogenic impact on the climate system. These expectations are supported by experience from the previous GRCs on Radiation and Climate. At the 2005 meeting, for example, over 40% of the 110 attendees were graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Nearly 60% of the participants were in the early stages of their scientific careers. Over 95% of the conferees agreed that the conference was thought provoking, stimulating, and exciting and that the presentations were at the frontier of the field.
