Tag Archives: rainfall data

Study of Patagonian Glacier’s Rise and Fall Adds to Understanding of Global Climate Change

Glaciers play a vital role in Earth’s climate system, and it’s critical to understand what contributes to their fluctuation.

Increased global temperatures are frequently viewed as the cause of glacial melt, but a new study of Patagonia’s Gualas Glacier highlights the role of precipitation in the glacier’s fluctuation. The study, conducted by Sébastien Bertrand of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and his colleagues, reconstructs a 5,400 year-record of the region’s glacial environment and climate, comparing past temperature and rainfall data with sediment records of glacier fluctuations and the historical observations of early Spanish explorers. (more…)

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Scientists Project Changes in Rainfall Patterns for Next 30 Years

Scientists at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have projected an increased frequency of heavy rainfall events, but a decrease in rainfall intensity during the next 30 years (20112040) for the southern shoreline of Oʻahu, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Chase Norton, a Meteorology Research Assistant at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at UH Mānoa, and colleagues (Professors Pao-Shin Chu and Thomas Schroeder) used a statistical model; rainfall data from rainfall gauges on Oahu, Hawaiʻi; and a suite of General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project future patterns of heavy rainfall events on Oʻahu. GCMs play a pivotal role in the understanding of climate change and associated local changes in weather. (more…)

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