Distinguished Seminar in Computational Science and Engineering

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Distinguished Seminar in Computational Science and Engineering

November 12, 2020, 12:00 PM ET

Earth System Modeling 2.0: Toward Data-Informed Climate Models With Quantified Uncertainties
Tapio Schneider​
​Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, Caltech
Senior Research Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
https://climate-dynamics.org/people/tapio-schneider/

Abstract:
While climate change is certain, precisely how climate will change is less clear. But breakthroughs in the accuracy of climate projections and in the quantification of their uncertainties are now within reach, thanks to advances in the computational and data sciences and in the availability of Earth observations from space and from the ground. I will survey the design of a new Earth system model (ESM), under development by the Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA) of Caltech, MIT, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Naval Postgraduate School.  The talk will cover key new concepts in the ESM, including turbulence, convection, and cloud parameterizations and fast and efficient algorithms for assimilating data and quantifying uncertainties through a three-step process involving calibration, emulation, and sampling.

Bio:
Tapio Schneider​ ​is the Theodore Y. Wu Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering at Caltech and a Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His work has elucidated how climate features such as rainfall and cloud cover change with climate, and how winds and weather on planetary bodies such as Jupiter and Titan come about.

With the Climate Modeling Alliance (clima.caltech.edu), he is currently building the first Earth system model that automatically learns from diverse data sources to produce accurate climate predictions. He was named one of the “20 Best Brains Under 40” by Discover Magazine, was a David and Lucile Packard Fellow and Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, and is recipient of the James R. Holton Award of the American Geophysical Union and of the Rosenstiel Award of the University of Miami.

Email kpnelson@mit.edu for Zoom details.

Earth System Modeling 2.0: Toward Data-Informed Climate Models With Quantified Uncertainties
Tapio Schneider