Dr Jessica Lundquist, Associate Professor at the University of Washington, will speak on Cold Air Pools in Complex Terrain, on Tuesday April 10th at 2pm in Agri 2C71.
In complex terrain, air in contact with the ground becomes cooled from radiative energy loss on a calm clear night and, being denser than the free atmosphere at the same elevation, sinks to valley bottoms. Cold-air pooling (CAP) occurs where this cooled air collects on the landscape. We present an objective mapping algorithm for identifying cold-air pool locations and compare the results against distributed temperature measurements in Loch Vale, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado; in the Eastern Pyrenees, France; and in Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada, California. We then discuss the impacts of cold air pools on snow, hydrology, and ecology, both in the present day and under a changing climate.