College Park, MD 20740
Abstract
Variability in precipitation exhibits large-scale coherence
on a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. Adequate
understanding of the causes and consequences of these variations on
continental to global scales must be based on consistent datasets
describing the temporal and spatial behavior of precipitation over the
entire globe, including the oceans. Such analyses are essential to
understanding the behavior of the Earths climate system and to
determining future water resource and water supply requirements.
Since no single source of information can provide us with the accuracy
and coverage required to provide such analyses, a number of methods
have been developed to combine information from a variety of sources
and to construct time series of analyses of precipitation for a number
of time periods, scales and domains. I will describe the various
sources of information and methods used to create global analyses of
precipitation and will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the
resulting products. Methods used to validate the integrated analyses
will be presented, along with comparisons against global weather and
climate model predictions and simulations.
About the Speaker
Dr. Arkin is Director of the Cooperative Institute for
Climate and Satellites (CICS) at the Earth System Science
Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC) of the University of Maryland, where
he also serves as Deputy Director and Senior Research Scientist. He
conducts research into the observation and analysis of precipitation
and other aspects of the hydrological cycle of the global climate
system in addition to his administrative duties. Until January 2002,
he served as Program Manager for Climate Dynamics and Experimental
Prediction in the Office of Global Programs at NOAA, where he managed
the Applied Research Centers that provide the research and development
that enable NOAA to provide better climate forecasts. From 1998-2000,
he served as the Deputy Director of the International Research
Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) at Columbia University. He
spent 25 years working at NOAA as a research scientist and
administrator in various parts of the climate community, including the
Climate Prediction Center, the Office of Global Programs and the
National Centers for Environmental Prediction. He invented the GOES
Precipitation Index, a method for estimating rainfall from
geostationary satellite observations, and created the Global
Precipitation Climatology Project and led it from 1985-1994. His B.S.
in mathematics and M.S. and Ph.D. in meteorology are from the
University of Maryland. Dr. Arkin has published more than 60 refereed
papers in scientific journals, 25 atlases and chapters in books, and
has had more than 125 non-refereed publications. He has served as a
member of many national and international scientific panels, and has
presented invited papers at more than 100 workshops and scientific
meetings.
Parking is free but a visitor parking permit is required. Please let Kim Swieringa (kim.swieringa@pnl.gov) know if you will be driving and need a visitor permit.
