Clouds and Climate

Dr. Zachary J. Lebo

Associate Professor, School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma

In this talk, we will explore the vital role of clouds in climate from both a radiative balance perspective and the hydrologic cycle. A cursory overview of cloud and precipitation processes, as well as how they are represented in state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and global climate models (GCMs) will be presented. A focus of this talk will be on uncertainties in microphysical processes and how they impact our ability to understand cloud and precipitation processes over long-term periods.

Bio: Dr. Lebo is an expert on cloud and precipitation processes, including their representation in numerical models of all scales. He received his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 2012, and his BS, MS in Meteorology and BS in Mathematics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2007. His prior appointments include a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Research Scientist at NOAA, and Assistant/Associate Professor at the University of Wyoming.