Climate, Health, Aerosols, Radiation, and Microphysics (CHARM) Group Homepage

Biographical

Research Interests: Professor Zender is an atmospheric physicist and educator. His primary responsibilities are teaching and research. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on atmospheric physics and climate, and seminars on focused topics in physical climate. He leads the Climate, Health, Aerosols, Radiation, and Microphysics (CHARM) group at UC Irvine. The CHARM group studies the distribution and fluxes of energy and trace species in Earth's atmosphere. Theory predicts the effects of trace gases, aerosols, clouds, and surfaces on the radiative and chemical budgets of the climate system. We develop, refine, and apply theory in a hierarchy of computer models, from 0-D box microphysical models to 4-D coupled climate models. Simulations, combined with lab, field, and satellite data, help us understand (i.e., attribute and predict) the processes which alter on Earth's climate, chemistry and atmospheric composition. Our current research includes mineral dust and carbonaceous aerosols, snow/firn evolution, aerosol impacts on ocean biogeochemistry, wind-driven surface energy/mass exchange, climate-disease links, and terascale data analysis. Our aerosol, light scattering, radiative transfer, and data processing models are freely available and are used world-wide for higher education and research.

Current and Recent Research: Dr. Zender's recent research focuses on aerosol-climate interactions. He works to understand and predict wind erosion (including soil loss); mineral and nutrient re-distribution by dust; chemical, radiative, and health effects of dust; and the fundamental physics of natural aerosol mobilization, dispersal, and deposition; and snowpack, a sensitive and efficacious modulator of Earth's climate. Others consider him a modeler, though he can swear like an observationalist. He wants to participate in field experiments. Invite him and see.

People

Researchers:
• Henry Butowsky, Scientific Programmer: Efficient Data Analysis with Storage-Layer Constraints

Graduate Students:
• Scott Capps, PhD Candidate in Earth System Science: Wind Speed Variability and Drag Partitioning
• Qin Han, PhD Candidate in Earth System Science: Using Dissolved Al to Constrain Oceanic Dust Deposition
• Mike Tosca, PhD student in Earth System Science: Fire at the Intersection of Global Carbon and Water Cycles
• Daniel Wang, PhD Candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: Distributed Data Reduction and Analysis

Undergraduates:
• None currently.

Former students, post-docs, and researchers:
• Dr. Huisheng Bian (2000–2001): Postdoc in Mineral Dust & Atmospheric Chemistry. Now researcher at UMBC GEST/NASA GSFC.
• Dr. Mark Flanner (2003–2007): PhD in Aerosol↔Snow↔Climate Interactions. Now NCAR ASP Postdoc.
• Dr. Alf Grini (2002–2004): PhD in Natural Aerosol Distributions. Now researcher at U. Oslo in Norway.
• Dr. Chao Luo (2005–2006): Researcher on Aerosols and Atmospheric Chemistry.
• Dr. Harry Mangalam (2005–2006): Specialist in Scientific Computing

Research & Employment Opportunities

Undergraduates:
• Undergraduate Students interested in Global Climate Studies: (Solicitations welcome year-round)
  If you are interested in performing a summer research project or academic year independent study with our group, please contact me. See this (perennially-out-of-date) list for some sample projects.
• Undergraduate Students interested in High Performance Computing: TXT (Posted November 1, 2004, Solicitations welcome year-round)
  This undergraduate work-study position is available with our SEI project. Other work-study positions can be made available, please contact me if you are interested.

Graduate Students:
• Graduate Students interested in Global Climate Studies: (Solicitations welcome year-round, formal applications are to the ESS graduate program)
  If your research interests include the climate impacts of Aerosols, Boundary Layer Physics, Clouds, Desertification, Erosion, Microphysics, Radiative Transfer, Sea-ice, Snow, Surface Albedo, or Trace Gases, then we might find a mutually interesting research project. This (perennially-out-of-date) list will give you an idea of sample projects.
• Graduate Student Researcher and/or Postdoc in Polar Freshwater Responses to Arctic Haze: (Posted June 14, 2007. Postdoc Position Filled March 1, 2008)
  We seek a recent Ph.D. and/or a new graduate student interested in understanding and assessing the changes to the Arctic freshwater reservoirs and fluxes due to aerosol pollution. The response of glaciers, sea-ice, permafrost, and/or surface runoff to accelerated snow aging by pollution are of keen interest. Activities: Students will be trained to use the relevant CCSM component module(s) (e.g., CAM, CLM, CICE) necessary to project pollution impacts to the global scale. Qualifications: Students will have strong programming (Fortran9X and/or C) skills. Previous experience with UNIX/Linux-based computers is strongly recommended but not mandatory. Previous experience with data analysis (NCL, IDL, Matlab) is strongly recommended but not mandatory. Postdocs are expected to have previous experience designing and running numerical experiments with CCSM or an equivalent model. See the Full Advertisement and the project website for more details.
• Graduate Student Researcher and/or Postdoc in Aerosol↔Snow↔Ice Interactions: (Posted June 14, 2007. Positions Open!)
  We seek a recent Ph.D. and/or a new graduate student to help unravel the competing feedbacks which absorbing aerosols trigger and respond to in polar regions. This project involves atmospheric, land surface, and sea-ice studies. See the Full Advertisement and the project website for more details.
• Graduate Student Researcher in Computational Earth System Science: (Posted June 24, 2005. Position filled October 15, 2005))
  We seek a Ph.D. student to perform data analysis research at the intersection of computational and Earth System Science. A collaborative dissertation with colleagues in the UCI Schools of Information and Computer Sciences or Engineering is encouraged. See the project website for more details.
• Graduate Student Researcher in Atmosphere→Ocean Nutrient Deposition: (Posted January 14, 2005. Position filled March 15, 2005)
  We seek a Ph.D. student to simulate and constrain the global atmospheric deposition of nutrients and tracers to the ocean. See the project website for more details.

Full Time Research and/or Programming:
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Earth System Modeling: PDF TXT (Solicitations welcome year-round)
  We seek researchers interested in using global models and pertinent data to improve our understanding of the impact of natural aerosols (mineral dust, seasalt, biogenic, volcanic) on Earth's climate system. This position is not funded. Applicants will obtain the majority of the required funding themselves and through joint proposals with us.
• Postdoctoral Researcher in Large-Scale Earth System Science Visualization: PDF (Posted December 15, 2004. Position converted to full-time researcher and filled, April 1, 2006)
  The Calit2 Center of Gravity and the Earth System Modeling Facility (ESMF) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) invite applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher in the general area of large-scale data visualization. This collaborative research project is supported by Calit2 and is aimed at the development of new visualization algorithms and techniques, enabling the real-time visualization and steering of Earth system model simulations. Particular application areas include visualization and interactive control of fast timescale small spatial scale and slow timescale large spatial scale environmental changes, e.g., dust storms and global warming, respectively.
• Scientific Programming Specialist in Earth System Modeling: PDF TXT (Posted March 1, 2004. Position re-opened November 15, 2004. Position filled December 10, 2004.)
  This position requires someone with strong modeling skills to work on coupled climate studies and fill the role of head Earth System Modeling Facility programmer.
• Scientific Programming Specialist in Distributed Data Reduction & Analysis: PDF TXT (Posted August 25, 2004, Position filled January 14, 2004))
  We seek a full-time programmer to implement and oversee innovative techniques in distributed data analysis and reduction. This position is the lead software engineer in a three year NSF-funded research project to make analyzing distributed datasets easy and fast for the practicing geophysicist. The project involves exciting software technologies, and collaborations (i.e., some travel is involved) with other supercomputer centers. See the project website for more details.

Current Projects

Current Projects and Homepages: Our group leads or plays a co-investigative role in these sponsored projects:
• “Snow Process Studies and Modeling to Improve Arctic Climate Prediction”
  This project aims to reduce uncertainties of key microphysical processes that affect ice-albedo feedback, to identify model-dependent and model-robust responses to these processes, and to assess the efficacy of BC reduction strategies to mitigate polar climate change. Our scientific questions include: 1. How do surface hoar and melt/freeze cycles interact in diurnal and seasonal features in Arctic snowpack specific surface area and reflectance? 2. What are the relative efficacies of aerosol- and GHG-driven snow forcing on land and on sea-ice? 3. Could plausible LAC emissions reductions significantly mitigate Arctic climate change? These questions will be addressed in pre-industrial, present day, and next century contexts. The results will improve understanding of ice-albedo feedbacks crucial to Arctic climate and climate change. Observational data for process evaluation will come from the snow physics and chemistry measurements of Dr. Florent Dominé and others at LGGE (where I am on sabbatical from 20070815—20080715) and from field programs including POLARCAT. Opportunities to join this research are described here and here. Sponsor: NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP), Division of Arctic Sciences (ARC), Arctic Natural Sciences (ANS) Program and Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), Division of Atmospheric Sciences (ATM), Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics (CLD) Program ARC-0714088
• “Black Carbon Impacts on Cryospheric Climate Sensitivity and Surface Hydrology”
  This project examines how BC aerosol impacts polar climate. Our objectives are to 1. Quantify how timing and location of BC emissions affect Arctic surface reflectance and atmospheric processes. 2. Identify the relative roles of surface and atmospheric BC forcing on Arctic climate sensitivity (including glacier and sea-ice responses). 3. Quantify how BC alters seasonality of Arctic surface freshwater reservoirs and fluxes such as snowpack depth and extent, depth to permafrost, soil moisture, and runoff. Observational data for process evaluation will come from AMSR-E, CERES, GRACE, MISR, and MODIS satellites and from field programs including POLARCAT. This work is joint with Professor Jay Famiglietti's group and Professor Jim Randerson's group. Opportunities to join this research are described here and here. Sponsor: NASA Earth Science Enterprise (ESE) Cryospheric Sciences Program (CSP) International Polar Year (IPY) Program, NASA NNX07AR23G.
• “Collaborative Research: Fire at the Intersection of Global Carbon and Water Cycles”
  This project aims to increase understanding and improve model representation of the global effects of fire on climate and the biosphere. This is a large, multi-institutional, four-year project led at UCI by Professor Jim Randerson's group. The other lead institutions are NCAR and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Our group will lead studies of the radiative effects of biomass burning aerosols, as direct and semi-direct radiative atmospheric constituents, and as impurities which darken surface albedo in snow- and ice-covered regions. Sponsor: NSF Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), Division of Atmospheric Sciences (ATM), Biocomplexity in the Environment (BE) Program ATM-0628637
• “Global Atmospheric Nutrient Deposition and Ocean Biogeochemistry”
  This joint project with Professor Keith Moore's group will examine the influence of atmospheric nutrient inputs on ocean ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling. Our group is using dissolved Aluminum concentration (a crustal tracer) to refine the depositional input of dust to the Ocean. Other nutrient inputs, including nitrogen, come from our chemical transport model which is coupled to an inorganic aerosol thermodynamic equilibrium model. Sponsor: NSF Directorate for Geosciences (GEO), Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE), Chemical Oceanography (CO) Program OCE-0452972
• “SEI(GEO): Scientific Data Operators Optimized for Distributed Interactive and Batch Analysis of Tera-Scale Geophysical Data”
  This project will design, and implement novel advanced methods for distributed data analysis and reduction (DDRA) of climate (and other geophysical) data. Sponsor: NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (IIS), Science and Engineering Informatics (SEI) Program IIS-0431203

Collaborative Projects and Homepages: Our group participates in the following sponsored projects:
• “HIPerWall: A High-Performance Visualization System for Collaborative Earth System Sciences”
  The UCI Center of GRAVITY designed this facility to complement the ESMF. Our group feeds the HIPerWall with terascale Earth System simulations which can be efficiently explored with cutting edge visualization systems. In the future, we hope to implement feedbacks (called computational steering) from the visualization into the running models. Sponsor: NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS), Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) Program CNS-0421554

Pictures

• March 23, 2007: Death-defying modelers conquer the UCI Ropes Course.

CheatSheets

Courses Taught

ESS 5: The Atmosphere

ESS 11: Climate Change and Policy

ESS 200B: Earth System Physics

ESS 204B: The Planetary Boundary Layer

ESS 236: Radiative Processes & Remote Sensing

ESS 282: Topics in Climate: Aerosol-Cloud-Climate Interactions

ESS 286: Topics in Biogeochemistry: Chemistry, Composition, and Climate

Aerosols

Group Publications

Wang, D. L., C. S. Zender, and S. F. Jenks (2007), Server-side parallel data reduction and analysis, in Advances in Grid and Pervasive Computing, Second International Conference, GPC 2007, Paris, France, May 2–4, 2007, Proceedings. IEEE Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 4459, edited by C. Cérin and K.-C. Li, pp. 744–750, Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg. BibTeX PDF (© 2007 by Springer-Verlag)

Capps, S. B., and C. S. Zender (2007), Observed and CAM3 GCM Sea Surface Wind Speed Distributions: Characterization, Comparison, and Bias Reduction, Submitted to J. Climate. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JCL)

Zender, C. S. (2008), Analysis of Self-describing Gridded Geoscience Data with netCDF Operators (NCO), In Press in Environ. Modell. Softw., doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2008.03.004. BibTeX PDF (CSZ)

Han, Q., J. K. Moore, C. S. Zender, C. Measures, and D. Hydes (2008), Constraining Oceanic Dust Deposition Using Surface Ocean Dissolved Al, Global Biogeochem. Cycles, 22, GB2003, doi:10.1029/2007GB002975. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (GBC)

Zender, C. S., C. Folland, M. Dubey, and P. Chýlek (2007), The Second International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age, Submitted to Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc.. BibTeX PDF

Flanner, M. G., C. S. Zender, J. T. Randerson, and P. J. Rasch (2007), Present-Day Climate Forcing and Response from Black Carbon in Snow, J. Geophys. Res., 112(D11), D11202, doi:10.1029/2006JD008003. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2006 by the AGU)

Zender, C. S., and H. J. Mangalam (2007), Scaling Properties of Common Statistical Operators for Gridded Datasets, Int. J. High Perform. Comput. Appl., 21(4), 485–498, doi:10.1177/1094342007083802. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (IJHPCA) (© 2007 by SAGE Publications)

Luo, C., C. S. Zender, H. Bian, and S. Metzger (2007), Role of ammonia chemistry and coarse mode aerosols in global climatological inorganic aerosol distributions, Atmos. Environmen., 41(12), 2510–2533. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (Atm. Env.) (© 2006 Elsevier Ltd.)

Flanner, M. G., and C. S. Zender (2006), Linking Snowpack Microphysics and Albedo Evolution, J. Geophys. Res., 111(D12), D12208, doi:10.1029/2005JD006834. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2006 by the AGU) Poster

Zender, C. S., and J. Talamantes (2006), Climate controls on valley fever incidence in Kern County, California, Int. J. Biometeorol., 59(3), 174–182, doi:10.1007/s00484-005-0007-6. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (IJB) (© 2005 by International Society for Biometeorology) Poster

Zender, C. S., and J. Talamantes (2006), Solar Absorption by Mie Resonances in Cloud Droplets, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer, 98(1), 122–129, doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2005.05.084. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JQSRT) (© 2005 by Elsevier Ltd.)

Zender, C. S. and E. Y. Kwon (2005), Regional Contrasts in Dust Emission Responses to Climate, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D13201, doi:10.1029/2004JD005501. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2005 by the AGU) Poster

Flanner, M. G., and C. S. Zender (2005), Snowpack Radiative Heating: Influence on Tibetan Plateau Climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32(6), L06501, doi:10.1029/2004GL022076. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (GRL) (© 2005 by the AGU) (Erratum: Figure 3 caption in GRL version reverses top and bottom panel descriptions) Poster

Zender, C. S., R. Miller, and I. Tegen (2004), Quantifying Mineral Dust Mass Budgets: Terminology, Constraints, and Current Estimates, Eos Trans. AGU, 85(48), 509–512. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (Eos) (© 2004 by the AGU)

Grini, A., and C. S. Zender (2004), Roles of saltation, sandblasting, and wind speed variability on mineral dust aerosol size distribution during the Puerto Rican Dust Experiment (PRIDE), J. Geophys. Res., 109(D7), D07202, doi:10.1029/2003JD004233. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2004 by the AGU)

Bian, H., and C. S. Zender (2004), Heterogeneous impact of dust on tropospheric ozone: Sensitivity to season, species, and uptake rates, Submitted to J. Geophys. Res.. BibTeX PDF (CSZ)

Bian, H., and C. S. Zender (2003), Mineral dust and global tropospheric chemistry: Relative roles of photolysis and heterogeneous uptake, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D21), 4672, doi:10.1029/2002JD003143. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2003 by the AGU)

Zender, C. S., D. Newman, and O. Torres (2003), Spatial Heterogeneity in Aeolian Erodibility: Uniform, Topographic, Geomorphic, and Hydrologic Hypotheses, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D17), 4543, doi:10.1029/2002JD003039. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2003 by the AGU) Poster

Zender, C. S., H. Bian, and D. Newman (2003), Mineral Dust Entrainment And Deposition (DEAD) model: Description and 1990s dust climatology, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D14), 4416, doi:10.1029/2002JD002775. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2003 by the AGU) (Errata in JGR version: Equation 1b parenthetical expression (1-0.858...) should be squared. Equation 10 final factor (1+u*t/u*) should be squared.)

Grini, A., C. S. Zender, and P. Colarco (2002), Saltation sandblasting behavior during mineral dust aerosol production, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(18), 1868, doi:10.1029/2002GL015248. BibTeX PDF (JGR) (© 2002 by the AGU)

Zender, C. S. (1999), Global climatology of abundance and solar absorption of oxygen collision complexes, J. Geophys. Res., 104(D25), 24471–24484. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 1999 by the AGU)

Zender, C. S., Brett Bush, Shelly K. Pope, Anthony Bucholtz, William D. Collins, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Francisco P. J. Valero, and John Vitko, Jr. (1997), Atmospheric absorption during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Enhanced Shortwave Experiment (ARESE), J. Geophys. Res., 102(D25), 29901–29915. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 1997 by the AGU)

Zender, C. S. and J. T. Kiehl (1997), Sensitivity of climate simulations to radiative effects of tropical anvil structure, J. Geophys. Res., 102(D20), 23793–23803. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 1997 by the AGU) (Erratum: JGR version lacks important grayscales in Figures 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 13)

Zender, C. S. (1996), Representation of Tropical Cirrus Anvil in Climate Models, Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Astro., Plan., and Atmos. Sci., Univ. of Colorado, pp. 138. (© 1996 by me) BibTeX PDF (CSZ)

Zender, C. S. and J. T. Kiehl (1994) Radiative sensitivities of tropical anvils to small ice crystals, J. Geophys. Res., 99(D12), 25869–25880. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 1994 by the AGU)

Collaborations with Other Groups:

Reyerson, P., M. S. Blinnikov, A. J. Busacca, D. R. Gaylord, R. Rupp, M. R. Sweeney, and C. S. Zender (2008), Phytolith Concentration and Morphotypes in Modern Soils of the Columbia Basin, USA as Indicators of Vegetation Composition and Cover, Submitted to J. Arid Env.. BibTeX PDF

McConnell, J. R., P. R. Edwards, G. L. Kok, M. G. Flanner, C. S. Zender, E. S. Saltzman, J. R. Banta, D. R. Pasteris, M. M. Carter, and J. D. W. Kahl (2007), 20th Century Industrial Black Carbon Emissions Altered Arctic Climate Forcing, Science, 317(5843), 1381–1384, doi:10.1126/science.1144856. BibTeX PDF (Science) (© 2007 by the AAAS)

Krishnamurthy, A., J. K. Moore, C. S. Zender, and C. Luo (2007), Effects of Atmospheric Inorganic Nitrogen Deposition on Ocean Biogeochemistry, J. Geophys. Res., 112, G02019, doi:10.1029/2006JG000334. BibTeX PDF (© 2007 by the AGU)

Talamantes, J., S. Behseta, and C. S. Zender (2007), Fluctuations in Climate and Incidence of Coccidioidomycosis in Kern County, California: a review, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 1111, 73–82, doi:10.1196/annals.1406.028. BibTeX PDF (ANYAS) (© 2006 by the New York Academy of Sciences)

Randerson, J. T., H. Liu, M. G. Flanner, S. D. Chambers, Y. Jin, P. G. Hess, G. Pfister, M. C. Mack, K. K. Treseder, L. R. Welp, F. S. Chapin, J. W. Harden, M. L. Goulden, E. Lyons, J. C. Neff, E. A. G. Schuur and C. S. Zender (2006), The Impact of Boreal Forest Fire on Climate Warming, Science, 314, 1130—1133, doi:10.1126/science.1132075. BibTeX PDF (Science) (© 2006 by the AAAS)

Talamantes, J., S. Behseta, and C. S. Zender (2007), Statistical Modeling of Valley Fever Data in Kern County, California, Int. J. Biometeorol., 51(4), 307–313, doi:10.1007/s00484-006-0065-4. BibTeX PDF PDF (IJB) (© 2006 by the International Society for Biometeorology)

Washington, R., M. C. Todd, G. Lizcano, I. Tegen, C. Flamant, I. Koren, P. Ginoux, S. Engelstaedter, C. S. Bristow, C. S. Zender, A. S. Goudie, A. Warren, J. M. Prospero (2006), Links between topography, wind, deflation, lakes and dust: The case of the Bodélé Depression, Chad, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33(9), L09401, doi:10.1029/2006GL025827. BibTeX

Yoshioka, M., N. M. Mahowald, A. J. Conley, W. D. Collins, D. W. Fillmore, C. S. Zender and D. B. Coleman (2007), Impact of Desert Dust Radiative Forcing on Sahel Precipitation: Relative importance of dust compared to sea surface temperature variations, vegetation changes and greenhouse gas warming, J. Climate, 20(8), 1445–1467, doi:10.1175/JCLI4056.1. BibTeX

Mahowald, N. M., D. Muhs, S. Levis, P. Rasch, M. Yoshioka, C. S. Zender, and C. Luo (2006), Change in atmospheric mineral aerosols in response to climate: last glacial period, preindustrial, modern, and doubled carbon dioxide climates, J. Geophys. Res., 111(D10), doi:10.1029/2005JD006653. BibTeX

Cakmur, R. V., R. L. Miller, J. Perlwitz, D. Koch, I. V. Geogdzhayev, P. Ginoux, I. Tegen, and C. S. Zender (2006), Constraining the Magnitude of the Global Dust Cycle by Minimizing the Difference Between a Model and Observations, J. Geophys. Res., 111(D6), D06207, doi:10.1029/2005JD005791. BibTeX

Grini, A., G. Myhre, C. S. Zender, and I. S. A. Isaksen (2005), Model simulations of dust sources and transport in the global troposphere, J. Geophys. Res., 110(D2), D02205, doi:10.1029/2004JD005037. BibTeX PDF (CSZ) PDF (JGR) (© 2005 by the AGU)

Ammann, C. M., G. A. Meehl, W. M. Washington, and C. S. Zender (2003), A Monthly and Latitudinally Varying Volcanic Forcing Dataset in Simulations of 20th Century Climate, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(12), 1657, doi:10.1029/2003GL016875. PDF (GRL) (© 2003 by the AGU)

Mahowald, N. M., C. Luo, J. del Corral, and C. S. Zender (2003), Interannual variability in Atmospheric Mineral Aerosols from a 22-year Model Simulation and Observational Data, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D12), 4352, doi:10.1029/2002JD002821. PDF (JGR) (© 2003 by the AGU)

Mahowald, N. M., C. S. Zender, C. Luo, D. Savoie, O. Torres, and J. del Corral (2002), Understanding the 30 year Barbados desert dust record, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D21), 4561, doi:10.1029/2002JD002097. PDF (JGR) (© 2002 by the AGU)

Collins, W. D., P. J. Rasch, B. E. Eaton, D. W. Fillmore, J. T. Kiehl, C. T. Beck, and C. S. Zender (2002), Simulation of Aerosol Distributions and Radiative Forcing for INDOEX: Regional Climate Impacts, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D19), 8028, doi:10.1029/2000JD000032. PDF (JGR) (© 2002 by the AGU)

Yu, S., C. S. Zender, and V. K. Saxena (2001), Direct radiative forcing and atmospheric absorption by boundary layer aerosol in the southeastern US: model estimates on the basis of new observations, Atm. Env., 35, 3967–3977. PDF (© 2001 by Pergamon Press)

Collins, W. D., P. J. Rasch, B. E. Eaton, B. Khattatov, J.-F. Lamarque, and C. S. Zender (2001), Forecasting aerosols using a chemical transport model with assimilation of satellite aerosol retrievals: Methodology for INDOEX, J. Geophys. Res., 106(D7), 7313–7336. PDF (JGR) (© 2001 by the AGU)

Cess, Robert D., Minghua Zhang, Francisco P. J. Valero, Shelly K. Pope, Anthony Bucholtz, Brett Bush, Charles S. Zender, John Vitko, Jr. (1999), Absorption of solar radiation by the cloudy atmosphere: Further interpretations of collocated aircraft measurements J. Geophys. Res., 104(D2), 2059–2066. PDF (JGR) (© 1999 by the AGU)

Extended Abstracts

Wang, D. L., C. S. Zender, and S. F. Jenks (2007), DAP-enabled Server-side Data Reduction and Analysis, Proceedings of the 23rd AMS Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, Paper 3B.2., January 14–18, San Antonio, TX. American Meteorological Society, AMS Press, Boston, MA. (© 2007 by me) PDF

Zender, C. S., J. Talamantes, and S. Behseta (2007), Does Climate Control Valley Fever Incidence in California?, Proceedings of the 16th AMS Conference on Applied Climatology, Paper 2.2, January 14–18, San Antonio, TX. American Meteorological Society, AMS Press, Boston, MA. (© 2007 by me) PDF

Zender, C. S., and D. L. Wang (2007), High performance distributed data reduction and analysis with the netCDF Operators (NCO), Proceedings of the 23rd AMS Conference on Interactive Information and Processing Systems (IIPS) for Meteorology, Oceanography, and Hydrology, Paper 3B.4., January 14–18, San Antonio, TX. American Meteorological Society, AMS Press, Boston, MA. (© 2007 by me) PDF

Zender, C. S. and D. J. Newman, Simulated Global Atmospheric Dust Distribution: Sensitivity to Regional Topography, Geomorphology, and Hydrology. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Aeolian Research (ICAR5) and Global Change & Terrestrial Ecosystem-Soil Erosion Network (GCTE-SEN) joint meeting, Lubbock, TX, July 22–25, 2002. (© 2002 by me) PDF

Zender, C. S., Radiative Forcing by Mineral Dust, Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Mineral Dust, Boulder CO, June 9–11, 1999. (© 1999 by me) PDF

Zender, C. S. and Petr Chýlek, A Global Climatology of O2-O2, O2-N2, and (H2O)2 Abundance and Absorption, Proceedings of the Eighth Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Science Team Meeting, Tucson, AZ, March 23–27, 1998. (© 1998 by me) PDF

Posters

Zender, C. S., H. J. Mangalam, and D. L. Wang: Improving Scaling Properties of Common Statistical Operators for Gridded Geoscience Datasets. Presented to the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 5–9, 2006. PDF

Flanner, M., C. S. Zender, J. Randerson, and P. J. Rasch: Present Day Climate Forcing and Response from Black Carbon in Snow, presented to the 11th Annual CCSM Workshop, Breckenridge, CO, June 20–22, 2006. PDF

Zender, Charles S., David J. Newman, and Omar Torres: Spatial Heterogeneity in Aeolian Erodibility: Uniform, Topographic, Geomorphic, and Hydrologic Hypotheses, presented to the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 10–14, 2002. PDF

Monographs: Freely Available Community Texts (FACTs)

Enhanced Absorption Bibliography

Seminars

Accounting for Fire Injection Height in Climate Studies. Presented to the Fire/Carbon/Water workgroup at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO, May 29, 2007. PDF

Pretty, Nasty, Weather. Presented to the Vista Verde Elementary School First Grade Assembly, Irvine, California, February 21, 2007. PDF

High performance distributed data reduction and analysis with the netCDF Operators (NCO). Presented to the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, January 14–18, 2007. PDF

Does Climate Control Valley Fever Incidence in California?. Presented to the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, January 14–18, 2007. PDF

Climate Effects and Efficacy of Dust and Soot in Snow. Presented to the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 5–9, 2006. PDF

Arctic Melt. Presented to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, UC Irvine, California, October 31, 2006. PDF

Present and Last Glacial Climate Effects of Dust and Soot in Snow. Presented to the Climate and Global Dynamics (CGD) Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO, October 3, 2006. PDF

Snowpack-Mediated Aerosol-Climate Interactions. Presented to the Global Warming and the Next Ice Age Conference, Santa Fe, NM, July 17–19, 2006. PDF

Sunlight, Clouds, and Climate. Presented to the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute UC Irvine, California, November 18, 2005. PDF

The Sun and Climate. Presented to the FOCUS Summer Science Institute, UC Irvine, California, August 1, 2005. PDF

Distributed Data Reduction and Analysis: An Overview with Applications to Californian Climate and Energy Demand. Presented to the Calit2 SURF-IT Program, Irvine, CA, August 23, 2005. PDF

Regional Contrasts in Soil Dust Emission Responses to Climate. Presented to the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS), Beijing, China, August 10, 2005. PDF

Scientific Software

Tarballs available with (sometimes minimal) documentation:

CRM: CCM3 Column Radiation Model (used in Zender, 1999, and others)

DEAD: Dust Entrainment and Deposition Model (documented and used in Zender et al., 2003, and others)

IBP: Itty Bitty Processor, and IDL netCDF dataset viewer and analyzer for global GCM data

NCO: netCDF Operators

SNG: Fortran9X/200X string manipulation and GNU/POSIX-style getopt_long() command line processing

SWNB2: Shortwave Narrow Band (column radiation) Model (documented and used in Zender et al., 1997, Zender, 1999, Valero et al., 2003)

Custom-made distributions available with (sometimes minimal) documentation:

mie: Mie scattering processor (algorithms of Wiscombe, 1979 and Bohren and Huffman, 1983; used in Zender et al., 1997, Grini et al., 2002, Zender et al., 2003, Flanner and Zender, 2005, Zender and Talamantes, 2006, Ammann et al., 2005)

Habit Preserving Microphysical Cirrus Cloud Model (documented and used in Zender and Kiehl, 1994, Zender and Kiehl, 1997)

Solar spectrum processor (documented in Labs and Neckel, 1968; Thekeakara and Drummond, 1971; Kurucz 1995; used in Zender et al., 1997, Zender, 1999)

Solar geometry routines (documented in Michalsky, 1988; used in Zender et al., 1997, Zender, 1999)

Multiple level single band two stream radiation model (Toon et al., 1989)

 

The Journey to Now

[Written third person to assist over-worked, under-thanked, seminar organizers and the fourth estate. Feel free to abridge.]

Dr. Zender discovered his passion for scientific challenges, intellectual history, and poorly conceived pranks during the 1981 Summer Science Program in Ojai, CA, after his junior year in high school. (Although Carlmont inspired the movie “Dangerous Minds”, it had (has?) fantastic programs in Mathematics, Mountaineering, and Trivia). Zender entered Harvard University in 1982, with financial support from his monied, conservative East Coast establishment family (NOT!) and a Thomas J. Watson Scholarship from IBM. He earned his AB in Physics in 1990. You do the math. While in Cambridge Zender gave weekly sky tours at the Loomis-Michael Observatory, sold Amiga computers, and worked in the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Astronomy sparked his continuing interests in atmospheric radiative transfer. He lived in an environmentally friendly co-op, the Center for High Energy Metaphysics, where applied his cooking skills to help save the Earth. Eventually salvaging banana bread from leprotic bananas, selling Amiga Computers, and exploring The Enchanted Broccoli Forest every week, left him (and fellow co-op'ers) wanting more fulfilling fare. Dr. Zender found the field of his dreams, Atmospheric Physics in the last semester of his eight-year, three-major undergraduate odyssey. He taught Math and Physics for a year at the College of the Atlantic then entered the Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his then-future wife visited India in 1995 and experienced how severe air pollution alters regional climate and health. Zender wrote his thesis, “The Representation of Tropical Cirrus Anvils in Climate Models”, in the Climate Modeling Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and earned a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences in 1996. He stayed at NCAR for three more years, doing postdoctoral research in the Advanced Studies Program and the Atmospheric Chemistry Division. He collaborated with NCAR's Climate and Global Dynamics Division as an affiliate scientist from 2000–2006. Dr. Zender joined the Earth System Science Department at UC Irvine in September, 1999.

Activism

Some popular depictions of the effects of humans on the environment are accurate and powerful while others are science fiction. Think “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Day After Tomorrow” (reviewed here). How can we protect the environment from assaults such as air pollution and (usually well-intentioned) mis-information?

Personal Activism: We must make educated personal choices that minimize our environmental impact. I hope we all choose to become “carbon neutral”—to sequester as much (or more) CO2 as we emit. Our challenge as individuals is to live consistently with this goal. An easy way to begin is to change your living areas from incandescent to compact fluorescent lighting (CFL). This is a “no regrets” action—you get the same amount of light, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and cut your electricity bills. Other concrete steps you can take are listed here.

Less “in your own backyard” but equally important are environmental policies often decided in Washington. There are too many issues to follow individually so I rely on NGOs to notify me when issues I may care about are on the line. Organizations that distribute worthwhile action alerts include Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS)

Professional Activism: Occasionally I help translate climate science into climate policy. It is difficult to know with confidence how this process starts and what it achieves societally. But participating does sharpen one's awareness to policy-relevant science. My professional participation has taken three forms: IPCC reviewing, congressional testimony, and policy-oriented workshops.

Hundreds if not thousands of scientists produce the sexennial Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change assessments. I helped review various chapters of IPCC Working Group I's contribution to the third and fourth IPCC assessment reports (TAR and AR4, respectively). The TAR made it clear to me that such reviewing can be tedious so I applied (but was not accepted) to help draft (rather than review) AR4. I will likely apply again to participate more actively in AR5.

The IPCC was awarded half the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Partially as a result, the 2007 IPCC report had much more influence than I think anyone expected. The evidence for and urgency about climate change has become undeniable largely thanks to the IPCC reports.

On 18 October 2007 I testified (oral, written) about the role of black carbon (BC) aerosol on Arctic climate to the Oversight and Government Reform Committee (OGRC) of the United States House of Representatives in Washington, DC. This was a fascinating and worthwhile experience. Interestingly, this hearing was largely due to the efforts of a “squeakly wheel” (activist) with a clear message. He built a relationship over years with the receptive Congressman who finally organized the hearing. A dedicated individual can make a tremendous difference!

With the battle for public opinion over the reality of climate change nearly won, climate scientists are more frequently organizing and participating in policy-related workshops. The Short-lived Pollutants and Arctic Climate (SPAC) workshop series is a good example. After two days of discussing the recent science on Arctic warming, we formulated a consensus of “actionable” policy recommendations.

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