Summary: Observed Global Precipitation
Variability During the 20th Century
Phil Arkin and John Janowiak, Cooperative Institute
for Climate and Satellites
ESSIC, University of Maryland
And
Tom Smith, NOAA/NESDIS/STAR and CICS
n It's fun! ­we like to talk about big storms, heat
waves, etc.
n Better sense of what's happening now ­ big
picture is better than keyhole and movie is better
than snapshot
n Helps us figure out what will happen ­
extrapolation works with many things, and
observations are the only way to validate models
WHY?
(Do we observe weather/climate?)
n Global Averages - do observations and models agree
on global (or regional) means?
n Annual Cycle ­ global, hemispheric, land/ocean

Source: Anisimov, Mikhail - Institute for Physical Science and Technology & Department of Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland at College Park

Collections: Physics; Materials Science