Innocent Kudzotsa
Postgraduate Student
Email address: eeik@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 9.157n
Biography
After graduating from University of Zimbabwe in 2006, Innocent taught high school Physics for half a year before joning the Meteorological Services Department of Zimbabwe in 2007, where he trained as a meteorologist. He served in the department first, as a public weather forecaster before becoming an aviation weather forecaster at Harare International Airport. Forecast verification and NWP walidation were his interests then. In 2009 he won a UNESCO fellowship to study Earth System Physics at the International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in trieste, Italy. In 2010, he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, US where he started his PhD studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa as a research assistant under the supervision of Dr Vaughan Phillips. Currently, he is continuing with his PhD study in Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds, UK with Dr Vaughan Phillips as lead superviser and Dr Steven Dobbie as co-supervisor.
Qualifications
BSc (Hons) Physics, University of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe.
Post Grad Dep (MSc), Earth System Physics, International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy.
Memberships/Fellowships
Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS)
Research Interests
My research interests are in cloud microphysics, mostly in aerosol-cloud interaction, investigating the aerosol indirect effects particularly on glaciated clouds through modelling, working with Cloud System Resolving Models (CSRMs) and developing micro-physics schemes. Considering that clouds are the moderators of energy and precipitation budgets of the Earth, it is fundamental to investigate how their micro- and macro-physical properties will respond in future due to anthropogenically induced changes in aerosol chemistry and loadings.
Project details
Project title
Study of mechanisms of indirect effects of aerosols on glaciated clouds
Supervisors
Dr Vaughan Phillips and Dr Steven Dobbie
Funding
Department of Energy (DoE), USA.
National Science Foundation (NSF), USA.
Start date
1 January 2012
Project outline
Aerosols directly interact with radiation through their scattering, absorption and emission of long- and short-wave radiation. In addition, their changes in loading and chemistry modify clouds' micro- and macro-physical properties thereby altering the radiative properties of clouds and consequently the radiation budget of the Earth. How clouds will respond in future to changes in aerosol loading and chemistry remains the greatest source of uncertainty in climate prediction as was concluded in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Solomon et al., 2007). Thus, the treatment of clouds in climate models should be improved so as to reduce these uncertainties. This is achievable through a subtle understanding of aerosol indirect eff ects especially on glaciated clouds due to their large temporal and spatial extent mostly in the form of cirrus. This modelling study will investigate the different and salient mechanisms by which changes in aerosols, both in number concentration and chemical composition will a fect the optical properties of clouds. The main objectives will be to (1) explore the cloud micro-physical and dynamical mechanisms for cold-cloud indirect e ffects on the meso-scale (focusing mainly on glaciation, thermodynamic and riming indirect eff ects, (Lohmann and Feichter, 2005)), from anthropogenic soluble and insoluble aerosols, (2) identify salient processes of ice initiation and (3) identify the important feedbacks associated with these indirect eff ects and if possible be able to quantify their respective radiative forcing. This shall be done by way of sensitivity tests using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a modifi ed version of Phillips et al. (2009) semi-double moment bin- micro-physics scheme which has a semi-prognostic aerosol treatment, currently treating six different aerosol species assuming internal and external mixing. Two tropical maritime and continental cases shall be simulated; the (Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment, TWP-ICE and Cloud and Land Surface Interaction Campaign ,CLASIC). The main clouds' optical properties of interest to this study are droplet and crystal mean sizes, droplet and crystal number concentrations and liquid and ice water content; optical depth, lifetime and spatial extent will also be considered. The findings of this study will generally improve the understanding of aerosol indirect effects and representation of aerosols and clouds in Global Climate Models, (GCMs).