Title: Drought under Global Warming
Lecturer: Prof. Aiguo Dai (University at Albany, State University of New York, USA)
Inviter: Prof. Danqing Huang, Prof. Yaocun Zhang
Time: Tuesday April 29, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Venue: Lecture Hall D103, School of Atmospheric Sciences
Abstract: Drought is among the most damaging natural hazards in the world. Climate models project increased drying and more drought over land under global warming due to increased evaporative demand for moisture as air temperature rises and decreased precipitation over many subtropical regions. In this lecture, I will first discuss drought definition, drought indices, and common formation mechanisms, followed by an overview of model-projected aridity and drought changes and the underlying mechanisms. I will also examine historical changes in drought and aridity and compare them with model-projected changes, accounting for the effect of internal variability. Finally, I will address some outstanding issues in model-projected drought and aridity changes.
Brief introduction to the speaker: Dr. Dai is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences at the University at Albany, State University of New York, USA. He is an internationally renowned climate scientist with a focus on climate variability and change. With more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, he has received 68,000-plus citations with an H-index of 94. He is an AMS and AGU Fellow.