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Precipitation challenges knowledge because of its variability at all scales and its evolving interactions with the water, energy, and carbon cycles under a changing climate. It is a key hydrologic flux driving the atmospheric and surface storage, movement, and quality of water. Precipitation not only is the primary source of freshwater, it is also a major driver of natural hazards, and a major component of uncertainty in weather predictions and climate projections.
The AGU Precipitation Technical Committee gathers expertise in hydrology, atmospheric sciences, remote sensing and mathematics to address critical gaps in our knowledge of precipitation:
- Process changes at convective and orographic scales,
- Consistent observations for accurate estimation and prediction on a global scale at sufficiently high spatial and temporal resolution,
- Snowfall, and
- Closure of the water balance from headwater catchments to continental-scale river basins.
Key science questions addressed by sessions proposed for the upcoming Fall meeting are:
- How do precipitation processes and regimes interact with the Earth’s water storages from local to global scales?
- How well do current observations and model predictions capture precipitation variability to meet application needs and effectively monitor the water cycle in remote regions?
- How do local and regional societies and ecosystems respond to precipitation variability?