{"id":144051,"date":"2021-06-22T12:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=144051"},"modified":"2021-07-20T16:34:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T02:34:28","slug":"rainfall-rate-cloud-formation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/06\/22\/rainfall-rate-cloud-formation\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change likely to increase rainfall rate, cloud formation"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"ocean
West side of Oʻahu,<\/span> Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> with clouds over the island. (Photo credit: Chris Ostrander\/SOEST<\/abbr>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For as long as she can remember, University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa undergraduate student Kayla White<\/strong> knew she would become a scientist.<\/p>\n

“I have always been fascinated by the natural beauty of the planet and the biology that inhabits it, including us, and how everything on the planet is related,” said White.<\/p>\n

After learning how interconnected all of Earth\u2019s systems are and learning about the climate system as a whole, White became particularly interested in humans\u2019 impact on the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial environment and climate. This led her to the Global Environmental Science<\/a> (GES<\/abbr>) program in UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s Department of Oceanography, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology<\/a> (SOEST<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n

\"girl
Kayla White in graduation regalia. (Photo credit: Natalie Shulte)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For her GES<\/abbr> senior thesis research, White worked with SOEST<\/abbr> atmospheric sciences<\/a> assistant professor Giuseppe Torri<\/strong> to develop a computer model of clouds so they could simulate the effects of climate change on cloud formations. Specifically, they assessed how changing the sea surface temperature around a flat or mountainous island would impact clouds and subsequent rain.<\/p>\n

“We found that as sea surface temperature increases, rainfall rate and cloud formations increase, and increase the most in the middle of the islands,” said White, who is from Dallas, Texas and graduated in May with a bachelor of science from the GES<\/abbr> program. “Furthermore, with warmer sea surface temperatures, rainfall lasts later into the evening and night time than before. This shows that with increasing sea surface temperatures due to climate change, large islands in the Maritime Continent, and more generally, across the Pacific, could see increased rainfall and clouds that last longer.”<\/p>\n

“All of us in GES<\/abbr> and SOEST<\/abbr> are very proud of Kayla’s accomplishments while at UH<\/abbr> Mānoa and we look forward to seeing her contributions during graduate school and beyond,” said Michael Guidry<\/strong>, chair of the GES<\/abbr> program.<\/p>\n

This work is an example of UH<\/abbr> Mānoa\u2019s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>) and Enhancing Student Success<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), two of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Â鶹´«Ã½<\/a> (PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020.<\/p>\n

For more information, see SOEST<\/abbr>\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

–By Marcie Grabowski<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An undergraduate student worked to develop a computer model of clouds to simulate the effects of climate change on cloud formations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[745,1298,1480,1466,1467,1363,107,92,9],"class_list":["post-144051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-atmospheric-sciences","tag-global-environmental-science","tag-manoa-academic-innovation-engaged-learning","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-oceanography","tag-school-of-ocean-and-earth-science-and-technology","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144051"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144078,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144051\/revisions\/144078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}