UM Rosenstiel School Ph.D. student Katinka Bellomo received the Best Paper Award from the Division of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography (MPO) for her research paper recently published in the American Meteorology Society’s Journal of Climate.
“Receiving the MPO best paper award is a huge personal satisfaction,” said Katinka. “This is the first paper of my dissertation and of my life.”
The paper, titled “Observational and Model Estimates of Cloud Amount Feedback over the Indian and Pacific Oceans,” addressed the largest uncertainty in climate models – cloud feedback – by examining observations of cloud cover taken from ships and satellites from 1954 to 2005. The results of this paper represent the first observational long-term estimate of cloud feedback.
In response to greenhouse gas forcing, the Earth would naturally cool off by emitting more radiation back into space. However, feedback mechanisms, from clouds, can increase or reduce this cooling rate.
“I am satisfied that the paper shows how to handle the uncertainties in observations and provides a methodology to estimate cloud feedbacks from these observations,” said Katinka.
Congrats Katinka!
