Land Surface Skin Temperature Workshop:
Observations, Modeling, Physics, and Future Directions
Time: June 1-3, 2010
Location: University of Texas, Austin
Scientific Focus:
Land skin temperature changes with albedo, vegetation, soil moisture, and atmosphere conditions.
Human activities, in particular urbanization and deforestation, dramatically change surface skin
temperature. In addition, aerosols, CO2 emission and water vapor distribution evidently affect
skin temperature.
For a decade or so, the land modelers have been utilizing satellite measurements (albedo, leaf
area index, land skin temperature, etc) to improve the representation of physical and dynamical
processes related to skin temperature. With abundant, recently available satellite observations, it
is time for us to engage in in-depth discussion on the following questions:
 What is the current land skin temperature climatology from satellite observation?
 What are the physical and dynamics processes responsible for land skin temperature
change?
 What are the interactions among skin temperature, vegetation, human activity, CO2, and
aerosols?
 How do GCM simulations differ from satellite observations in terms of land skin
temperature?
 What are the key issues in GCM/land-surface-model in order to improve land skin
temperature simulation?
 What are the key tasks in using satellite land skin temperature observations in GCM?
The goal of this workshop is to bring remote sensing experts, land modelers, climate scientists,
and program managers together to identify what can be done BEYOND what we have already
done on this important subject.
Confirmed Invited Speaker:
Kevin Trenberth (NCAR), Steve Running (Univ. of Montana)
Co-organizer:
Menglin Jin, Department of Meteorology, San Jośe State University
Robert E. Dickinson, University of Texas, Austin
Support:
NSF Atmosphere Program
NOAA Climate Change Program