Roger G. Barry
Ph.D. University of Southampton, 1965
Distinguished Professor of Geography
Director, World Data Center for Glaciology (Boulder)
E-mail: rbarry@nsidc.colorado.edu
Office: RL-2 203
Phone: 303-492-5488
NSIDC Web site »
http://rogerbarry.info
Research
Barry received a Humboldt Prize Fellowship to work at the Commission for Glaciology at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich from May through October 2009 and August-October 2010. He prepared (with Thian Gan, University of Edmonton) a new book on the cryosphere for Cambridge University Press during this time. The book "The global cryosphere, past, present and future" is in production and will be published in June 2011.
Current Research: Climate and Cryosphere
I completed and published
the ninth edition
of Atmosphere, Weather
and Climate (Barry,
R.G. and R.J. Chorley
(deceased), Routledge,
London, 516 pp.). First
published in 1968, the
work is a comprehensive
introductory textbook
that has been updated to
reflect recent advances.
Following an introductory
overview of the
historical development
of the field, there is an
extended treatment of
atmospheric composition
and energy, stressing the
heat budget of the Earth
and the causes of the greenhouse effect. Then it turns to the
manifestations and circulation of atmospheric moisture,
including atmospheric stability and precipitation patterns
in space and time. A consideration of atmospheric and
oceanic motion on small to large scales leads on to a new
chapter on modeling of the atmospheric circulation and climate,
which also presents weather forecasting on different
time scales. This chapter was prepared by CIRES Fellow
Tom Chase. It is followed by a discussion of the structure
of air masses, the development of frontal and non-frontal
cyclones, and development of mesoscale convective
systems in mid-latitudes. The treatment of weather and climate
in temperate latitudes begins with studies of Europe
and America, extending to the conditions of their subtropical
and high-latitude margins and includes the Mediterranean,
Australasia, North Africa, the southern westerlies,
and the sub-Arctic and polar regions. Tropical weather
and climate are also described through an analysis of the
climatic mechanisms of monsoon Asia, Africa, Australia,
and Amazonia, together with the tropical margins of Africa
and Australia and the effects of ocean movement and the
El Niño–Southern Oscillation and teleconnections. Smallscale
climates—including urban climates—are considered
from the perspective of energy budgets. The final chapter,
revised by CIRES Fellow Mark Serreze, stresses the structure
and operation of the atmosphere–Earth–ocean system
and the causes of its climate changes. Since the previous
edition was released in 2003, the pace of research on the
climate system and attention to global climate change has
accelerated and the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change report has been published. A consideration of
other environmental impacts of climate change is included.
Apart from the two new chapters, all figures have been
redrawn in color.
During May-October 2009, I was supported by an award from the Humboldt Foundation of Germany at the Kommission fuer Glaziologie of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich. During the first month, I prepared the index for Atmosphere, Weather and Climate. I then began preparing a text, The Cryosphere: Past, Present, and Future with Thian Gan of the University of Edmonton. The work, which is under contract to Cambridge University Press, is continuing, and I will return to Munich during August- October 2010.
Publications
Click here for a complete list of published works »
Honors and Awards
- J S Guggenheim Fellow (1982-83)
- Fellow: American Geophysical Union (1999)
- Fellow: Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, Geography Faculty, Dept. of Cryology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia (April-June 2001)
- Foreign Member: Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, (RAEN) (June 2001)
- Byrd Polar Medal, Ohio State University (2006)
- Humboldt Research Fellowship in Geophysics, Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Commission on Glaciology, Munich, Germany
- Founder's Medal—one of two gold medals awarded annually—by the Royal Geographical Society, London (2007)
- Distinguished Professor of Geography, University of Colorado (2004)
- Review Editor and Contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – which received the Nobel Peace Prize (2007)
Professor Barry a member of the CIRES Professor.
