The U.S. contribution to Climate Variability and Predictability

U.S. CLIVAR Salinity Workshop
8-10 May 2006
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
** Clark Building Room 507 **

The salinity field of the global oceans is attracting increasing attention, due to its influence on ocean-atmosphere exchanges, its role as an indicator of the water cycle and its potential for improved climate forecasting. New sources of salinity data are now available (The Argo Project profiling float array: http://www.argo.ucsd.edu/) and others are on the horizon (The Aquarius satellite mission to be launched in March 2009 will measure sea surface salinity: http://aquarius.gsfc.nasa.gov ).

In response to the scientific opportunities afforded by these new measurement programs, the US CLIVAR Salinity Working Group is organizing a workshop to address the following issues:

1. What are the processes and mechanisms that link salinity, the water cycle, ocean circulation, and climate variability?

2.  What are the trends and variability of sea surface salinity and subsurface salinity for different regions?

3. What are the relations between salinity and temperature structure and variability (surface and subsurface)?

4.  What observations and monitoring requirements are necessary to ensure adequate salinity data products for future climate studies?

All investigators (PIs, post-docs and students) working toward the understanding of the regional and global processes linked to the variability and trends of salinity in the coupled climate system are invited. We also welcome those able to address the technical challenges of long-term salinity measurements.  The goal of the workshop is to produce a “white paper” articulating the significance of salinity measurements to the advancement of understanding, and ultimately predicting, climate; outlining the necessary measurements; and describing additional activities to enable the full utilization of these measurements. To this end the meeting format will entail invited presentations, and an emphasis on group discussions, with poster space available to all attendees.

The Workshop will be held in the Redfield Auditorium of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, May 8-10, 2006. It will be followed immediately by the Aquarius/SAC-D Third Science Workshop (May 10-12). Given the strong connection between the workshop goals and the satellite mission's surface salinity measurement capabilities, people may wish to attend both workshops.

AGENDA

Salinity Posters Presentations:

• Disbrutions of mixed layer properties in North Pacific water mass formation areas: comparison of ARGO floats and World Ocean Atlas 2001 - Frederick M. Bingham
• Using Sea Surface Salinity as a parameterin the Gravest Empirical Mode - Deirdre A. Byrne
• The Freshening of Surface Waters in High Latitudes: Effects on the Thermohaline and Wind-driven Circulations - Alexey Fedorov
• The SMOS approach to retrieve sea surface salinity from L-BAND radiometric measurements - Jordi Font
• Low Frequency Variation of Sea Surface Salinity in the Tropical Atlantic - Semon Grodsky
• Role of assimilation of salinity data in tropical Pacific Ocean simulations - Eric Hackert
• Upper ocean T-S variations in the Greenland Sea and their association to climatic conditions - Sirpa Hakkinen
• How was Seasonal Variability of Upper Ocean Salinity Simulated by Global Ocean Data Assimilation Systems? - Boyin Huang
• Using Data Mining Technique to Discover Useful Salinity/Temperature Patterns in ARGO data - Yo-Ping Huang
• Variability Scales of Sea Surface Salinity - S. Daniel Jacob
• Internnual Variations of mixed layer Salinity inthe Equatorial Pacific Ocean - Seung-Bum Kim and Frank J. Wentz
• Poleward propagation of compensated salinity anomalies in the North Atlantic Ocean and impacts at high latitudes - Audine Laurian
• Upper Ocean State and Variability in the Subpolar North Atlantic from Lagrangian Floats - Xingwen Li
• Internal Variability of sea surface salinity in the tropics - Raghu Murtugudde
• Modelled and observed Atlantic salinity changes over the last half-century - Anne Pardaens
• Decadal Changes of Pacific Salinity - Li Ren
• Ocean surface salinity in the tropical oceans using satellite derived OLR - Bulusu Subrahmanyam
• Impact of ARGO salinity observations on ocean analysis - Chaojiao Sun
• The role of salinity in the climate response to an intensified water cycle - Paul Williams
• Understanding and Attributing Subpolar North Atlantic Freshening - Peili Wu, Michael Vellinga and Richard Wood
• Observational evidence of winter spice formation - Stephen Yeager
• How does the subsurface salinity maximum in the South China Sea reach its equilibrium - Zuojun Yu
• An Empiricial Parameterization for the Salinity of Subsurface Water - Rong-Hua Zhang

Important Dates

• Registration and Abstract Deadline - 15 March 2006
• Poster files (pdf) should be sent to Cathy Stephens in the US CLIVAR Office by 5 May 2006

To register online for the Salinity Workshop or the Aquarius Workshop: www.regonline.com/87055

** If you wish to submit a poster, a short abstract should be included when registering

Logistical Information

** Speakers and Working Group members should contact Jill Reisdorf (UCAR) when making travel arrangements. reisdorf@ucar.edu, 303-497-8636

Hotel contact information:

Inn On the Square
Forty North Main Street
Falmouth, MA 02540
Phone: 508-457-0606
Fax: 505-457-9694
http://www.innonthesquare.com

A block of rooms has been reserved under the name Salinity Workshop for the nights of May 7, May 8 and May 9. Rates are $75 + Tax per night. Cut off for reservations at this rate is Friday April 7, 2006. Please do not use the online service for making reservations. Call the toll free reservation line: 1-800-676-0000. Please reference the Salinity Workshop when reserving.

Bonanza Bus lines provides service from Logan International Airport to Falmouth http://www.bonanzabus.com/The Breeze (Blue Line) offers bus service from Falmouth (Inn on the Square) to the WHOI campus. For additional information go to www.thebreeze.info or call 1-800-352-7155. For a detailed map and bus schedule (pdf) click here.

Getting Around Woods Hole - Transportation information is extensively available on this web-site.

For additional information regarding the shuttle at Woods Hole, click here.

Aquarius SAC/D Workshop
10-12 May 2006 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Preliminary Program Agenda: 10 March 2006

Meeting objectives:  The Aquarius/SAC-D satellite mission to measure ocean salinity is due to launch in March 2009.  An Aquarius/SAC-D Science Workshop immediately follows the U.S. CLIVAR Salinity Workshop specifically to shift the agenda toward applying Aquarius/SAC-D satellite measurements to address the scientific problems raised in the CLIVAR discussions.  The workshop goal is to provide information to the science community about the nature of the Aquarius/SAC-D salinity measurements (resolution, accuracy, sampling, algorithms, data system, data access, etc.) and to provide a forum for discussion of key science problems, data analysis, modeling strategies and related issues.  An overview of the European SMOS mission will also be presented.

Background:  Aquarius/SAC-D will provide global surface salinity measurements with a rms error of 0.2 psu or less at 150 km grid spacing.  The measurements will be valid for the open ocean (>450 km from coastal and ice boundaries).  Participants are encouraged to contribute talks and/or posters, as well as discussions on the application of these data to a wide range of topics from the CLIVAR workshop as well as other science programs.

Format:  The meeting will begin Wednesday afternoon and adjourn mid-day Friday, and will consist of plenary oral sessions, discussion time, and posters.  Participants may contribute either type of presentation, and posters will remain up during the workshop.  The first afternoon will be devoted to an overview of the Aquarius/SAC-D mission, interactions with SMOS, future formation of the science working team, and the measurement characteristics.  The second day will focus on science applications with contributed talks following similar themes from the CLIVAR workshop, and the third day for continued science discussion and wrap-up.

Aquarius Agenda

Aquarius Poster Presentations

• Education & Public Outreach for the NASA Aquarius Mission - A.deCharon
• Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) - Ocean Systems - A.deCharon, etal
• Ocean Science Education and Outreach: Identifying and Meeting Scientists' Needs - A.Thorrold
• Thermosalinograph (TSG) transects maintained by NOAA/AOML - G.Goni
• Temporal and Spatial Salinity variations in the GIN Sea - S.Dransfeld, J.Font
• Ocean Surface Salinity in tropical Indian Ocean using satellite derived OLR - S.Bulusu
• Retrieving SSS in Coastal Areas from SMOS data - S. Zine
• Internal Variability of sea surface salinity in the tropics - R. Murtugudde

This page maintained by the U.S. CLIVAR Project Office
This page last updated May 25, 2006
Please E-mail questions or comments to usco@usclivar.org