U.S. CLIVAR Western Boundary
Current Workshop
15 - 17 January 2009
Phoenix, Arizona
Wyndham Phoenix
50 East Adams Street
Agenda (click here)
For a list of abstracts click here
The U.S. CLIVAR Western Boundary Current (WBC) Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction
Workshop will be held on January 15-17, 2009, in Phoenix, AZ. The
Workshop is sponsored by the U.S. CLIVAR WBC Working Group (WG; http://www.usclivar.org/wbc.php) and
the U.S. CLIVAR Program (http://www.usclivar.org/). The
timing of the Workshop will overlap with (by one day), and follow,
the AMS's 89th Annual Meeting of January 11-15, 2009, in Phoenix,
AZ (see http://www.ametsoc.org/meet/annual/).
The WBC WG is co-sponsoring two sessions at annual AMS
meeting in the 16th conference on Air-Sea Interaction (ASI) on i)
Air-sea interaction over eddies and ii) Air-sea interaction over
tropical and Southern Hemisphere fronts. We encourage those attending
the WBC workshop to also attend the ASI conference and submit abstracts
to these air-sea interaction sessions, but participation in the AMS
meeting is optional for
those attending the Workshop. Note that the abstract submission
deadline for the AMS meeting is August 8, 2008. Abstracts
for the ASI sessions can be submitted electronically at http://ams.confex.com/ams/89annual/16airsea/papers/index.cgi
The overall objective of the Workshop is to seek
better understanding of WBC ocean-atmosphere interaction that can
improve the decadal and longer timescale predictability of the climate
system, and to assess our
present knowledge and to explore future directions/opportunities
in studies of WBC ocean-atmosphere interaction. The Workshop will
feature focused oral sessions with a mix of invited and contributed
presentations, thematic poster sessions, and a round-table discussion. The
goals of the workshop are to:
- Present theoretical/observational research
characterizing the potential role of frontal-scale ocean-atmosphere
interaction and coupling to the broader-scale midlatitude climate
system
- Summarize
results from the U.S. CLIVAR KESS and CLIMODE observational programs
and how they elucidate important processes governing oceanic impacts
on regional air-sea variability and coupling
- Assess the current
state of knowledge on the influence of WBC upper ocean heat content
and SST on the variability and predictability of the midlatitude
climate system
- Identify WBC metrics for coupled GCMs. Employ single component
models, such as high resolution OGCMs, and idealized models to
assess the ability of climate models to simulate observed or
theoretical coupled mechanisms
- Identify requirements for ocean and
atmospheric observing systems in
the Pacific and Atlantic WBC regions.
To address these issues four half-day sessions are planned on the first
two days of the workshop.
Sessions:
1) Findings from the KESS and CLIMODE programs
2) Frontal Scale air-sea interaction in WBC regions
3) Basin-Scale air interaction in connection with WBC variability
4) Impact of upper ocean variability in WBC regions on midlatitude
climate variability and predictability
Discussion of key issues and future plans will be held on the third
day.
Discussion Topics:
1) What are the cutting-edge science issues for the WBC air-sea interaction?
2) What is beyond the KESS/CLIMODE programs?
- Identify requirements for ocean and atmospheric observing systems
in WBC regions.
3) What WBC metrics are most relevant for the modeling community?
4) What modeling experiments should be considered; e.g. what is the
impact of SST and ocean heat content anomalies on atmosphere?
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