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Western Boundary Current WG Meetings

US CLIVAR Western Boundary Current Workshop
15 - 17 January 2009 
Phoenix, Arizona

Wyndham Phoenix
50 East Adams Street

Agenda (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 US CLIVAR WBC Working Group and the US CLIVAR Program. 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.

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?

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?