WELCOME

 

The year 2014 marks the 70th birthday of Prof Mark A. Cane of L-DEO of Columbia University: to celebrate this occasion we are organizing a Symposium.

The Tropics Rule: a symposium honoring Mark Cane’s contribution to climate science
Time and location: October 20-21, 2014 @ Monell Auditorium, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, NY USA
Symposium Organizers: Richard Seager, John Chiang, Jeff Shaman, Adam Sobel, Steve Zebiak
Contact: Virginia DiBlasi (virginia@ldeo.columbia.edu)

 

The talks will start at 9am and end at 5pm on both days.  After the talks on Monday there will be a full reception at Lamont (with lots of food and drinks – so no need to plan on dinner). 

 

There will also be an 8:30am bus leaving from the city on Monday morning and a 9:30pm leaving in the evening after the receiption.  

 

“There may still be a few minor changes to the agenda, so the posted times are subject to change"

 

Monday Oct 20, 2014

9:00  Introductory Remarks (Sean Solomon, Director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)

Day 1, Session 1: Equatorial Dynamics, a theory for ENSO, and development of seasonal prediction (Moderator: Mike Wallace, U Washington)
9:10 Steve Zebiak (Columbia): Understanding the dynamics of the tropical atmospheric circulation and ENSO
9:35 David Halpern (JPL): Observing El Niño/La Niña: Past, Present, Future
10:00 Ed Sarachik (U Washington): Building the Road to ENSO Prediction

 

Day 1, Session 2: Outstanding Issues in Tropical Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions (Moderator: Yochanan Kushnir, Columbia)
11:00 Amy Clement (U Miami): How much does the climate vary on multi-decadal timescales and why?
11:20 Fei-Fei Jin (U Hawaii): Towards Understanding the Dynamics of El Niño Complexity
11:40 Christina Karamperidou (U Hawaii): Does El Niño variability affect warming trends in the tropical Pacific?
12:00 Eli Tziperman (Harvard): Climate response to increased CO2 - effects of explicit representation of atmospheric convection and connections with past warm and hot climates

 

Day 1, Session 3: Climate Prediction (Moderator: Alicia Karspeck, NCAR)
1:20 Lisa Goddard (IRI): Practical limits of seasonal-to-interannual predictability
1:40 Ragu Murtugudde (U Maryland): Regional Earth System Predictions: Extending the Mark Cane Legacy to Decision-Making
2:00 Jeffrey Shaman (Columbia): Forecasting Infectious Disease Outbreaks
2:20 Sulochala Gadgil (IIS): Monsoon variability and prediction
2:40 Tony Rosati (GFDL): Recent Hiatus in Global Warming and the Tropical Pacific Ocean Dynamical Thermostat

Day 1, Session 4: Climate and Society (Moderator: Jeff Shaman, Columbia)
3:30 Heidi Cullen (Climate Central): Communicating Climate Science
3:50 Sam White (Ohio State): Rain Prayers, Climate Reconstruction, and the Disastrous Weather of the First American Colonies
4:10 Eugenia Kalnay (U Maryland): Sustainability policies in the HANDY model
4:30 Gidon Eshel (Bard College): Science in the Impartial Service of Society: How Lessons Mark Taught Me Without Even Trying Shaped My Science Forever


Tuesday Oct 21, 2014

 

9:00  Introduction

Day 2, Session 1: Outstanding issues in Paleoclimate Dynamics (Moderator: Mike Evans, U Maryland)
9:10 David Battisti (U Washington): Two outstanding gaps in the textbooks on the Dynamics of Climate
9:30 Peter Molnar (U Colorado): Eastern tropical Pacific SSTs and the salinity contrast across the Isthmus of Panamá: If the Isthmus has been there for a long time, what climate change led to the salinity contrast?
9:50 Jeff Severinghaus (Scripps): Highlights of the WAIS Divide Core
10:10 John Chiang (UC Berkeley): Role of Seasonal Transitions and Westerly Jets in East Asian Paleoclimate

 

Day 2, Session 2: Role of the Tropical Pacific in Climate Change, Past and Present (Moderator: Dan Schrag, Harvard)
11:00 David Lea (UC Santa Barbara): Response of the equatorial Pacific to glacial-interglacial climate variations
11:20 Tom Koutavas (CUNY Staten Island): Tropical Pacific behavior during the Pleistocene ice age
11:40 Julien Emile-Geay (USC): Holocene constraints on tropical Pacific dynamics
12:00 Gerald Meehl (NCAR): The role of the tropical Pacific in interannual and decadal timescale climate variability

 

Day 2, Session 3: The Tropics in Future Climate (Moderator: Inez Fung, UC Berkeley)
1:20 Richard Seager (Columbia): The Tropics in Future Climate Change
1:40 Mojib Latif (GEOMAR and U Kiel): Twenty-First Century Tropical Pacific Climate Change: The Big Unknown
2:00 David Neelin (UCLA): Precipitation change projections: Dangerous ranges and fast-process diagnostics
2:20 Shang-Ping Xie (Scripps): Narrowing the uncertainty of regional climate projection: A new challenge for coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics

 

Day 2, Session 4: Perspectives on Climate Dynamics (Moderator: Mark Cane, Columbia)
3:10 Tim Palmer (U Oxford): Regimes and Climate Change
3:30 George Philander (Princeton): On the Importance of Asking the Right Question
3:50 John Marshall (MIT): Perspectives on the role of the ocean in transient climate change.
4:10 Isaac Held (GFDL): Tropical Cyclones and Global Climate Models:  Entering a Golden Age of Research

 

4:30 Closing Remarks (Mark)

 

5:00 Symposium Ends

 


Symposium registration is free of charge, but please R.S.V.P.. The R.S.V.P. deadline is over. Seating in the auditorium is limited, so please register early (it will also help us estimate the number of participants).


We are looking forward to seeing you this Autumn in New York!

Chairs: Richard Seager : John Chiang : Members: Jeff Shaman : Stephen Zebiak : Adam Sobel
70th Symposium for Mark A. Cane: Organizing Committee


[Financial support from NSF is gratefully acknowledged]