2017 Southern Ocean Workshop
The Southern Ocean, its dynamics, biogeochemistry and role in the climate system
An NSF-sponsored workshop
The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the Earth system. This workshop brings together a group of scientists with expertise in ocean/ice dynamics and biogeochemistry to consider recent advances in our understanding of the Southern Ocean as well as major outstanding questions. The meeting is convened in recognition of growing observational capabilities in the region, afforded by process studies, autonomous platforms, airborne campaigns and long time-series programs. Furthermore, numerical modeling capabilities are achieving higher resolution, as well as improved parameterizations and data assimilation methods---and the merger of paleo-records with prognostic models is yielding new insights into the system behavior over geological time. The objectives of the workshop will be to explore perspectives on the Southern Ocean developed in these areas and identify opportunities for synthesis and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Themes of interest
- Constraints on Southern Ocean carbon exchange
- Understanding natural and anthropogenic drivers of trends and variability
- The role of the Southern Ocean in glacial/interglacial variability
- Dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar current
Sponsored by:
 | NSF Earth System Modeling project - MOBY: Modeling Ocean Variability and Biogeochemical Cycles, a collaboration between MIT, WHOI and NCAR. |