Tree-Ring Reconstructions of Asian Monsoon Climate Dynamics

该奖项将使一个五年期项目能够利用树木年代学科学来研究亚洲季风与驱动其大部分变化的大规模耦合过程之间的关系。 研究人员将在年际至百年时间尺度上研究这些相互作用，并预计该项目将产生有关季风系统在过去几个世纪中如何变化的信息。 具体来说，他们将研究亚洲季风与大尺度耦合过程（即气温和海表温度（SST））之间的关系，这些耦合过程驱动了亚洲季风的大部分变化。该项目的动机是一系列研究问题，例如：“在年际到百年的时间尺度上，驱动观测到的亚洲季风气候动力学的过程如何变化和相互作用？以及“在过去的几个世纪里，亚洲的表面气温、印度洋的SST和热带太平洋的SST是如何共同变化和相互作用的？“亚洲季风气候系统在地球仪大部分地区的大尺度气候变率中起着重要作用。 由于其对全球气候的重要性以及对世界人口的影响，有必要更深入地了解这一系统，最终目标是改进对年度至十年期和更长时间尺度的预测。这项研究将有助于科学界了解世界人口稠密地区的气候变率。 在实践方面，对气候多变性的更好的了解可以用来改善该区域的长期农业规划，使农业社会能够缓冲季风多变性的影响。 该奖项将支持哥伦比亚大学和拉蒙多尔蒂地球观测站的博士后、研究生和本科生，并帮助亚洲同事建立科学能力、基础设施和专业伙伴关系。

This award will enable a five-year project using the science of dendrochronology to examine the relationship between the Asian monsoon and the large-scale coupled processes that drive much of its variability. The researchers will examine these interactions on inter-annual to centennial time scales and anticipate that this project will yield information about how the monsoon system has varied over the past several centuries. Specifically, they will investigate the relationship of the Asian Monsoon to the large-scale coupled processes that drive much of its variability; namely air temperatures and sea surface temperatures (SST).The project is motivated by a series of research question such as: "How have the processes responsible for driving much of the observed Asian monsoon climate dynamics varied and interacted on inter-annual to centennial time scales?" and "How have Asian surface air temperatures, Indian Ocean SSTs, and Tropical Pacific SSTs covaried and interacted over the past several centuries?" The Asian monsoon climate system plays a significant role in large-scale climate variability over much of the globe. Due to its considerable importance to global climate and implications for the world's population, a greater understanding of this system, with the ultimate goal being improved prediction on annual to decadal and longer time scales is warranted.This research will help the science community understand climate variability in a densely populated region of the world. On the practical side, improved knowledge of climate variability could be used to improve long-term agricultural planning in the region by buffering agrarian societies against the effects of monsoon variability. The award will support post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students at Columbia University and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and help build scientific capacity, infrastructure, and professional partnerships among Asian colleagues.