IGMS: Coupling and feedback in the climate system

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。该协会将在2009-2010学年在芝加哥大学地球物理科学系气候小组度过。沉浸年的主要目标包括：(1)对气候系统的关键物理组成部分进行科学概述，包括它们如何相互作用、其特有的时间和空间尺度以及如何对它们进行建模；(2)获得有关古气候替代数据的经验，包括如何获得这些数据、如何对它们进行定量解释、它们的不确定性和它们的质量；(3)与芝加哥大学的气候科学家开展研究合作，以了解耦合和反馈在气候变化中的作用。为了确保对气候系统关键组成部分的广泛概述，国际气候研究所确定了与芝加哥大学地球物理科学系教职员工及其学生的研究活动相联系的三个研究项目领域。这些项目涉及(1)气候系统冰成分的数学模拟，这对于预测全球变暖导致的海平面上升很重要；(2)上一次冰川周期中与大西洋深处温盐环流有关的突然气候变化机制，这将受到北大西洋海面温度和盐度变化的新的古气候替代记录的制约；(3)对地球远古极端冰川事件的系统级气候模型的调查，包括“雪球地球”模型。其他活动包括：(1)扩大国际气候研究所参加气候小组期刊俱乐部的范围，她于2009年1月加入该俱乐部，通过领导一些期刊俱乐部的讨论并提出与她在动力系统和分叉理论方面的数学专长有关的调查专题，(2)参加每周一次的部门研讨会，以获得对地球物理科学研究的广泛看法，(3)审计关于“气候动力学”和“全球气候模型”的研究生课程，以及(4)参加一些与气候科学有关的专业会议和讲习班。沉浸年的预期成果包括：(1)与领先的气候科学家开展可持续的跨学科研究合作；(2)为应用数学博士研究确定相关项目；(3)为西北大学高级本科生和研究生开发“气候和气候变化建模的挑战”研讨会课程。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The PI will spend the academic year 2009-2010 in the Climate Group in the Geophysical Sciences Department at the University of Chicago. Primary goals of the immersion year include (1) gaining a scientific overview of key physical components of the climate system, including how they interact, their characteristic temporal and spatial scales, and how they are modeled; (2) gaining experience with paleoclimate proxy data, including how they are obtained, how they are interpreted quantitively, their uncertainties and their quality; (3) developing research collaborations with climate scientists at the University of Chicago aimed at understanding the role of coupling and feedback in climate change. To ensure a broad overview of key components of the climate system, the PI has identified three research project areas that interface with the research activities of faculty and their students in the Geophysical Sciences Department at the University of Chicago. These projects concern (1) mathematical modeling of the ice component of the climate system, which is important to understand for predicting sea level rise due to global warming, (2) mechanisms of abrupt climate change in the last glacial cycle that are related to thermohaline circulation in the deep Atlantic, which would be constrained by new paleoclimate proxy records of North Atlantic sea-surface temperature and salinity changes, and (3) investigations of system level climate models of extreme glaciation events in earth's distant past including models of `Snowball Earth'.Additional activities include (1) expanding the PI's participation in the Climate Group journal club, which she joined in January 2009, by leading some of the journal club discussions and proposing topics of investigation that relate to her mathematical expertise in dynamical systems and bifurcation theory, (2) attending weekly departmental seminars to gain a broad perspective on geophysical sciences research, (3) auditing graduate courses on `Climate Dynamics' and `Global Climate Models', and (4) attending a number of professional meetings and workshops related to climate science. Expected outcomes of the immersion year include (1) developing sustainable interdisciplinary research collaborations with leading climate scientists, (2) identifying relevant projects for applied mathematics Ph.D. research, and (3) developing a seminar course on `Challenges of Modeling the Climate and Climate Change' aimed at Northwestern University advanced undergraduate and graduate students.