Rossbypalooza 2018: A Student-led Workshop on Understanding Climate through Simple Models; Chicago, Illinois; June 11-23, 2018

该补助金支持为有兴趣使用不同复杂程度的模型来了解气候系统的研究生举办的研讨会。 这次研讨会是以芝加哥大学大气科学的先驱和系主任卡尔-古斯塔夫·罗斯比的荣誉命名的。计算技术的进步使人们能够开发出综合性的气候模式，这些模式使用高分辨率，包括大量气候过程的复杂表示。 此类模型可以实现高度的真实性，但代价是高度的复杂性，这限制了它们在理解气候系统行为方面的用途。简单的模型当然更容易理解，但是如果以删除或禁用关键过程的方式简化这些模型，则会从根本上歪曲系统。 因此，选择或开发具有适当复杂程度或适当变化复杂程度的模型是气候研究的一个关键挑战。 气候科学家每天都在努力应对这一挑战，但它并没有在标准的研究生院课程中得到系统的解决。该研讨会为学生提供了一个学习涉及简单和中等复杂模型的建模策略的机会，选择适合特定问题和应用的配置。 该研讨会通过课堂讲座的组合进行，展示了经典模型和配置，这些模型和配置导致了对气候系统的重要见解，并在小组环境中进行了实践研究。 该研讨会具有学术价值，因为它解决了如何使用模型来达成理解的重要问题。 它通过在该学科的关键方法中培训下一代科学家而产生更广泛的影响。 这项资助涵盖了通过竞争过程选出的19名研究生（共30名）的参与。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports a workshop for graduate students interested in the use of models of varying levels of complexity to understand the climate system. The workshop is named in honor of Carl-Gustaf Rossby, an early pioneer of atmospheric science and department chair at the University of Chicago.Advances in computing technology have enabled development of comprehensive climate models which use high resolution and include sophisticated representations of a large number of climate processes. Such models can achieve a high degree of realism but only at the expense of great complexity, which limits their use for understanding climate system behaviors. Simple models are of course easier to understand, but such models can fundamentally misrepresent the system if they are simplified in ways that remove or disable key processes. The task of choosing or developing models at the right level of complexity, or at appropriately varying levels of complexity, is thus a key challenge in climate research. Climate scientists grapple with this challenge on a daily basis, yet it is not systematically addressed in the standard graduate school curriculum. This workshop gives students an opportunity to learn modeling strategies involving simple and intermediate complexity models, choosing configurations appropriate for specific problems and applications. The workshop is conducted through a combination of classroom lectures showcasing classical models and configurations that have led to important insights into the climate system, and hands-on research in a small group setting. The workshop has intellectual merit as it addresses the important question of how one uses a model to arrive at understanding. It has broader impacts by training the next generation of scientists in a key methodology of the discipline. This grant covers the participation of 19 graduate students (out of a total of 30) selected through a competitive process.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.