U.S. - Korea Workshop: Dynamical Seasonal Prediction

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

0855205 Chin Title: U.S.-Korea Workshop: Dynamical Seasonal Prediction This award supports the participation of American researchers, junior scientists, and graduate students in a U.S. - Korea Workshop on Dynamical Seasonal Prediction (DSP) to be held in Busan, South Korea in early 2010. The co-organizers are Dr. Kyung Emilia J. Chin at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and Dr. Woo-Jin Lee of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC) located in Busan, South Korea. Several centers and universities in the U.S. are conducting research on DSP and the APCC Center in Korea produces real-time operational DSP by collecting the forecast outputs from 15 institutions in 8 countries including the U.S. Several of the U.S. scientists participate in the APCC Science Advisory Committee consisting of 13 world-class scientists in the fields of climate modeling and prediction. Others participate in various APCC working groups. However, there is currently no proposed research project to improve the DSP through specific international collaborative activities between the U.S. and Korea. The proposed workshop will provide the scientists the opportunity to review the current status of DSP in each country and plan a realistic roadmap of future collaborative activities. The workshop will be organized around the following four themes: 1) Overview: scientific drivers and current status of DSP in U.S. and Korea; 2) Strategies for improvement of DSP; 3) Strategies for DSP system evaluation, modeling experiments, and initialization for prediction of the coupled ocean-land-atmosphere climate system; and 4) Collaborative research projects between the U.S. and Korea. There is sufficient overlap of interests between George Mason University and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center to indicate that they can successfully pursue the activities proposed and that the interaction will benefit both sides. Discussions on the cutting-edge technologies and perspectives of Multi-Model ensemble techniques, initialization of coupled ocean-atmosphere models and ideas for improving coupled models will improve the beneficial use of dynamical seasonal prediction. The workshop will help spread the results of DSP to many countries that do not currently have access to such predictions on a routine basis. By involving junior scientists and students in early career stages, the workshop will provide an opportunity for these participants to build valuable international networks that can continue to enhance their research in subsequent years. Broad dissemination of the workshop's materials will be made available through publications and the co-organizers' websites.