Workshop on Advances in Tropical Dynamics; Honolulu, Hawaii; January 14-15, 2014

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides support for a workshop on the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) to be held January 14-15 2014 at the East-West Center (EWC) at the University of Hawaii. The MJO is an envelope of organized convection that propagates from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and constitutes the dominant form of intraseasonal precipitation and atmospheric circulation variability in the tropics. The MJO influences a variety of tropical weather and climate phenomena,including tropical cyclones (affecting hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico), the onset and intraseasonal fluctuations of the monsoons and rainfall over Asia, Australia, Africa, and the Americas, and the onset of El Nino events. The goal of the workshop is to bring together the community of researchers engaged in MJO research to summarize the progress and remaining challenges in understanding the dynamics of the MJO, and to make plans for future coordinated numerical simulation experiments. More specifically, workshop participants will 1) discuss and synthesize recent theoretical, modeling, and diagnostic breakthroughs related to tropical dynamics; 2) survey remaining challenges and roadblocks to improving our understanding of tropical dynamics, and discuss the optimal paths forward for the community to address such challenges; and 3) update the status of the ongoing MJO aquaplanet intercomparison effort. A published paper summarizing the the workshop and "highlighting progress and future challenges" is an expected outcome of the workshop. The EWC is chosen as the venue for the workshop due to the expectation that about half of the workshop participants will come from Asia. The funds provided through this award will support travel for about 10 graduate students and 5 postdocs, to be chosen through an open competition. Thus, this award will enable scientists at the earliest stages of their careers to meet and interact with the worldwide community of MJO researchers, and enable them to see cutting-edge results and research perspectives which may not be available to them at home. Aside from the scientific broader impacts associated with promoting international collaboration and supporting early-career scientists, the work has societal value in that it will advance understanding of the MJO, a phenomenon which has multiple societal impacts around the world.