The Midwest Mathematics and Climate Conference

University Of Kansas Center For Research Inc, Lawrence KS

Investigators

Abstract

The Midwest Mathematics and Climate Conference will take place on the campus of the University of Kansas from April 30 to May 2, 2015. The conference shall bring together atmospheric scientists and applied mathematicians to address different aspects of our changing climate, one of the most urgent topics of our time. Bringing together these different groups will facilitate a transfer of knowledge between climate science and mathematics. The conference will provide an excellent opportunity for researchers, especially early-career graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members, to disseminate their results to a broad, interdisciplinary mathematical and scientific community, gaining experience and improving their skills in communication and presentation. The conference will play an active role in motivating and strengthening the relationship between research groups in applied mathematics and atmospheric sciences across universities in the region. Although the scientific basis for the anthropogenic influence on Earth's climate system is well established, substantial uncertainty surrounds important details of climate behavior. Many components of the climate system are substantially nonlinear, suggesting the possibility of "tipping points" or threshold behavior, which may lead to abrupt, irreversible climate change. Although the concepts of nonlinearity, tipping points, and threshold behavior are appreciated by the atmospheric science community, they are typically approached somewhat anecdotally. On the other hand, the applied mathematics community has been exploring these topics in nonlinear systems for many years, though often in highly idealized mathematical frameworks. The goal of this conference is to bring together atmospheric scientists and applied mathematicians with the goal being to foster collaboration between the two groups, to expose atmospheric scientists to cutting-edge techniques in nonlinear mathematics, and to engage mathematicians with a hierarchy of models that exhibit greater degree of physical realism than the idealized models they typically employ. With this goal in mind, the PIs will host a conference on atmospheric science and mathematics with the title "Midwest Mathematics and Climate Conference" from April 30 to May 2, 2015 on the campus of the University of Kansas. Conference topics of emphasis will include nonlinear climate dynamics, high performance computing, numerical analysis, cloud systems behavior, data assimilation, dimension reduction, uncertainty quantification, model hierarchies, and advanced statistical methods. Bringing together researchers with expertise in these different areas will facilitate a transfer of knowledge between mathematics and areas of atmospheric science. Furthermore, the conference will provide strong motivation for interdisciplinary collaboration between mathematicians in dynamical systems, PDEs, numerical analysis, probability theory, and statistics, with researchers in climate and the broader atmospheric sciences.