Connections between Rotating, Stratified Turbulence and Climate: Theory, Observations, Experiments, and Models

This workshop will be held at CU May 14- 16, 2012 and at NCAR May 17- 18, 2012

The climate system is chaotic, with limited predictability and difficulty in modeling all relevant scales. Current models and simulations of rotating, stratified turbulence in the atmosphere and oceans are conducted at parameters that do not closely resemble observed, realistic values. Multiscale simulations are usually limited on both the grid scale and domain size. It is therefore clear that many advances must occur through new model development and associated simulations utilizing extreme parameter values in an asymptotic manner. This will require as well a body of knowledge gained from large-scale direct numerical simulations (DNS) and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) that explore the computationally accessible moderate values in controlled settings, as well as observations and laboratory experiments to access the physically meaningful extreme values.

This Theme of the Year (TOY) 2011/2012 workshop will bring together researchers with primary interest in the above topics and their applications to development of scalings and parameterizations of these processes and the quantification and understanding of their impacts on the climate system. The workshop will be preceded by one day of lectures intended for graduate students and young researchers in order for them to learn about the issues in RST and profit fully from the workshop itself.

The opening day of pedagogical lectures include talks by:

  • Peter Bartello, McGill University Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
  • Eric D'Asaro, University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory
  • Robert Ecke, Los Alamos National Laboratory Center for Nonlinear Studies
  • Leslie Smith, University of Wisconsin Department of Engineering
  • Geoffrey Vallis, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory and Princeton University

Research topics will be introduced by:

  • Alberto Naviera-Garabato, Southampton National Oceanography Centre
  • Rupert Klein, Institut für Mathematik Berlin
  • Andy Majda, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
  • Jim McWilliams, University of California Los Angeles
  • Julie McClean, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

The workshop and scientific forum is supported by NSF and NCAR (PIs Julien and Smith, Co-Is Fox-Kemper, Weiss, Kurien, and Pouquet).

The workshop will be held in Boulder at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) auditorium on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus and the NCAR Mesa Lab, May 14-18, 2012.

PIs : Keith Julien and Leslie Smith,

Co-PIs : Baylor Fox-Kemper, Jeff Weiss, Kurien, and Annick Pouquet.

The workshop and scientific forum is supported by NSF and NCAR