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Frontiers in Decadal Climate Variability Proceedings of a Workshop (2016) / Chapter Skim
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Frontiers and Research Opportunities
Pages 47-50

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From page 47...
... , which would integrate the ocean and cryosphere response. Participants noted that adequate monitoring of climate change for studying decadal variability would truly require a combination of metrics, for example, the use of global sea level rise coupled with GMST.
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From page 48...
...  Other specific areas that would benefit from improved observations include o geographical distribution of aerosols below 15 km to determine contribution of external forcing, and o ocean isotope geochemistry in the equatorial Pacific to determine El Niño/La Niña occurrences during the past 1,000 years. Modeling Challenges, Needs, and Opportunities Some individual participants identified additional modeling challenges, needs, and opportunities:  Regional patterns and cross-timescale interactions are important, but not all models can capture the full collection of processes and phenomena that have been deemed relevant to regional (or basin-scale)
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From page 49...
... Other knowledge gaps include the following:  The connection between Arctic sea ice loss and mid-latitude weather, and the consequential regional effects;  The role of and quantitative data on stratification of the deep Southern Ocean;  The relative importance of atmospheric vs. oceanic bridges in linking stochastic processes at mid-to-high latitudes (how does local atmospheric forcing produce remote response(s)
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From page 50...
... Some participants reiterated the importance of developing predictive capability for decadal variability of seasonal-to-interannual coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomena, including weather, for selected geographical areas for specific phenomena:  El Niño/La Niña  Tropical Atlantic  Arctic sea ice  Southern Ocean/Antarctic sea ice (surface winds, ocean stratification)  Bottom- and intermediate-water formation They noted, however, that some studies of predictability of this most recent, as well as other slowdown periods, have met with some success (see Toward Predictability)
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Key Terms

  • decadal variability
  • climate variability
  • sea ice
  • sea level
  • knowledge gaps

  • individual participants
  • arctic sea
  • participants identified
  • global mean
  • surface temperature

  • heat uptake
  • heat content
  • identified additional
  • focus efforts
  • upper ocean

  • existing records
  • specific climatic
  • expanded observations
  • key knowledge
  • existing observations

  • prominent metric
  • intercomparison project
  • studying climate
  • moving forward
  • participants discussed

  • gmst trend
  • time forcing
  • include deep
  • mean surface
  • metric relative


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