Dr. Chunzai Wang

South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS

10:00， April 25， 2018

No. 101, Keyan Building, IAP

Abstract: All of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans play important roles in climate variability and climate change.  The ocean-atmosphere coupling over these three oceans forms and produces various climate phenomena.  As a result, the Pacific hosts the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO); the Atlantic has the Atlantic Nino, Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) and Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC); and the Indian Ocean owns the Indian Ocean basin (IOB) mode and the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) mode.  These climate phenomena can all affect regional climate, extreme weather events and even global warming.  Indeed, interaction among these three oceans together with the ocean-atmosphere coupling can initialize and modulate climate variability and then change our traditional views of climate and climate change.  This talk synthesizes and summarizes climate variability and mechanisms induced by inter-ocean interaction during the past.  Because this topic is relatively new and promising, it is hoped that further study and focus may greatly advance our understanding and prediction of global climate.  This talk also discusses issues and questions that need to be addressed in the future, providing a global perspective of climate.