Prof. Jong-Seong Kug

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University

14:00, October 9, 2024

Meeting room No.3, IAP Building 3

Abstract:

Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, the reversibility of our climate system under mitigation scenarios has emerged as a critical scientific question. Recently, various climate model experiments have shown that key components of the climate system exhibit strong hysteresis behaviors, deviating from the trajectory of external climate forcing. Moreover, some of them do not return to their original state for a long time even after the forcing is fully recovered, suggesting climate irreversibility. Several key factors have been identified that show strong climate hysteresis. Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), sea level rise, Southern Ocean warming, El Nino-like warming, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone. These hystereses can be categorized into inertia-oriented and tipping-oriented types, operating on different timescales and producing various hysteresis in atmospheric circulation, regional hydrology, and climate variability. In addition, terrestrial and oceanic biogeochemical processes exhibit pronounced hysteresis, influenced both by the climate system and by their own inherent processes.

Bio:

Dr. Jong-Seong Kug is a professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University (SNU), Korea. He earned his Ph.D. in climate dynamics from SNU in 2003. His career includes roles as a research scientist at the University of Hawaii, principal research scientist at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, and professor at POSTECH before joining SNU in 2024. His research focuses on understanding and predicting climate variability and change, with recent work expanding to climate feedbacks from biogeochemical processes and the global carbon cycle. Dr. Kug has authored over 250 peer-reviewed papers, with an H-index of 62 and more than 19,000 citations. He serves as an Associate Editor of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences and has been a member of the WCRP/CLIVAR Pacific Regional Panel. Notably, he became the youngest associate member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. Dr. Kug received the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Science Prize in 2015 and the Presidential Award for Research Excellence in 2018."