– Report written by Marilyn Raphael, UCLA
The Amundsen Sea Low Workshop was held at UCLA on December 5-6th, 2013. The Workshop was part of a response to the WCRP’s established Polar Climate Predictability Initiative (PCPI). The PCPI is a sub-initiative of the “Cryosphere in a Changing Climate” Grand Challenge led by CliC.
The workshop addressed one aspect of this Grand Challenge, the role of non-zonal circulation in driving Antarctic climate variability, in particular the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL). The ASL represents a very important component of the non-zonal circulation with significant influence in the Pacific sector of the high Southern Latitudes and links to the Tropical Pacific. There is a need to evaluate our understanding of this system, to identify where gaps in our knowledge exist and to suggest how these gaps might be filled. You can find the abstracts of the presentations on the webpage and the report here.