21st International Congress of
Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM),
Warsaw, 15-21 August 2004
Minisymposium on ``Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics''
chair: J. Sommeria (France), sommeria@coriolis-legi.org
co-chair: M.E. McIntyre (U.K.), mem@damtp.cam.ac.uk
Atmosphere-ocean dynamics was given special Minisymposium status at last year's quadrennial IUTAM congress (ICTAM '04). Further details are as follows; see also the congress web site.
Sectional Lecture:
Peter Rhines, Seattle, U.S.A.
Ocean circulation and its influence on climate
Introductory Lectures:
Onno Bokhove, Twente, The Netherlands
Wave-vortex interaction in the atmosphere and ocean, with
applications to understanding and modeling the climate system
Peter Haynes, Cambridge, U.K.
Transport and mixing in the atmosphere
Olivier Talagrand, Paris, France.
Data assimilation into numerical models
The practical importance and intellectual challenge of this research area hardly needs emphasis. Beyond the short-term prediction and predictability of weather and sea states, we now face growing concerns about climate change and other long-term environmental problems.
Although environmental problems involve complex interactions with biological and human activity, mechanics is still at the heart of the Earth system and therefore at the heart of the subject. The modeling of turbulence and other chaotic nonlinear effects is often the limiting factor in our prediction capability. Various process of wave interaction, wave-vortex interaction, turbulent transport and mixing need to be better understood. More general issues, about the symbiosis of data and models and the predictability and controllability of complex systems, need also to be addressed. Such problems tend to be hidden by the complexity of operational numerical models and observational technology. Because of this complexity, and the difficulty in validating predictions, there is a need for the kind of disciplined and precise thinking that is so well exemplified by the great traditions in theoretical and applied mechanics.