Abstract

Tatsu Monkmoan, a geophysics PhD with a focus on Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, will discuss the large scale physical structure of the global ocean and how it interacts, dynamically and thermodynamically, with the atmosphere and the broader climate system. The ocean stores a massive amount of heat; approximately 93% of the excess heat energy resulting from human-induced global warming is absorbed into and cycled throughout the world ocean system. The global ocean thus acts a reservoir that both damps and prolongs the effects of warming due to greenhouse gas emissions. He will give a qualitative overview of how the ocean absorbs, redistributes, and responds to climate forcings, and how these changes in turn force changes in the atmosphere and cryosphere in the form of climate feedbacks. If time allows he will also summarize the dynamics of El Niño, La Niña, and the East Asian Monsoon, and how climatologists expect them to be affected by climate change.