In February 1-3 2017, the US CLIVAR workshop 2017 (Arctic change & its influence on mid-latitude climate & weather) were held at the Georgetown University in the Washington D.C.
In this workshop, the hypothesis that recent severe winter events frequently occurred in the Eurasia continent and North America is caused by the sea ice decrease in the Arctic Ocean such as the Barents-Kala Seas was mainly discussed based on the observational analysis and atmospheric model experiments. However, the numerical model experiments have a large uncertainty, and thus the possibility of deficiency in model experiment, other factors, and atmospheric nonlinearity were discussed. It is noteworthy that the scientific paper (Sato et al. 2014, ERL) by Dr. Sato, who is an ArCS project researcher, was frequently cited in many key note speeches, and the importance of the atmospheric teleconnections from the Gulf Stream was highlighted. In the working group, the standard experiment design of atmospheric model was discussed. Thus, further understanding of the recent severe winter events is expected in the near future through the inter-comparison between several atmospheric model experiments.
Takuya Nakanowatari (NIPR, A member of Theme 1)
view toward the venue, Georgetown University
Opening address from US CLIVER secretariat, on the first day of the meeting
