First Latin American school in ocean and climate modelling: summary report, lecture notes and seminar abstracts

First Latin American school in ocean and climate modelling: summary report, lecture notes and seminar abstracts

[Overview]: The First Latin American School in Ocean and Climate Modelling was held on 16 - 27 October 2000, in Dichato, about 40 kms north of Concepcion, Chile. The school was organised and directed by Dr. Joachim Ribbe from the Program for Regional Studies in Physical Oceanography and Climate (PROFC) and the Department for the Physics of the Ocean and Atmosphere (DEFAO), both at the University of Concepcion. Twenty-five invited graduate students of Latin American origin took part. Twelve invited lecturers and speakers gave instructions in form of lectures, tutorials, and invited seminars.

The objectives of this school in ocean and climate modelling were: i) to conduct regional training of Latin American graduate students, post-doctoral students, young academics, and other professionals; ii) to establish a Latin American wide network in ocean, atmosphere, and climate modelling; and iii) to develop local expertise in Chile and the Latin American region. The school itself consisted of four segments: a series of lectures, invited seminars, student presentations, and exercise-tutorial sessions during which students were able to experiment with several state-of-the-art ocean and climate models. During the school, the students were divided into six working groups with about 4-5 students in each group. Each group was given the task to produce a summary report of one of the lectures and of the tutorial sessions.

All formally enrolled students were able gain credits toward their respective degree program. The event was offered and advertised through the University of Concepcion as part of its international program in oceanography. Funding for the school was provided by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) via the Inter-American Institute (IAI) for Global Change Research supported the participation of eight participants. Endorsement for this first school was also obtained from the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO). Other funding and contributions were made by the University of Concepcion (UdeC), the Department of Oceanography, DEFAO, and PROFC.

The school was widely publicised through news articles appearing, for example, in EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union and the newsletter of the Climate Variability Program (CLIVAR). Announcements were also posted on several internet based information networks such as CLIMLIST, OCEANSPACE, SCIENCEnet Bulletin Board (Omnet), Ciencia Al Dia International, and REDSUR. A webpage (http://www.profc. udec.cl/school2000) was designed and continuously updated throughout the year to provide participants and other interested parties with a resource and reference tool.

The emphasis during the first school was on global to basin scale ocean and climate processes. Covered topics included modelling the coupled equatorial ocean atmosphere system (ENSO), global climate, past climates, geochemical ocean tracer, box models, and models of the western boundary current system.

This report reflects some of the activities carried out during the First Latin American School in Ocean and Climate Modeling. It serves as a reference tool for all those having participated in the school and provides a brief synopsis of the current state of knowledge in ocean and climate sciences.

Author holds copyright, being the organiser of the school and editor of the document.