Tropical Atlantic and PIRATA-15 meeting

2-5 March 2010

Miami, Florida

Introduction

The goal of a joint Tropical Atlantic science meeting is to establish more exchanges and collaborations between observational and numerical modeling communities, and maintain links between ongoing research, process study efforts, and sustained observational programs in the region. Previous joint Tropical Atlantic meetings, encompassing interests of the TACE/CLIVAR, PIRATA, and AMMA projects and communities, have been held in Karlsruhe, Germany (November 27-30, 2007) and in Toulouse, France (February 2-6, 2009). The report from the 2009 Toulouse meeting is available by clicking here. The 2010 Tropical Atlantic meeting of TACE and PIRATA was held on March 2-5 in Miami, Florida, jointly organized by Rick Lumpkin (NOAA/AOML) and Bill Johns (University of Miami/RSMAS). The 2011 meeting is tentatively scheduled for March, and will be held in Brazil.

Meeting reports

Click here for the report from the PIRATA-15 meeting, including the Science Steering Group report.

Presentations

Click on presentation title for PDF version (not all are available). Click here for a list of the submitted abstracts

 

 

Session 1. Climate events and anomalies in the Tropical Atlantic (TA)

 

Abderrahim Bentamy Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Turbulent Fluxes over the Atlantic Tropical Ocean

Greg Foltz Interaction between the Atlantic meridional and Nino modes during 2009

Semyon Grodsky Interannual near-surface salinity variability from PIRATA and Argo observations

Julien Jouanno The equatorial cold tongue in November-December in the Tropical Atlantic -- mechanisms and variability

Ingo Richter On the triggering of Benguela Ninos - equatorial vs. local forcing

Fabrice Hernandez Tropical Atlantic Analysis Using Mercator Reanalysis

Ben Kirtman Impact of Ocean Model Resolution of CCSM4 Climate Variability

 

Session 2a. TA teleconnections

 

Chunzai Wang Teleconnected Influence of the Tropical Atlantic on the Tropical Indian and Pacific

Regina Rodrigues The impacts of inter-El Nino event on the Tropical Atlantic variability and the Northeast Brazil climate

Yochanan Kushnir The role of tropical Atlantic SST anomalies in forcing global circulation anomalies

 

Session 2b. Dynamics and impacts of intraseasonal variability

 

Anne Marie Treguier Biweekly ocillations in the Gulf of Guinea - a case of strong currents on an eastern boundary

Renellys Perez Interannual variations of Tropical Instability Waves and their influence on the equatorial Atlantic cold tongue

 

Session 2c. Physical-Biogeochemical Interactions in the TA

 

Ajit Subramaniam Spatial variability in optical and biogeochemical properties of the Equatorial Atlantic

Moacyr Araujo Coral bleaching analysis in the western tropical Atlantic

 

Session 3. Results from recent/ongoing TA observational programs

 

Peter Brandt Variability of the Equatorial Undercurrent in the central Atlantic

Bernard Bourles Analysis of the Equatorial Undercurrent in the Gulf of Guinea

Bill Johns TACE observations of the Equatorial Undercurrent in the Gulf of Guinea

Roberto de Almeida Seasonal variability of the upper circulation of the southwestern Tropical Atlantic

Frederic Marin Does the intraseasonal variability in the Gulf of Guinea impact the cold tongue development?

Claudia Schmid Analysis of the variability of the Salinity in the eastern tropical Atlantic

Monika Rhein Upwelling and associated heat flux in the Equatorial Atlantic inferred from helium isotope disequilibrium

Marcus Dengler On the parameterization of mixing processes at the equator

Domingos Urbano Upper ocean circulation in the southwestern tropical Atlantic

 

Session 4. Ocean, atmosphere, and coupled model simulations

 

Paulo Nobre Uncoupled Variations of the Tropical Atlantic EUC in a fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model

Herve Giordani Diagnosing Vertical Motion in the Equatorial Atlantic

Karthik Balaguru Barrier layers in the Atlantic warmpool - Formation and influence on climate at various time-scales

Mathieu Rouault Intrusion of tropical water in the Benguela upwelling, a numerical study

Kerstin Kirchner An analysis of the formation, propagation and decay of North Brazil Current rings in the FLAME model

Ramalingam Saravanan Hurricanes and Air-Sea Interaction in the Tropical Atlantic

Chidong Zhang A possible root cause of the surface westerly bias over the equatorial Atlantic in climate models

Brian Mapes Trying not to rain over the IAS in summer - largest analysis tendencies (model struggles) in the MERRA reanalysis

 

Plenary Discussion

Planned Research Activities, Research Priorities and Progress

Peter Brandt Planned observational campaigns in the Tropical Atlantic

Bernard Bourles Recommendations from TACE, PIRATA and AMMA for tropical Atlantic observations

Bernard Bourles Research and capacity building in West Africa

Edmo Campos The "Subtropical Pirate Extension" and other Brazilian efforts towards sustained ship-based observations

David Enfield The Intra Americas Study of Climate Processes (IASCLIP)

Paulo Nobre Brazilian research priorities

Matthieu Rouault The Extension of PIRATA in the Tropical South East Atlantic

Laurent Terray Tropical Atlantic biases in current coupled general circulation models: a BIG problem

 


PIRATA-15

 

Paulo Nobre Brazilian status

Domingos Urbano Brazilian data

Frederico Nogueira Brazilian plans

Bernard Bourles French report

Matthieu Rouault PIRATA Southeast Extension

Bernard Bourles The Total proposal for the SEE

Mike McPhaden PIRATA status and PMEL report

Rick Lumpkin PIRATA Northeast Extension and AOML report