KU announces Midwest Mathematics and Climate Conference

LAWRENCE — A conference that brings together a diverse group of atmospheric scientists and mathematicians will take place this week at the University of Kansas.

The Midwest Mathematics and Climate Conference, hosted by the departments of Mathematics and Geography/Atmospheric Science program, will take place April 30-May 2. David Mechem, associate professor of geography; Xuemin Tu, assistant professor of mathematics, and Erik Van Vleck, professor of mathematics, organized the conference.

The event emphasis will include dynamics, high-performance computing, numerical analysis, cloud-systems behavior, data assimilation, dimension reduction, uncertainty quantification, model hierarchy and statistical approaches.

Henk Dijkstra, Utrecht University, will present a public lecture at 1:30 p.m. Friday, May 1, in The Commons, Spooner Hall.  His talk, “Intrinsic Variability in the Climate System,” will cover climate variability that is caused by intrinsic oceanic processes such as instabilities of ocean currents. The climate science community has emphasized that 93 percent of the Earth’s excess heat is stored in the ocean. The talk will focus on the effect on ocean heat storage and the global mean surface temperature.

The conference is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications, the Office of Research, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, departments of Mathematics and Geography/Atmospheric Science Program and The Commons.

More information can be found online.