Program uses Singapore Time and is 8 hours ahead of GMT

Axford Lecture / Live Q&A Fri-05 Aug 11:00 – 12:00

Detecting Change in the Climate System in the Indonesian Seas

The Indonesian seas play a fundamental role in the coupled ocean and climate system with the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) providing the only tropical pathway connecting the global oceans. Recent changes in the wind and buoyancy forcing over the tropical Indo-Pacific have directly affected the vertical profile, strength, and the heat and freshwater transports of the ITF. These changes influence the large-scale sea level, SST, precipitation and wind patterns. The talk will discuss these recent changes and their subsequent impacts on the regional climate variability.

Janet Sprintall is a Research Physical Oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego. She received her PhD from University of Sydney, Australia and undertook a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at NOAA PMEL before moving to Scripps as a JIMO fellow. She investigates the role of the ocean in the variability of the coupled air-sea climate system with a particular focus on the western Pacific marginal seas and the Indian and Southern Oceans. Her research addresses fundamental questions such as what determines the spatial and temporal variations in the climate system and how the ocean characteristics and dynamics will change in response to a warming world. She is a sea-going marine scientist, collecting in situ observations from ships and moorings, as well as contributing to and employing data from the Global Ocean Observing System. Dr. Sprintall currently serves as the Physical Oceanography secretary of the Ocean Sciences section of the American Geophysical Union and is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society.