| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | Western Boundary Currents |
| Main Convener | Dr. Dongxiao Wang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Guoqi Han (Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Canada) |
| Session Description | Western boundary currents (WBCs) are warm,narrow, deep-reaching, and fast-flowing currents on the western side of ocean basins. The WBCs are important components in the Earth climate system, advecting heat rapidly poleward from the tropical regions. Their extensions produce some of the world’s largest air-sea fluxes. Hence, changes in the WBC systems due to both natural variability and anthropogenic factors can have considerable regional effects such as on rainfall and potential impacts on the global thermohaline circulation. In addition, WBC regions feature both enhanced and dampened mixing. The proximity of topography, internal wave trapping, and energetic mesoscale instabilities heighten mixing; while strong fronts act to dampen it. This session offers a forum for a diversity of experts interested in these different WBC regimes to present their latest scientific findings, exchange ideas and discuss emerging issues and future directions over a wide range of timescales. We invite contributions on all topics related to the WBCs, including but not limited to air-sea fluxes, jet path and strength, heat transport and storage, recirculation gyre, and mixing, as well as studies of their variability and impacts on climate, including future projections under climate change scenarios. |