| Session Details | |
| Section | AS - Atmospheric Sciences |
| Session Title | Seasonal to Decadal Climate Variability in Southeast Asia and Indo-pacific: Impact and Predictions |
| Main Convener | Dr. R. Kartika Lestari (Centre for Climate Research Singapore, Singapore) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Jianping Li (Beijing Normal University, China) Dr. Yukiko Imada (Japan Meteorological Agency, Japan) Prof. Renguang Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) Prof. Song Yang (Sun Yat-sen University, China) |
| Session Description | Seasonal to decadal climate variability is a key feature of the global climate system with impacts ranging from the pace of global warming, mean meridional circulation changes and interplay between tropical modes of variability and their teleconnections with extra-tropics. In the meantime, concerted effort from the international community has given unprecedented access to climate model simulations to evaluate the predictability in both seasonal and decadal variability. South-East Asia, including the Maritime Continent, and Indo-Pacific region appear to be central points both in term of understanding of the impact of seasonal to decadal variability and predictability. Improving their prediction will be important as part of the adaptation to on-going climate change. While seasonal prediction has received more attention and showed some slightly improvements in some regions, the causes and predictability of modes of decadal variability are still a great challenge: solar and volcanic forcings, and/or internal ocean oscillation (e.g. North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) or Inter-decadal pacific Oscillation (IPO)). The strength of the impact of decadal variability on surface climate (temperature and precipitation changes) vary depending on the region and season with South-East Asia and Indo-Pacific region a probable “hot spot”. Difficulties in the understanding of the mechanisms and causes are compelled by the systematic under-representation in climate models of decadal variability. The main objective of this session is to focus on the causes, mechanisms, prediction and societal impacts of seasonal to decadal variability in both regional and global scales, with a preferable (but not exclusive) focus on South-Eastern Asia, the Maritime Continent and Indo-Pacific region. All papers within the above scopes, modelling simulations and/or data analysis, are welcome. |