Meeting aims to boost key ocean and climate change technologies

A workshop on "high resolution multiscale earth system modeling and prediction" was held in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province from Aug 14 to 16.

The workshop was held by the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Texas A&M University of the United States.

The three parties agreed to pursue joint research on high resolution, multi-scale global and regional earth system modeling to promote understanding of ocean-atmosphere interaction, wave-induced mixing, and other marine processes. The goal is to develop a prediction capability for seasonal-decadal global climate change and to realize accurate forecasts for meso-scale eddies, El Nino, tornados, tropical cyclones and other meso-scale marine and weather phenomena.

The three parties reached consensus on the cooperation objectives and mode, plans for scientific activities, resource sharing principles and expected research results for the cooperation over the next five years.

Seasonal-decadal scale prediction of ocean and climate change is imperative for ocean and atmosphere sciences of the future. To fulfill this task, one of the major technological goals is development of a multi-scale high resolution earth prediction system.

The QNLM represents China's strategic S&T driving force for national innovation systems, and has taken on the mission of resolving major problems for marine science and technology and developing pace-setting marine technologies.

QNLM's two laboratories, the Functional Laboratory for Regional Oceanography and Numerical Modeling and the Functional Laboratory for Ocean Dynamic Processes and Climate, are among the world’s best in R&D for global ocean modeling including upper-ocean mixing, and data assimilation.

Moreover, the QNLM is already equipped with a peta-flop class computer and will have an exa-flop class computer in place by 2020.

Funded by the US Federal Government, NCAR is the national lab of the US in the field of atmospherics, with world-leading capability in R&D for global climate and earth system modeling.

Texas A&M University is internationally renowned for its high resolution regional ocean models.

The three parties have worked for a long time to forge cooperation in relevant fields, and are poised to jointly establish a center for research and prediction of world climate change. Their cooperation will contribute considerably to a better understanding and more accurate prediction of climate change.