Open Science Symposium on Western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate was held in Qingdao, China on October 15-17. This event was organized by NPOCE (Northwestern Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment) and SPICE (Southwest Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment) with more than 200 participants from 13 countries including France, United States, Australia, Germany, Philippines, Korea, and Japan etc.
CLIVAR Pacific Panel co-chair and SPICE scientific steering committee chair Dr. Alexandre Ganachaud hosted the opening ceremony. NPOCE SSC chair, Chinese Academician Dunxin Hu made a speech of welcome on behalf of the organizers.
The areas of the symposium cover a variety of subjects including, but not limited to, roles of the western Pacific Ocean circulation in the maintenance of the warm pool, relation between the warm pool and the low-frequency variability of the climate, long-term evolution of the ENSO cycles and its mechanisms, variability of the East Asian Monsoon system, and climatic evolution and predictability of tropical cyclones in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean, and Western Pacific Ocean's role in and impacts on carbon cycle, biogeochemical process, acidification, ecosystem, paleo-oceanography, etc. One of the major goals of this symposium, however, is to discuss future directions of research and synchronize existing field experiments in the western Pacific Ocean.
Chinese Academician Guanhua Xu
The Chair of Scientific Committee of National Basic Research Program (973) Guanhua Xu said, Western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate research is an important part of global climate change. Under the framework of CLIVAR, the successive launch of two international programs SPICE and NPOCE marks a new era of Western Pacific Ocean circulation and climate research. The Open Science Symposium organized by NPOCE and SPICE is a milestone in the course of Western Pacific ocean and climate research. The smooth implementation of NPOCE suggests that Chinese scientists play an increasingly active role in this field. National scientific program such as 973 will increase the support of the western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Research, and encourage chinese scientists to cooperate with international counterparts closely.
Deputy Director of Geosciences Division of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Yucheng Chai
Deputy Director of Geosciences Division of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Yucheng Chai pointed: The study of ocean circulation and climate in the western Pacific Ocean has long been one of the major foci of the NSFC funded research. The first major project of physical oceanography in the history of NSFC has been funded in 2008 to study the low latitude western boundary currents and the warm pool variability in the western Pacific Ocean, which formed the backbone of the NPOCE international cooperation project. The funding of the key project by NSFC back in the 1980s has resulted in the discovery of a series of undercurrents in the western Pacific Ocean, the most famous of which is the Mindanao Undercurrent. We are committed to supporting exploratory research with innovative ideas and to promoting communication and cooperation at the international level. Deep ocean exploration and climate change study have been and will continue to be two of the major directions of future funding in the agenda of NSFC. I encourage all of you to actively pursue scientific investigations in the western Pacific and to help NSFC design future funding directions.
WCRP/CLIVAR chairman Martin Visbeck
The chairman of WCRP/CLIVAR scientific steering committee, Prof. Martin Visbeck said, Pacific Ocean has big influence on climate system on both sides of ocean: American side and Asian side, and particular the study of fast moving boundary current has been the area we was so least to do over the last several decades, it is the area we can see significant changes variability, as well as possible changes with human intervention with global planet, particular with climate system. I am very proud personally to be a part of the efforts to this program NPOCE. That has been led from the design phase into the early implementation by my friends from Qingdao, which was a wonderful evolution of international science. Two years ago, NPOCE was endorsed by CLIVAR with everyone’s efforts. I really like to thank all of those here in China and Asian countries to make this possible, particular Chinese funding agency or program office. It is really important to see the young scientists and next generation to be present here and hope they can show-case their research, gain international exposure, and shape their academic career directions.
Co-chair of International Argo Steering Team, Dr. Susan Wijffels said, NPOCE implementation is very significant, there are many complicated phenomenon in this particular region such as Monsoon, ENSO, nonlinear western boundary current, eddies etc. Science challenges are large. As a co-chair of international Argo Steering team, we were challenged in Western Pacific region to enhance the cooperation with other international program to solve the global scientific problem.
Chinese academician Dunxin Hu gave a keynote speech
Academician Dunxin Hu said，Western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Research has been a major scientific frontier concerned by the international scientific community, the area has the largest warm pool, the strongest ocean convection, and the strongest precipitation. It is typhoon-prone region. The variability of Ocean circulation in the western Pacific is the key factor which influences the floods, droughts and other climate disasters in China, which plays an important role in the formation, and the evolution of warm pool and also has big influences on ENSO cycle and the Asian-Australian monsoon and even global climate system. He pointed out an integration of different nations and institutions is really needed in future for the extensive international cooperation.
