New York University

New York University

The Office of Public Affairs

Tuesday, Feb 19, 2008

N-287, 2007-08

New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences will host the annual Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science (CAOS) Winter Workshop, “Predicting Sea Level in the 21st Century: The Role of Ice-Ocean Interaction,” on Fri., Feb. 22 and Sat. Feb. 23 at Warren Weaver Hall, Room 109, 251 Mercer Street (between W. 3rd and W. 4th Sts.).

For a complete schedule, go to http://caos.cims.nyu.edu/object/caos.schedule_2008.html

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is composed of climate scientists, released a February 2007 report concluding that human activity is largely responsible for climate change. However, the panel could offer only a rough estimate of how global warming would drive changes in sea levels-it predicted they would rise between 7.8 inches and two feet by the end of the century. In addition, the models used in such predictions did not include the dynamical response of the polar ice sheets to climate change.

The CAOS workshop is designed to stimulate activity between scientists focusing their research on understanding the ice sheets and modelers in national laboratories who run the IPCC models. The enhanced collaboration in intended to lead towards IPCC models that will include the response of the ice sheets to a changing global climate. The workshop will consist of 15-to-30-minute lectures as well as informal discussions. Participants include researchers from NASA, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the United Kingdom’s Meteorological Office, the British Antarctic Survey, the University of Tokyo, Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, and NYU.

Reporters interested in attending must RSVP to James Devitt, Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu.

The workshop is sponsored by the Morse Chair of Arts and Sciences at NYU, NASA’s Cryospheric Program, and the Office of Polar Programs of the National Science Foundation.