Mathematics of Planet Earth 2013

Description

The oceans and the atmosphere define the environment in which we live, and its understanding is of tremendous economic and social importance. Mathematical models are a key component of our understanding of the oceans and the atmosphere, and thus the Earth’s climate system. Due to uncertainties in various processes or components in this coupled oceans-atmosphere system, the mathematical models are subject to stochastic effects, such as uncertain parameters, random boundary or initial conditions, and missing or unresolved mechanisms. Therefore the coupled oceans-atmosphere system is essentially a stochastic dynamical system, with multiple components, multiple time-space scales, and multiple interacting physical-chemical-biological processes. Meanwhile, the field of stochastic dynamical systems has achieved significant progress in the past decade, benefiting from the fruitful cross-fertilization of the dynamical systems and stochastic analysis communities. The further advances in the investigation of the coupled oceans-atmosphere system, as a stochastic dynamical system, can greatly benefit from the participation of the stochastic dynamical systems community.

The goal of this workshop is to bring together a group of experts from the oceans-atmosphere community and the stochastic dynamical systems community, including some people who have been working in this interface, to summarize the past achievements and exchange ideas for future studies. It is expected that this workshop will play an important role in nurturing and guiding this exciting interdisciplinary field.