Coupled Aspect of Atlantic Ocean-Atmosphere Variability
Shang-Ping Xie
IPRC, University of Hawaii
xie@soest.hawaii.edu
This report is based on an overview talk given at the CLIVAR workshop on "Shallow tropical/subtropical overturning cells and their interactions with the atmosphere" that took place in Venice, Italy, October 9-13, 2000. After briefly touching upon observational studies, this report reviews the recent progress in coupled modeling of tropical Atlantic variability (TAV). This is followed by a discussion on the challenge we face in consolidating some mutually conflicting results from AGCM and CGCM simulations and in assessing the role of ocean dynamics in Atlantic climate variability.