CONFERENCE ON NON-LINEAR PHENOMENA IN GLOBAL CLIMATE DYNAMICS 26 - 29 September, 2000 Miramare, Trieste, Italy The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Abdus Salam ICTP) is sponsoring a Conference on Non-linear Phenomena in Global Climate Dynamics to be held from 26 to 29 September, 2000, in Trieste, Italy. The Conference will be organized by F. Molteni (ICTP, Italy), T. Palmer (ECMWF, U.K.), and J. Tribbia (NCAR, U.S.A.). * * * MAIN TOPICS * * * - Regimes and Non-linearity in the Extratropics - Scale Interactions and Non-linearity in the Tropical Climate - Impact of Non-linearity on Systematic Errors of General Circulation Models Among the invited speakers are J. Derome (McGill Univ., Montreal, Canada), M. Ghil (U.C.L.A., California, U.S.A.), E. Kaas (DMI, Copenhagen, Denmark), J. Marshall (MIT, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.), T. Palmer (ECMWF, Reading, U.K.), G. Philander (Princeton Univ., New Jersey, U.S.A.), J. Shukla (COLA-IGES, Maryland, U.S.A.), J. Slingo (Univ. of Reading, U.K.), A. Sutera (Univ. of Rome, Italy), J. Tribbia (NCAR, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.), E. Tziperman (Weizmann Inst. of Science, Israel), R. Vautard (LMD, Paris, France). Following are some specific issues that may be addressed during the Conference, which is intended to be a forum for discussion: € What observational and modelling evidence is available on the existence of non-linear, regime-like behaviour in the atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and how well do we understand it from a theoretical standpoint? € What aspects of the atmospheric response to variations in natural and anthropogenic forcing are best described by non-linear dynamics? € How is intraseasonal variability in the extratropics modulated by interannual and interdecadal fluctuations arising from ocean-atmosphere interactions? € How is ENSO affected by multi-decadal variability (both natural and anthropogenic) of the ocean-atmosphere system? € What is the role on non-linear scale interactions in tropical dynamics? € Are non-linear dynamical processes likely to be important sources of systematic errors in GCMs? € To what extent is the reliability of climate predictions (both for seasonal forecasting and assessment of anthropogenic effects) negatively affected by systematic errors? € Should we model the climate as a stochastically perturbed dynamical system to account for uncertainties in sub-grid-scale processes? More information on the Conference agenda can be found at http://www.ictp.trieste.it/~moltenif/conf-nonlin.html The Conference is intended primarily for scientists and graduate students working in the areas of Atmospheric Sciences, Climatology, Physics and Mathematics. It is open to scientists from all member countries of the United Nations, UNESCO and IAEA. Although the main purpose of the Abdus Salam ICTP is to help researchers from developing countries through a programme based on international cooperation, students and scientists from developed countries are also welcome to attend. Very limited funding (including travel grants) is available for participation in the Conference, mostly for scientists from developing countries. There is no registration fee. Individuals interested in attending the Conference should submit an application to arrive no later than 20 JUNE 2000. The "Request for Participation" form can be obtained either by: 1) Accessing the ICTP web page http://www.ictp.trieste.it/~pwc/nonlinear.html and downloading the form OR 2) Sending an e-mail message to , with the subject "get application". You will automatically receive the form via e-mail. Please send your completed application form via electronic mail, telefax, or post to: the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics Conference on Nonlinear Phenomena in Global Climate Dynamics (c/o Pandora Pieri) Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy Tel: + 39 040 2240-374 Fax: + 39 040 2240-449 E-mail: smr1240@ictp.trieste.it