Dynamical Systems and Climate: Opportunities for Involvement

By Mary Lou Zeeman
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Handling editor: Evelyn Sander

Dynamical Systems and Climate:
Opportunities for Involvement

Mary Lou Zeeman, Chair, SIAG/DS, Bowdoin College and Cornell University

Many of the stumbling blocks in climate modeling, sustainability and decision support are deeply mathematical in nature. They raise new questions and exciting opportunities for mathematical research, particularly in dynamical systems. For related links, see [1,2]. Nevertheless, there have been several obstructions to the engagement of the dynamical systems community in climate research, stemming partly from the fact that though climate science examples are seen in dynamical systems literature, the field is not yet a standard part of the dynamical systems culture: For example, there are not many role models, it has not featured largely at mathematics conferences or institutes, there are not yet many established training programs, and it can be daunting to learn about a new field. Fortunately, we are beginning to overcome these obstacles, and there are increasingly many opportunities to learn about climate math questions that appeal to people interested dynamical systmes. Here are some examples of opportunities for involvement. Please let us know about more by posting announcements in the magazine and elsewhere!

Snowbird, May 2009

The SIAG/DS Snowbird conferences are always exciting for the breadth of application of dynamical systems they convey. The highlighted areas for 2009 include climate modeling, biological systems, engineering systems, Hamiltonian systems, stochastic systems, networks, uncertainty management, pattern formation, and fluid dynamics. For more information on the conference, see [3].

Joint Mathematics Meetings, Washington, DC, Jan 2009

Sea Ice Core
Figure 1. Ken Golden taking a sea ice core in Antarctica, with the icebreaker Aurora Australis in the background. Photo by Adam Gully during the Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment (SIPEX), 2007.

Once again, several of the SIAM activities at the 2009 American Mathematical Society (AMS)/ Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Joint Mathematics Meetings[4] have a Climate and Sustainability theme. The SIAM Invited Address will be delivered by Ken Golden, on Mathematics of sea ice to help predict climate change. Golden, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Utah, regularly travels to the Arctic and Antarctic to collect data on the fluid and electrical transport properties of sea ice, and his talks combine math and science with polar beauty and a sense of adventure [5-6]. He will also run a minisymposium on Polar Climate Modeling in collaboration with David Holland, and Deborah Sulsky. There will be a minisymposium on Mathematical Modeling of Natural Resources, organized by Catherine A. Roberts, and two minisymposia on energy: Mathematical and Computational Challenges in Global Climate and Energy Processes, organized by Margot Gerritsen, Chair of the SIAG on Geosciences, and The Mathematics of Energy Conversion, organized by Keith Promislow. For more information, see [7].

In addition to the SIAM activities at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meeting, Tom Pfaff will be running an MAA Minicourse on Educating about the state of the planet and sustainability while enhancing calculus [7], and there will be an MAA session and discussion on Environmental Mathematics: Getting it in the curriculum organized by Karen Bolinger and Ben Fusaro. These events are particularly well timed in view of the upcoming 2009 Math Awareness Month (see below).

Pancake Ice
Figure 2. Pancake ice in the outer reaches of the Antarctic sea ice pack. Photo by Ken Golden.

Climate Math Web Portal

We are grateful to the Infrastructure Program at the National Science Foundation, and to SIAM, for funding the development of a Climate Math Web Portal to be hosted by SIAM (see also "Climate Math in San Diego," DSWeb Magazine [2]). Chris Jones and I will be coordinating that effort over the next two years, in collaboration with SIAM and an advisory board. Initially, our development efforts will focus on posting summaries of open problems; introduction to climate models of simple and intermediate complexity with associated MATLAB code; links to survey articles and on-line lectures; annotated reading lists; introduction to data archives; a calendar of events, and job opportunities. Please send your ideas or materials for the Web Portal team to me [8]. We are especially interested in hearing from graduate students who may be interested in a summer position helping to code up and explore some of the models.

Math Awareness Month, April 2009

The theme of the 2009 Math Awareness Month is Mathematics and Climate. Please start thinking now about how to use climate questions and data to enrich your classes next semester, whether they be freshman calculus or graduate dynamical systems. Are your math majors and graduate students ready to go into the local high schools to talk about how math is used in climate research? If not, your department could design an event to get them ready. The Math Awareness Month website [9] will include ideas, essays, worksheets and data sets for inspiration. The IPCC reports are filled with data around which discussions can be built [10]. Why not also reserve a slot for a climate related seminar, colloquium or public lecture in April? Please send your ideas or materials for the Math Awareness Month team to DSWeb Editor in Chief Evelyn Sander [11].

Climate Math Summer School at MSRI

MSRI[12] and the Sea Change Foundation [13] have been leaders in facilitating conversation between mathematicians and climate scientists, and it is likely they will continue to do so. For example, approximately 45 graduate students and 25 postdocs and faculty from mathematics, engineering, climate science, computer science and economics participated in the 2008 Climate Change Summer School [14]. The summer school began with courses on Climate Science and Modeling, Dynamical Systems, Data Assimilation, and Statistics for Climate Data, then transitioned into graduate research projects, brainstorming sessions, and lectures from visiting specialists.

MRSI Climate Change Summer School
Figure 3. MSRI Climate Change Summer School participants, July 2008.

Graduate student projects ranged from exploring concepts of uncertainty through a stochastic Lorenz system to modeling the feedback loop between temperature and CO2 to understand ice core data; time series analysis of ice core data; and data assimilation for climate systems. The enthusiasm and energy level were extremely inspiring, and it was clear that a focus on Climate Mathematics will enrich both disciplines.

References

[1] Dana Mackenzie, Mathematics of Climate Change, A new discipline for an uncertain century, MSRI Press, 2007, Link to order a free copy.
[2] Mary Lou Zeeman, "Climate Math in San Diego," DSWeb Magazine, April, 2008.
[3] SIAM Meeting on Applied Dynamical Systems, http://www.siam.org/meetings/ds09/, Snowbird Utah, 2009.
[4] AMS/MAA Joint Mathematics Meetings, Washington DC, January 5-8, 2009, http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2110_intro.html.
[5] Ken Golden, http://www.math.utah.edu/~golden.
[6] "Mathematics Of Ice To Aid Global Warming Forecasts," Science Daily, September, 2007.
[7] Joint Mathematical Meetings Activities: SIAM Activities and MAA Minicourse 3.
[8] Mary Lou Zeeman, Bowdoin College, [email protected].
[9] Mathematical Awareness Month, 2009, http://www.mathaware.org.
[10] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), http://www.ipcc.ch.
[11] Evelyn Sander, DSWeb Magazine Section Chief Editor, [email protected].
[12] Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, http://www.msri.org.
[13] Sea Change Foundation, http://www.seachange.org.
[14] Climate Change Summer School , MSRI, 2008.
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