Linking monsoon systems across timescales

PAGES news • Vol 19 • No 2 • July 2011 mitigate potential ENSO climate impacts in the future (see e.g., Fig. 1). In order to discuss all these aspects, an international workshop on MCEV focusing on analysis, reconstruction and simulation of ENSO related climate oscillations was held in San Diego. The workshop drew more than 20 experts from Australia, Canada, Mexico, Spain, UK and the USA. The participants were mainly researchers from the fields of climate simulations and reconstructions or working on climate impacts and their related economical aspects. This workshop was a complementary meeting to the 10th International Conference on Paleoceanography (10th ICP) and was sponsored by the Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC-MEXUS) of the University of California. Introductory presentations covered a wide range of topics including ENSO modeling, the linear and non-linear trends of climate variability, the differences between local and remote processes, the inherent noise behind the records and their biological feedbacks, GCM projections for the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in the 21st century, ENSO and PDO coincident contributions and trends, and new highresolution geochemistry proxy records. Other aspects also discussed included: MCEV from simulations and proxies, nonlinear decomposition of ENSO simulated records, and orbitally induced mean states of climate change in the Tropical Pacific during interglacials. Emphasis on ENSO climate reconstructions from geological records was provided through an overview of different aspects: (a) on the most adequate archives and the sensitivity of proxy variables linked to ENSO conditions, (b) on the influence of hemispheric climate processes on sea surface temperature (SST) during the Holocene, and (c) on isotopic and geochemical analyses from sedimentary records to determine the transmission of the ENSO signal from the western tropical Pacific and the relationship between ENSO and the California Current variability over the past millennium. Another session focused on nonlinear mathematical analyses. For example, modeling the millennial synchronization between Greenland and Antarctic δ18O records and the non-linear behavior of ENSO on different timescales were discussed. The concluding session was centered around the regional impacts of ENSO: analysis of inter-annual variability of precipitation and temperatures over Mexico, the social value of climate predictions in terms of public investments, and the reliance on information provided by institutions and organizations. The next workshops will focus on centennial scale climate forcings (volcanic and solar). Reconstructions, models and their centennial scale forecasts will be discussed taking into account the associated global and regional climate variability.