Please consider contributing to the session on “The Earth’s energy imbalance and exchanges at the atmosphere-ocean interface: From fundamental research to societal concern,” part of the Our Common Future under Climate Change conference being held in Paris, France from 7-10 July 2015. A summary is below. The deadline for submissions is 2 March 2015; please note that you will need to submit your abstract under the parallel session theme of “Atmosphere-Ocean Interface” in order to relate to the session. Sessions have 1h 30min time slots, so there is space for 4 solicited talks, but numerous poster contributions. The direct link abstract submissions is http://www.commonfuture-paris2015.org/How-to-Contribute/Contributions.htm

The Earth’s energy imbalance and exchanges at the atmosphere-ocean interface: From fundamental research to societal concern

Conveners: Karina von Schuckmann, Cécile Guieu, Kevin Trenberth, Emilie Breviere

The main cause of climate change is from human activities, which alter the composition of the atmosphere and trap excess solar energy in the Earth system. This Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) results in planetary heating and gives rise to observed global warming, which interferes with the natural flow of energy through the climate system. Processes taking place at the atmosphere-ocean interface are then critical to the regulation of Earth climate, including the delivery of key services provided by marine ecosystems. Our capability to measure and understand the exchanges of heat, energy, gases and particles in the Earth’s climate system has advanced over the past decades. However there are still large uncertainties, in particular in the quantification of the magnitude and spatial distribution of heating in the system, as well as a lack of understanding on how to adequately parameterize fundamental controlling processes, which are in turn impairing the projection of future global environmental trends. This session will be under both, the auspices of the CLIVAR "Consistency between planetary energy balance and ocean heat storage" Research Focus and the SOLAS international project to present research and to discuss research opportunities, societal implications, as well as future perspectives. Two keynote talks (20 min. each) will open the session. We are soliciting four presentations (10 min. each) on research related to those projects, ideally from multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. Poster contributions will open the possibility for in depth discussions and networking.