EAPS

"The Oceans in a Warming World: How are the oceans changing and what role do they play in climate change?"

Abstract: Due to its enormous heat capacity and ability to move heat around the globe, the ocean plays an out-sized role in climate and climate change. The ocean is at the center of contemporary questions such as: Why have global-mean surface temperatures not warmed in the last decade, despite CO2 continuing to rise in the atmosphere?; Why is the Arctic losing sea-ice but not the Antarctic?; Will ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream change?; How much might sea-level rise this century? In this lecture we will touch on some of these questions and review how scientists observe patterns of warming propagating down in to the ocean's interior, how the ocean is responding to that warming and what we think the future holds and why.

Brief Bio: John Marshall is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Oceanography in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT. He conducts research in climate science and the general circulation of the atmosphere and oceans, which he studies through the development of mathematical and numerical models of key physical and bio-geochemical processes.

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