Celebrating 50 years of El Niño research at UH with symposium, course
Ocean temperature (blue=cold, red=warm) simulated at ultra-high resolution. Credit: IBS/ICCP‘s Aleph.
The year 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of two milestone events of early El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) research that involved Klaus Wyrtki of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, a pioneering oceanographer who made groundbreaking contributions to scientific understanding of ENSO. In 1975, he published his seminal Journal of Physical Oceanography paper, “El Niño—The dynamic response of the equatorial Pacific Ocean to atmospheric forcing”, and launched the El Niño Watch Expedition to verify the first ever El Niño forecast based on a statistical model using the Southern Oscillation Index.
Symposium
A three-day symposium will be held at the East West Center in Honolulu to celebrate the legacy of Klaus Wyrtki and discuss the state-of-the-art of El Niño-Southern Oscillation research and other aspects of Wyrtki’s research program.
Abstract submissions are invited on all aspects of ENSO research, with special focus on ENSO dynamics, modeling, prediction, and impacts, as well as other research that was inspired by Wyrtki’s scientific contributions. The deadline to submit an abstract is October 15, 2024.
We strongly recommend submitting abstracts as soon as possible as the number of attendees will be limited to ~130.
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
Magdalena Alonso Balmaseda (ECMWF, European Union)
Wenju Cai (Ocean University of China, China)
Suzana Camargo (Columbia University, USA)
Mark Cane (Columbia University, USA)
Yassir Eddebbar (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA)
Fei-Fei Jin (UH Mānoa, USA)
Roger Lukas (UH Mānoa, USA)
Mark Merrifield (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA)
Janet Sprintall (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA)
Andrea Taschetto (University of New South Wales, Australia)
Axel Timmermann (IBS Center for Climate Physics, South Korea)
Scientific Organizing Committee: Malte F. Stuecker (UH Mānoa, USA, chair), Wenju Cai (Ocean University of China, China), Antonietta Capotondi (NOAA PSL), Sophie Cravatte (IRD, France), Fei-Fei Jin (UH Mānoa, USA), Jong-Seong Kug (Seoul National University, South Korea), Michael J. McPhaden (NOAA PMEL, USA), Samantha Stevenson (UC Santa Barbara, USA), Ken Takahashi (IGP, Peru), Andrea Taschetto (University of New South Wales, Australia), Andrew Wittenberg (NOAA GFDL), Wenjun Zhang (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China), Christina Karamperidou (ex-officio; UH Mānoa, USA)
Local Organizing Committee: Kellie Terada (kterada@hawaii.edu) & Aimee Nakajima (nakajima@hawaii.edu)
Questions should be directed to: symp2025@hawaii.edu
Course
The symposium will be followed by a nine-day Winter School, focusing on the fundamental dynamics of ENSO, with the goal to inspire, educate, and empower the next generation of researchers who will advance ENSO theory, prediction, and applications. More information about the course and a registration form can be found on the website above.