THE CRCES WORKSHOP ON DECADAL CLIMATE VARIABILITY

Although, in this era of declining earth science budgets, it is a major challenge to continue measurements, we must ensure that existing time series of external forcings, ocean vector winds, sea surface height, sea surface temperature (SST) and subsurface temperature, surface and subsurface salinity, overocean evaporation, rainfall, and paleoclimate data continue over the next decades. Beyond these initial studies, however, it is neither known whether there are regions where atmospheric climate and hydrometeorology, including extreme weather events, ocean circulations, temperature, upper-ocean heat content, and salinity, and the frequency, intensity, and tracks of Atlantic hurricanes and other tropical cyclones are potentially predictable beyond a few seasons, nor whether decadal-scale climate evolution can be predicted independently of accurate ENSO predictions.