For more information concerning the CAPE 2000
meeting in Iceland please visit the website at:
http://instaar.colorado.edu/~duvall/cape/cape2000.html
or send email to the Chair, Local Organizing Committee:
Asluag Geirsdottir mailto:age [at] rhi.hi.is
CAPE 2000
Sea Ice in the Climate System
The Record of the North Atlantic Arctic
Kirkjubaejarklaustur, Iceland
2-6 June 2000
Sea ice is an important variable in the planetary energy balance. GCM
simulations of a 2x CO2 world indicate that the greatest warming will occur
over the Arctic, principally because of the modeled reduction in sea ice.
Sea ice models currently incorporated in GCMs have difficulty accurately
modeling the modern seasonal cycle of sea ice distribution; hence, future
predictions have large uncertainties. Defining the limits of natural sea ice
variability will place important constraints on predictive models, and aid
in efforts to reconstruct past changes in ocean/atmosphere circulation
patterns. The central focus of the CAPE 2000 meeting will be an improved
data-based compilation of multi-proxy evidence for sea ice variations across
the North Atlantic Arctic during the Late Quaternary, using internationally
recognized data-management procedures, and development of a set of rules to
interpret sea ice from various lines of proxy evidence.
CAPE (Circum-Arctic PaleoEnvironments) is as an organization within
IGBP-PAGES Focus 2: Paleoclimate and Environmental Variability in Polar
Regions. The primary emphasis of CAPE is to facilitate integration and
synthesis of paleoenvironmental research spanning the last 250,000 years of
Earth history, particularly those tasks that cannot easily be achieved by
individual investigators, or even regionally focused research programs.
The CAPE 2000 meeting will address the role of sea ice in the climate
system, focusing on the evidence for changes in sea ice extent across the
North Atlantic Arctic during the Late Quaternary. The North Atlantic Arctic
includes the land masses influenced by Atlantic currents, the North Atlantic
and Arctic oceans, and the adjacent marginal seas.
The CAPE 2000 meeting will be held in Kirkjubaejarklaustur, a small village
on the southern coast of Iceland from 2 to 6 June 2000. Registration will be
limited to 60 participants, the maximum capacity of the local hotel.
Please visit our website, http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/cape/cape.html, for
complete details on registration, meeting organization, and costs.