Speaker: Laure Zanna, NYU

Title: Bridging the gap between understanding and simulating ocean warming 

Abstract: The Earth's oceans play a pivotal role in regulating global climate, serving as the primary reservoir that absorbs and redistributes the majority of excess heat resulting from anthropogenic emissions. However, the sparsity of ocean observations throughout the 20th century, coupled with uncertainties in climate model projections, challenge our understanding of ocean heat uptake. 

In this talk, I will present a hierarchy of models and methodologies designed to unravel the complex physics of ocean warming. I will focus on critical processes that set the rate of ocean heat uptake and their (poor) representations in climate models. I will propose a path forward, leveraging data and Artificial Intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery and enhance climate model development. The ultimate goal is to provide more reliable climate projections and sharpen our understanding of the ocean's role in climate.

Biography: Zanna is a climate physicist and a Professor at NYU's Courant Institute, working on understanding, modeling, and predicting the ocean's role in climate change. She is the lead PI of M²LInES, an international collaboration sponsored by Schmidt Futures, to improve climate models using scientific machine learning. She is also the Geoscience Director for the NSF-funded Science and Technology Center Learning the Earth with AI and Physics (LEAP). She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, NSF AI2ES Institute, Simons Foundation Polymathic AI Initiative, and CESM. She received the 2020 Fofonoff Award from the American Meteorological Society "For exceptional creativity in the development and application of new concepts in ocean and climate dynamics".