This award will provide supplemental support to enable Dr. Frederick Bingham of Scripps Institute of Oceanography to conduct collaborative research for 12 months with Dr. Yoshiaki Toba of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. They will investigate interannual changes in the heat content of the western North Pacific Ocean, and the relationship of those changes to variability in the Kuroshio Current system. The oceans store heat from and release heat to the atmosphere depending on the season. With increasing concern about changes in the Earth's climate, it is critical to understand the mechanisms of heat transfer between the ocean and atmosphere. Professor Toba's research group has been studying the dynamics of air-sea interactions in the western North Pacific for many years and their extensive, long-term data sets will enable Dr. Bingham to quantitatively assess interannual variability in the heat content within that complex oceanographic region.
