This award will support the participation of ten U.S. scientists in a U.S.-Japan joint seminar concerning the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Phenomenon, a combined atmospheric and oceanic phenomenon which occurs in the tropical Pacific region. ENSO has major societal impacts through its effects upon fisheries in the region, upon monsoon rainfall over many countries, and through its influence upon the year-to-year variability of temperature and precipitation over temperate latitudes of the Pacific basin, including areas of the U.S. and Japan. The phenomena associated with ENSO are also of great interest from the standpoint of long-range prediction of mid-latitude climate. Progress in observing, understanding, and predicting these phenomena has been particularly rapid in recent years in the United States and Japan, and it is thus an appropriate time for scientists from those countries to hold a seminar to discuss recent progress and future directions in observation, theory, and modeling. The meeting will be held in Seattle, Washington, September 10-14, 1990, under the auspices of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science Program. The co-organizers of the seminar are Professors Edward Sarachik and John M. Wallace of the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, University of Washington; and Professor Taroh Matsuno of the Geophysical Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan. An earlier workshop on ENSO, convened in Tokyo in 1987, led to considerable sharing of research results between U.S. and Japanese scientists working in this field, as well as to later collaborative projects and research visits. This present seminar is expected to be even more effective in providing an opportunity for information exchange and in stimulating interactions between two research communities actively studying the ENSO Phenomenon.
