Houghton Lecture

Houghton Lectures

Henry Houghton served for 25 years as Head of the Department of Meteorology (which became the Department of Meteorology and Physical Oceanography). During that long period, the Department established an unsurpassed standard of excellence in these fields.

On his death, Prof. Houghton left the bulk of his estate to the new Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences to establish the Henry Houghton Fund.

Houghton Lectures are supported every year by the Fund. Outstanding scientists from around the world are invited to visit for periods ranging from a week to a semester. Typically, they have given short-courses ranging from 3 to 20 lectures on some topic of interest to students and faculty. Suggestions for Houghton Lecturers are welcome at any time from anyone.

	Spring 2009 Houghton Lectures Ken Golden University of Utah, Dept. of Math May 11- 15, 2009 Sea Ice, Climate, and Multiscale Composites 1. Introduction to Sea Ice and Its Role in the Climate System 2. From Microscale to Macroscale: Modeling Sea Ice Structures and Process 3. From Macroscale to Microscale: Sea Ice Remote Sensing and Monitoring

Ken Golden Abstract

ABSTRACT: The polar sea ice packs are key components of the climate system and are critical indicators of climate change. As our climate has warmed up, the precipitous decline of the summer Arctic ice pack is probably the most visible, large scale change on the planet's surface over the past decade. As a material, sea ice is a composite of pure ice with brine inclusions hosting extensive algal and bacterial communities which support life in the polar oceans. In terms of the processes relevant to climate and ecosystem modeling, sea ice displays composite structure on length scales ranging from sub-millimeter to hundreds of kilometers.

In the first lecture, I will give an introduction to sea ice structure, properties, and processes which are relevant to modeling climate change and the microbial communities living in sea ice. In the second lecture, the focus shifts to mathematical approaches to characterizing the composite structures exhibited by sea ice. I'll address the fundamental issue of how smaller scale information can be used to model larger scale processes, such as fluid and thermal transport through the ice, and ice-albedo feedback. In the third lecture, I'll consider the problem of remote sensing and electromagnetically monitoring the properties of sea ice and its response to climate change, where again multiscale considerations are essential.

Over the course of these lectures, I will describe how advances can be made using the mathematics of forward and inverse homogenization for composites, percolation theory, diffusion processes, and statistical mechanics, to understand the role of sea ice in the climate system. I will also discuss my field work on measuring fluid and electrical transport processes in the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs. Sea ice structure and processes will be illustrated with video taken during my Antarctic expeditions.

Past Houghton Lecturers

Spring, 2009: David Arche r, The University of Chicago

Spring, 2007: John Wettlaufer, Yale University

Spring, 2006: Dale Durran, University of Washington

Spring, 2004: Chris Garrett, University of Victoria - Lectures

Spring, 2004: Cecile Penland, NOAA CIRES/CDC

Fall, 2003: Tim Palmer, ECMWF

Fall, 2003: Suki Manabe, GFDL

Fall, 2002: Nicolas Gruber, UCLA

Spring 2002: Thomas Stocker, Bern, Switzerland

Spring 2001: Jay McCreary, IPRC/SOEST at the University of Hawaii

Spring 1999: Francisco Tablas, Autonomy Univ. Spain

Spring 1999: Howard Bluestein, Univ. of Oklahoma

Fall 1999: David Battisti, U of Washington

Fall 1999: Andy Majda, Courant

Fall 1998: Richard Goody, Harvard

Fall 1998: WIlliam Young, Scripps Inst.

Spring 1998: Claude Frankignoul, LODYC, France

Fall 1997: Richard Goody, Harvard

Spring 1997: David Thomson, Bell Labs

Spring 1996: Robert Houze, U. of Washington

Fall 1996: Richard Goody, Harvard

Fall 1995: Richard Goody, Harvard

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