Speaker: Cecilia Bitz (Univ Washington)
Topic: Hemispheric asymmetries in mid-to-high latitude climates

Sea surface temperatures in the mid-to-high latitude of the southern hemisphere are typically several degrees cooler than the equivalent latitude of the northern hemisphere. This hemispheric asymmetry is counter to what might be expected from orbital forcing alone. There are several reasons why this might occur stemming from hemispheric asymmetries of the modern orographic and land fraction arrangement on Earth and their influence on atmospheric and ocean circulations. Combination of these difference may influence the presence of ice sheets, which can additionally influence long-term transient ocean freshwater imbalances with consequences for ocean mixing. In this talk, I'll show results of Earth system modeling experiments to test hypotheses for controls of these asymmetries for the modern Earth climate system.