2004 Sixth Annual Beckman Scholars Symposium

"The Oceans and Abrupt Climate Change"

Dr. Raymond W. Schmitt
Senior Scientist
Department of Physical Oceanography
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Recent paleoclimatic data has implicated changes in the circulation of the North Atlantic Ocean as the cause of rapid climate shifts 12,000 and 8,200 years ago. These circulation changes appear to have been cause by an influx of freshwater from melting glaciers, and to have occurred within a decade. As high latitude North Atlantic freshening is presently underway, there is growing concern, from the National Academy of Sciences, the Pentagon and even Hollywood, that an abrupt climate change could be in our future. Studies have shown that the stability of the circulation is a sensitive function of the oceanic mixing rate and the strength of freshwater forcing, both of which have been key foci of my research. A discussion of our recent theory of abrupt climate change, and the observational mysteries yet to be resolved, will be presented.

Raymond W. Schmitt grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania, just east of Pittsburgh, whose heavy industry provided a red glow to the setting sun. He majored in physics at Carnegie Mellon University, and was drawn to the study of fluids. In one inspired course he learned of the interesting phenomena arising from differences in the diffusion rates of heat and salt in water. He earned a PhD at the Graduate School of Oceanography of the University of Rhode Island, at that time a hotbed of research in “double-diffusive” convection. He has become a leading expert in double diffusion in his subsequent research career at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod, using theory, experiment, fieldwork and instrument development in his work. He is also an expert on other types of oceanic mixing and the global water cycle, most of which occurs over the ocean. In 1997 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he used for a sabbatical at the Department of Applied Math and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. He has participated in 26 research cruises, acting as chief scientist on half of them, and spending an average of 3 weeks a year at sea. He is married to a marine biologist and is the father of three teenage sons..