Weiqing Han
University of Colorado Boulder, CO·Earth & Environmental Science
From 2003 to 2012, global surface warming slowed, a period known as the 'hiatus'. Yet about two-thirds of the extra heat entering Earth's climate system went into the Indian Ocean.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Physics
- Topics
Indonesian Throughflow
Indian Ocean
ocean circulation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Characterize the spatial and temporal structure of a proposed new pathway carrying Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) waters across the South Indian Ocean, using mooring, drifter, satellite and reanalysis data.
- Identify the forcing and processes that steer ITF waters along different pathways, using high-resolution ocean model experiments including new 1/12-degree HYCOM runs.
- Quantify how much excess heat and freshwater this pathway carried into the Greater Agulhas Current System during the 2003–2012 warming hiatus.
More about the research
Much of it arrived through the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), the ocean current that carries warm, fresher Pacific water through the Indonesian seas into the Indian Ocean. The ITF is a key part of the global ocean circulation that shapes climate. This collaborative project asks where those waters go once they enter the South Indian Ocean.
Why it matters
Understanding where the Indian Ocean stored and moved excess heat during 2003–2012 helps explain how oceans absorb and redistribute heat from climate change. Mapping this pathway could improve how climate and ocean models represent the transport of heat and freshwater between ocean basins. This could inform understanding of large-scale ocean circulation and global climate variability.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Raden Susanto
University of Maryland, MD·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure full-depth variability of Indonesian Throughflow transport, and its heat and freshwater fluxes, in the Makassar, Lombok and Alas Straits on tidal, intraseasonal and seasonal timescales using TRIUMPH mooring data.
John Wilkin
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure water mass and transport variability at the same time in the inflow and outflow straits of the Indonesian Throughflow, using a 3-year mooring array run jointly with China and Indonesia.
Jean Lynch-Stieglitz
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Earth & Environmental Science
Test how changes in tropical winds alter thermocline depth across the Indo-Pacific by running sensitivity experiments in a high-resolution ocean model.
The school
University of Colorado Boulder: 36 labs on PI Pages, $718M a year on research, 447 research doctorates a year.
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