CMCC Lectures
31 March 2026, 12:00 CET | Online
To join the Lecture, register here
Climate variability on decadal scales shapes ecosystems, societies, and the global climate itself. Understanding these patterns is key to anticipating changes and addressing extreme events.
In this CMCC Lecture, Antonietta Capotondi, CMCC Bassi Fellow and senior scientist at the University of Colorado and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, will investigate the unknowns about Pacific Decadal Variability and its large-scale influences.
Register and join us to discover the deep connections among global climate forces driving Earth’s systems.
Pacific Decadal Variability (PDV) directly affects precipitation patterns, fish distributions, and trends in solar insolation. Its tropical component, the Tropical Pacific Decadal Variability, affects the El Niño Southern Oscillation and global surface temperature trends. PDV has also been recently linked to the development and evolution of Northeast Pacific marine heatwaves, whose unprecedented intensity and duration resulted in devastating ecological impacts.
Understanding and predicting decadal variability is of great societal importance. A mechanistic knowledge of Pacific Decadal Variability is also critical for distinguishing natural internal variability from anthropogenic climate influences, informing both climate attribution and projection efforts.
In this lecture, Antonietta Capotondi, CMCC Bassi Fellow and senior scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder, and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA, will review our current knowledge of the key mechanisms underpinning PDV, with a focus on ocean processes and on the essential role of tropical-extratropical interactions in sustaining that variability.
She will also highlight the main characteristics of Northeast Pacific marine heatwaves and demonstrate the dominant role played by decadal variations relative to ENSO influences at interannual timescales, in the development and severity of these extreme ocean conditions.
Be engaged to explore how understanding these complex ocean-atmosphere dynamics can inform societal responses to climate variability and support improved climate prediction and planning.
Speaker: Antonietta Capotondi, Senior Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado at Boulder, and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
Discussant: Anna Pirani, CMCC
Moderator: Ronan McAdam, CMCC
Dr. Capotondi is a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO, USA. She holds a degree in physics from the University of Pisa, Italy, and a PhD in Physical Oceanography from the MIT-Woods Hole Joint Program in Cambridge, MA, USA.
As a physical oceanographer, she is interested in the influence of the large-scale ocean circulation on climate variability and change. Her major research interests include the mechanistic understanding of the El Niño Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Variability, and their impacts on physical quantities affecting marine ecosystems. The key influence played by climate processes on marine life has motivated her recent interest in the extreme ocean temperature conditions known as marine heatwaves, with a focus on their climate drivers and subsurface characteristics.
Dr. Capotondi has also been actively involved in national and international organizations, serving as co-chair of the US CLIVAR working group on “ENSO Diversity”, as member and co-chair of the CLIVAR Pacific Region panel, and currently as co-chair of the CLIVAR Research Focus group on “Marine Heatwaves in the Global Ocean” and of the PICES (North Pacific Marine Science Organization) Working Group on “Climate Extremes and Coastal Impacts in the Pacific”.
The event is part of the CMCC Lectures webinar series, which presents frontier topics and solutions in climate sciences and action, through the insights of leading experts. The series provides a platform for prominent scientists to showcase their cutting-edge research and engage in dialogue with peers and stakeholders.