cc: domraynaud@glaciog.ujf-grenoble.fr date: Mon Mar 6 04:57:47 2000 from: Keith Briffa subject: HIHOL to: rbradley@geo.umass.edu,jto@U.Arizona.EDU Dear Ray and Peck Dominique and I met in France last week to discuss the final details of the HIHOL meeting and we would like to bring you up to date with several aspects and get youe advice/help on others. First, we have now settled definitely on a three day meeting to be held on the tuesday,wednesday,thursday - the 24,25,26th October 2000 in the xxx , in Avixx,France. We would expect people to arrive on the monday and leave on the Friday . The hotel is apparently an excellent base for a longer stay and several of the participants may wish to stay over for a weekend either end of the meeting. Dominique has arranged a full room and board package so that all participants will be accommodated, fed and otherwise lubricated (they will provide good wine!) as a single deal for 4 nights and 3 days at PAGES expense. This price includes several people sharing accommodation. We spoke at length also with Jean Claude Duplessy who has agreed to organise the marine people . I wish you two to undertake consideration of the potential attendees and help in getting some to accept an invitation. At this point it is important to realise that the exact form of the meeting , in terms of talks, breakout discussion, and overall discussion sessions has not been resolved. That is partly due to the need to get your feedback and partly because of our different perspectives on likely productivity and practical goals to be achieved at the workshop itself, and after. I will develop some of these points. First - we have an absolute top limit of 50 attendees. Obviously NOT ALL CAN PRESENT TALKS. We need to identify main speakers - but give others the chance to contribute and ensure that the mix of people guarentees that all the relevant data , theories will be represented . The purpose of the meeting is to re define what we know about Holocene climate variability - against a backdrop of generally accepted notions - using the latest and best dated data. We have gone around in circles about the exact timeframe and length limits on the data. We do not want a concentration on the 'same records ' mostly for the last millennium. We do not want a meeting on the late Glacial. We will adopt the 'basic overarching questions ' model and structure the meeting around attempting to answer these in the framework of several sessions - starting with Stream 1 : Introduction to general concept , aims, Overarching questions Established view of the Holocene variability - provocation Forcing / and 'Global Signals' Insolation , Geographical/ seasonal , spatial - quantative Greenhouse gases Volcanic aerosols Berylium (and ice volume) Aerosols and vegetation Thermohaline circulation Stream 2 : Low Latitudes : Tropical Warm Pool ,Hadley cell, ENSO ,Monsoons Stream 3 : Sub tropical regions ,zones of the westerlies -NORTH and SOUTH Stream 4 : Polar regions , high latitudes - NORTH and SOUTH Stream 5 : Model-based Research , range of complexity , mix of time-slice and longer runs Not all disciplines will contribute to all streams - talks will be allocated to 'most appropriate' slots . WHAT WE NEED NOW IS TO AGREE THE NAMES . For various reasons , some are already fixed. We need to know from you now whether any vital names are missing - any names SHOULD NOT BE INVITED. As soon as they are agreed we will divide up the responsibility for ensuring the people we want , accept. It is worth stressing that after long consideration I and Dominique both agreed that inviting Broecker was not a good idea - so I'd rather not revisit this one. The list of names attached has an indication of the roles these people would play - in the meeting and the book. Please note also that the final product is the initially flagged Special Issue of the Holocene - now agreed with Arnold. I envisage myself , Dominique , Ray, Peck and Jean Claude as Guest Editors. This issue will likely be 128 pages made up of a short quest forward, and perhaps 5 large papers each dealing with one of the streams, and a final 'synthesis ' paper - authored by the 'HIHOL GROUP'. In inviting participants immediately , we will have to flag the posssible roles that they will be asked to play - either a review of a wider issue , a short contribution within the session, or just to bring data and ideas for the discussions and synthesis. We have agreed that ALL DATA will be presented on an absolute timescale - meaning calandar years before now (WHERE NOW IS 2000) and plotted left to right , earliest to most recent. Two fixed horizontal axes options are available . < DOMINIQUE GIVE DETAILS HERE> Radiocarbon dates must therefore be calibrated with uncertainty EXPLICIT. IN FACT EXPLICIT UNCERTAINTY IN DATING is essential in all data to facilitate comparison between various sources of evidence. On the whole, we will restrict contributions to include only those that span more than 1000 years , and we are not concerned with the data in parts of records that extend earlier than 8000 years ago I have been in touch with Steve Coleman and he has agreed to fund US participants. That will involve transport cost , at present for about 15 U.S. folks - but this might go up by a few more AT MOST, and the all-in living expenses of ? dollars We have definitely , 15,000 dollars from PAGES- but I think it should be 17000 - some checking with Niklaus is needed here. So for now - study the list and think about proportion of tals/discussion. Who would do what, and for how long, and will you help break arms to get people to agree to do it?