In this issue, learn more about the WCRP Climate Science Year, including the WCRP Climate Science Week that will take place at this year's AGU Fall Meeting. The Week will include a celebratory WCRP 40th Anniversary Symposium that we invite you to attend. We also discuss the future of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) and WCRP's role in the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
In this newsletter you will also find an update on WCRP strategic planning, an overview of recent meetings, including the 40th Session of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee, and report on a selection of science highlights and news from our activities, sponsors, and partners.
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WCRP is committed to enabling international climate science to produce the most robust and complete climate knowledge, data and information possible for the benefit of society. This year, as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Programme, we are working towards a WCRP that is built to meet the challenges and opportunities of the coming decades.
The aim of the WCRP Climate Science Year is to showcase the importance of climate science to a wide audience. WCRP and the World Meteorological Organization jointly organized a Public Science Lecture in May and a Research Day in June, during the Eighteenth World Meteorological Congress. Upcoming events include WCRP support for the UN Climate Action Summit in September (in preparation) and the WCRP Climate Science Week at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in December. More details on the WCRP Climate Science Week can be found below.
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We look forward to meeting you at the WCRP Climate Science Week at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting from 7 —13 December 2019 in San Francisco. The WCRP climate science week will include:
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Sunday, 8 December 2019
Save the date: You are invited to join us for the WCRP 40th Anniversary Symposium, which will showcase the many successes of our community over the last four decades and highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that climate science faces now and will face in the future. The Symposium will launch the “Climate Science Week”, a joint series of sessions and events during the AGU Fall Meeting between WCRP and AGU’s 100th Anniversary Symposium. Please find more details here.
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WCRP history: Call for images, video footage, personal recollections
For the WCRP 40th Anniversary Symposium we are looking for historic material in all forms to highlight the Programme's achievements over time as well as the people that made its success possible. Please contact Matthias Tuma (mtuma@wmo.int) to discuss any suggestions or contributions.
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Climate Research for the 21st Century: from Challenges and Opportunities to Implementation
Friday, 13 December 2019 (to be confirmed)
Join us for an engaging discussion on the future of climate science. Please find more details here.
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9 — 12 December 2019
We invite you to four community-led town halls based on:
- Fundamental understanding of the climate system
- Near-term prediction of the climate system
- Long-term response of the climate system
- Bridging climate science and society
Please find more details here.
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The WCRP community has proposed many science sessions across the AGU program. See the current list here.
We look forward to an exciting science program, in both the oral and poster sessions, throughout the week. Please consider submitting an abstract.
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7 December 2019 (to be confirmed)
Water Cycle in a 1.5° Warmer World: Interdisciplinary Approaches
Early career scientists from across the WCRP community will formulate an early career perspective on the water cycle and governance under climate change. Please find more details here.
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9 — 12 December 2019
WCRP is back in the AGU Exhibition Hall this year. Come and see us at Booth 223.
Get in contact if you would like to work with us on part of the exhibit. Contact details here.
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Climate Science Week image credits (top to bottom): WMO, WMO/ICSU JSC, 1985; NASA, 2014; WCRP Sea Level Conference 2017; NASA, Frede Lamo; CLIVAR Summer Course on Sea Level Change 2018; Narelle van der Wel, WCRP Exhibition Booth 2018.
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The WCRP Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) provides valuable multi-model climate simulations and projections, on which a broad sector of the research community, as well as national and international climate assessments, depend. The Project has now reached a stage where certain components and activities require sustained institutional support. A new resolution was just passed at the 18th World Meteorological Congress that calls for sustained support of CMIP. Find out more here. (Image: 1757593, Pixabay)
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The United Nations has proclaimed a UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health and gather ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework. Find out more here about the role that WCRP will play in the Decade of Ocean Science. (Image: Stacie Lucas, 513096, Unsplash)
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We are delighted to report that the WCRP Strategic Plan 2019-2028 has been approved by WCRP's Co-sponsors. Chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC), Detlef Stammer, stated, “This is a very important milestone on the way toward a new WCRP and opens the path toward the implementation of urgent new science and activities of the climate research community ... it acknowledges the excellent work the WCRP community, especially the previous JSC Chair Guy Brasseur and Vice-chair Amanda Lynch, did in identifying the future WCRP priorities and describing these in an outstanding layout." See the full news article here.
Implementation of the Strategic Plan began in May 2019 with an Implementation and Transition Meeting and discussions at the 40th Session of the JSC. See more details under "recent events" below.
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4 – 5 May, Geneva
This first meeting of the WCRP Community to discuss the implementation of the WCRP Strategic Plan 2019–2028 was attended by representatives drawn from across the WCRP community. Participants were tasked with developing and agreeing on the process of production of a WCRP Implementation Plan and the transition to a new structure of operating within WCRP. Outcomes of the meeting were reported to the subsequent JSC Session (see below).
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6 – 10 May, Geneva
The 40th Session of the WCRP JSC brought together over 80 attendees, including the WCRP JSC, the chairs and leaders of the WCRP Core Projects and activities, international project office directors and staff, WCRP Joint Planning Staff, WCRP sponsor representatives, and selected partners and guests.
One of the main tasks of the Session was to seek community input into the implementation of the WCRP Strategic Plan, following on from the Implementation and Transition Meeting (see article above). In addition, a number of strategic issues were discussed, such as the future of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) (see article in this issue), WCRP regional activities, the future of the CCl/WCRP/JCOMM Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI) and the fast-emerging topics of machine learning and data mining. This was followed by two days of updates from WCRP Core Projects and activities and briefings from a number of WCRP's key partners.
On Wednesday 8 May, the World Meteorological Organization and WCRP jointly organized a Public Science Lecture, which included a lecture by Professor Thomas Stocker on "The Climate of Tomorrow: Building the Knowledge for Earth Stewardship" and panel discussions.
On the last day, the JSC elected from among its members three Officers who will be tasked with supporting the Chair and Vice-Chair in their duties. The elected officers are Pascale Braconnot, Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, and James (Jim) Hurrell. Congratulations to each of you and thank you for your commitment to WCRP.
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Images: 40th Session of the JSC Participants (Josefa Potter, with additions from Oliver Lux) (left); Thomas Stocker delivering the WMO/WCRP Public Science Lecture (Matthias Tuma) (top right); and participants of the WCRP Implementation and Transition Meeting (Martin Visbeck) (right).
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A special annotated edition of the 40th Session of the JSC participants photo is available here.
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11 June 2019
The 18th WMO World Meteorological Congress' Research Day focused on the world's oceans, connections between WMO, WCRP, their partner organizations, climate projections, and policy. The research day was organized into three sessions: an Ocean Dialogue, a panel on CMIP and science for policy, and Earth System Research. You can discover more here.
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Image: 18th WMO World Meteorological Congress' Research Day (WMO).
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29 – 31 May 2019
The 21st Session of WGSIP was held at the Institute of Numerical Mathematics (INM) of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) in Moscow, Russia. Find out more here.
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Image: 21st Session of WGSIP participants (Mikhail Tolstykh).
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CFC-11 Symposium:
Unexpected increase in emissions of ozone-depleting CFC-11
25 – 27 March 2019
WCRP/SPARC worked with WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch, the United Nations Environment Programme, the co-chairs of the Scientific Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol and scientists from around the world to organize a CFC-11 Symposium, at which the latest research on CFC-11 emissions could be presented and discussed.
A report on this symposium will be published in the SPARC Newsletter in July 2019. The final draft of that report has been submitted as background material for consideration at the 41st open-ended Working Group of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol.
A session on the unexpected rise in CFC-11 emissions since 2018 is being organized as part of WCRP's Climate Science Week at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in December 2019. (Image: CFC-11 Symposium participants, SPARC IPO)
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A few selected science highlights:
Special issues:
These highlights are by no means exhaustive and were selected by the WCRP Project Offices and Joint Planning Staff. Want to include your paper in the next WCRP Newsletter? Contact Narelle van der Wel.
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Please see the list of WCRP events below. For more events, please consult our community calendar.
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Selected news from the WCRP Core Projects and activities
Please click the logos below for further news from WCRP activities:
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Selected news from our partners:
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Thank you for your continued interest in WCRP and our newsletter! We are always eager to feature news from WCRP projects, scientists, or partners in our newsletter. In case you would like to contribute an article, please let us know.
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