A study by King et al. examining extreme climate events has found that humans most likely triggered the last 16 record-breaking hot years on Earth, up to 2014. They determined that this influence on global climate goes back as far as 1937, an effect that has been masked until recent decades by the wide use of industrial aerosols, which have a cooling effect on temperatures. The researchers concluded that without human-induced climate change, recent hot summers and years would not have occurred.

Lipuma, L. (2016), Researchers attribute human influence on climate back to 1930s, Eos, 97.

The Call for Nominations for the 2016 World Data System (WDS) Data Stewardship Award is now open. This annual prize is directed towards early career researchers, and the 2016 winner will be presented with their Award alongside the 2015 awardee, Dr Yaxing Wei at SciDataCon 2016 (11–13 September 2016; Denver, Colorado).

The deadline for nominations is now extended to Monday, 30 May 2016. Details of the call can be found on the WDS website.

2–4 November 2016

Abstract Submissions deadline: 15 May 2016

Just a few more days to get your abstracts in to the Model Hierarchies Workshop, to be held at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA. The goal of the workshop is to bring together expertise to build more effective hierarchies of models. This is necessary to readily isolate the observed behaviour of a complex model in a simpler one, and to represent findings from idealized models in more comprehensive general circulation models. The workshop will be organized around the following themes:

• Tropical convection and radiative-convective equilibrium
• Mid-latitude dynamics and storm tracks
• Stratosphere-troposphere coupling
• Ocean dynamics
• ENSO and other coupled modes of variability
• Climate sensitivity and feedbacks
• Biospheres and the carbon cycle: from Gaia to full ecosystems

Provisional agenda

For more information see the Model Hierarchies Workshop website.

Over the next three days the Polar Prediction Workshop will take place at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, New York. It will focus on:

• Sources of polar predictability on sub-seasonal to inter-annual timescales
• Sea ice prediction
• Operational and research efforts

Join the event live from 9.00 in the US or 15.00 CEST!

LIVESTREAM

More information is available on the Polar Prediction Workshop website.

A 1-day colloquium to honour Prof. Dr. Johannes Staehelin

The 37th Session of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) took place from 25 to 27 April 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland. As part of this meeting the JSC approved two new 'Grand Challenges'. These focus on climate-carbon interactions and on climate prediction on time scales from years to decades, both very important to our understanding of how Earth’s climate will change in the coming years. WCRP intends to promote these projects through community-organized workshops, conferences and strategic planning meetings as well as to advocate further for international partnership and coordination. For more see the WMO Pree Release  'The WCRP approves new Grand Challenges' and the JSC-37 Meeting Overview.

While it is often hard to detect differences in overall skill between different forecast systems, there is now clear evidence that seasonal forecasts benefit from inclusion of the stratosphere. Recent work by Butler et al. (2016) uses historical forecasts from the WCRP Climate-system Historical Forecast Project (CHFP) to compare the seasonal prediction skill in boreal wintertime between models that did and did not resolve the stratosphere and its dynamics. Enhanced conditional wintertime skill over high latitudes and the North Atlantic region during winters with El Niño conditions suggests a possible role for a stratospheric pathway.

Salinity and Water Cycle over the Oceans: Recent Progress and Future Challenges; Hamburg, Germany, 12–15 October 2015

This workshop brought together almost 100 scientists from around the world to review recent progress on salinity and freshwater research, discussing problems that must be solved to improve our understanding of future changes in the water cycle. It was reported that advances in three-dimensional sampling of temperature and salinity and spaceborne measurements of sea surface salinity have led to a better understanding of the ocean water cycle. Existing observations of salinity changes provide strong evidence for changes in the ocean water cycle over recent decades - changes that will most likely be amplified in a warming world. The next challenge is to strengthen the link between efforts concerning the oceanic and terrestrial components of the global hydrological cycle.

Stammer, D. (2016), Salinity monitoring gives insight into the global water cycle, Eos, 97.

Deadline for ECR Video Competition Extended to May 3rd

In the context of the GEWEX workshop: Water Availability Grand Challenge for North America, 3-5 May 2016 in Columbia, Maryland USA, WCRP and GEWEX are sponsoring a video presentation competition for Early Career Researchers (ECR). The competition requires all participating ECRs to address future water availability changes in the breadbasket region of the United States of America, and present their relevant research in a video of 15 minutes length or shorter. The winners of the competition will be awarded 500 USD, be invited to take part in the US RHP panel and be recognized on the social media channels of GEWEX and WCRP. For more information about the competition visit the web page or download the flyer.

The First Institute of Oceanography (FIO) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) invite applications for the post of Executive Director of the International CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean - Variability, Predictability, and Change) Project Office, based in Qingdao, China.

The goal of CLIVAR is to improve understanding and prediction of ocean-atmosphere interactions and their influence on climate variability and change, to the benefit of society and the environment. CLIVAR is a core project of WCRP.

The scope of work will include contributions to the fulfillment of CLIVAR scientific priorities as part of WCRP’s objectives and goals. Further, the Executive Director will be responsible for a range of activities including managing the ICPO, participating in relevant meetings and workshops, promoting CLIVAR objectives, and seeking sources of additional funding.

Candidates should hold at least an MSc in oceanography, climate or closely relate field. Required skills include a broad knowledge of oceanography and climate science, ability to communicate to a range of stakeholders, and demonstrated team leadership. Excellent written and spoken communication skills in English are essential.

The work place is the First Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanographic Administration of China, located in Qingdao, China. The position is open from 1 October 2016 and will be available until at least June 2019, renewed on an annual basis.

For additional information see Further Details. Inquiries about the position may be directed to WCRP Senior Scientific Officer Michael Sparrow, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or Head of the International Cooperation Center of FIO, Yafeng Yang, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The application deadline is 30 May 2016. The application must include a covering letter summarizing details of your relevant qualifications and experience, a CV and the names and contact information of three references and should be sent to Ms. Lina Kang: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

CORDEX is seeking Early Career Scientists who are interested in giving a 3-4 minute presentation on communicating climate science during the dedicated ECS event at the CORDEX Conference. The presentation should consist of one slide explaining a challenge you experienced within your research on communicating the science. Would you like to take this opportunity to be actively involved in the ECS event? Download the flyer, and for more information please contact: Helena Martins This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This week at the Arctic Science Summit Week the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation announced the launch of a new Polar Challenge - to use an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to complete a 2000 km mission under the sea ice in the Arctic or Antarctic.

The aim of the challenge, which includes prize money totalling 500,000 Swiss francs, is to stimulate the innovation of new monitoring tools for the polar oceans, to complement satellite observations and ultimately expand scientific research capabilities and climate services in both the Arctic and Antarctic. For more information, visit the Polar Challenge web page.

The Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) community has released an open statement regarding proposed job cuts in climate-related research programs of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). CSIRO recently announced plans for “substantial reductions in headcount” in the "Oceans & Atmosphere" and "Land and Water" units, as well as two others. 

Read the statement.

Due to unanticipated technical difficulties, the abstract submission system will migrate to a new system in the coming days. All abstracts and information submitted through the old system will be transferred to the new system. To allow plenty of time for migration and implementation of the new system, the deadline for abstract submission and application for the ECSS and financial support is extended UNTIL 25 MARCH.

We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to your submissions and participation in the OSC. Please do not hesitate to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have questions or comments.
Registration will also open very soon in the new system, watch the website for updates. 

We would like to welcome Iréne Lake as the new Director of the International Project Office for CORDEX.

Iréne holds Masters and PhD degrees in Oceanography. She has worked at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in several different roles covering ocean models, ice services and early warnings, and as the marketing manager for oceanography and the marine environment. Her very relevant and diverse experience will be of great use to CORDEX and WCRP as a whole, and we wish her every success in her new position.

We bring you news from WCRP Director, David Carlson, on progress towards meeting WCRP's Grand Challenges, on what COP21 means for future climate research and on the latest from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6. If you like a challenge, we have the perfect opportunity for you to join the ranks of the great explorers or you can shape the future by being a part of the CLIVAR Open Science Conference or ICRC–CORDEX 2016. Read the newsletter

Antonio Busalacchi, professor of atmospheric and ocean science at the University of Maryland and director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Busalacchi was recognized for his contributions to our “understanding of tropical oceans in coupled climate systems via remotely sensed observations and for international leadership of climate prediction/projection research.”

Read the entire article here. 

We are pleased to announce that, in order to accommodate the participants who are not able to join the meeting in person, live web streaming of the whole conference Global Climate Observation: the Road to the Future will be made available on the conference website.

Web streaming will occur for all sessions of the GCOS Science conference and the participants will have the opportunity to view a live web broadcast via the following link: http://www.gcos-science.org/livestream/.
The abstracts of the presentations are already available on the website. To view them please check the online programme.

Presentation slides will be uploaded on the website in real time during the conference.

In this Commentary, published today in Nature Climate Change, Paul Durack and co-leaders in the ocean observation community report the hard-won successes of Argo and GO-SHIP, extremely relevant for understanding and monitoring global energy and global water budgets. Chapeau to the ocean observations community! But they also report fragile prospects for future funding of these systems. Recent events in Australia prove their point - loss of support from any key nation will threaten the entire system. Read the Commentary

The Copernicus Sentinel-3A ocean-monitoring satellite was launched successfully on February 16 2016 from Plesetsk, Russia. Sentinel-3 is the third in a series of six Sentinel missions developed to provide Earth observation data for the EU Copernicus programme. The Sentinel-3A satellite carries a suite of instruments to monitor different aspects of the oceans such as the temperature and colour of surface waters, sea surface height and sea ice thickness. It will also monitor land temperature and colour, and aerosols. The Sentinel-3 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites operating in a sun-synchronous, polar orbit at an average altitude of 815 km. Sentinel-3B will be launched in 2017. For more information click here

The Dynamical Core Model Intercomparison Project (DCMIP) organizing committee is happy to announce that applications are now being accepted for students and postdoctoral scholars to participate in the 2016 workshop and summer school, to be hosted at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado from 6-17 June 2016.

The DCMIP workshop and summer school is a unique and intensive educational experience for future climate scientists and atmospheric model developers. Special attention will be paid to simplified physical parameterizations, physics-dynamics coupling, non-hydrostatic atmospheric modeling and variable-resolution global modeling.

The summer school and model intercomparison project promotes active learning, innovation, discovery, mentorship and the integration of science and education.  A morning lecture series will bring together some of the top experts in the field, followed by an afternoon workshop where participants will be given hands on experience with atmospheric models from centers around the world.  Participating dynamical cores include FV3, HOMME, MPAS-A, DYNAMICO, IFS-FV, CSU, NICAM, NEPTUNE, ICON, GEM, OLAM, TEMPEST and CHOMBO. Funding is available to fully support participation by students and postdocs over the two week period covering the workshop.

The application form for students and postdoctoral scholars, along with additional information about the workshop can be found here.

Applications will be accepted until 14 March 2016. Following closure of the application process, the organizing committee anticipates to announce the selection of funded participants by 31 March 2016.

The international climate research community expresses alarm at news of cuts to climate research programmes in Australia... read the message

The SPARC Newsletter contains news on current SPARC-related research activities, meetings, conferences, and reports... read the newsletter