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

A new article has been published highlighting the importance of integrated multidisciplinary approaches to climate, climate variability and climate change research. Read the article

The CLIVAR Open Science Conference and Early Career Scientists Symposium (ECSS) will take place 18-25 September in Qingdao, China. The Conference is now open for abstract, poster cluster and town hall submissions, ECSS applications and travel grants.

Abstracts can be submitted online here until 15 March 2016. Abstracts must be submitted to one of the OSC sessions.

The Early Career Scientists Symposium is a 3-day programme designed by, and for, early career scientists. To apply for a place at the Symposium, participants must submit an abstract as first author to the main conference, and indicate that they would like to take part in the Symposium.

Limited resources are available to support attendance of researchers from developing countries and early career scientists. Financial assistance can be requested only via the conference website on submission of an abstract. Deadline for requests is 15 March 2016.

For more information click here.

The 13th International Meeting on Statistical Climatology will be held in Canmore, Alberta from 6-10 June 2016. The meetings, which have been held roughly every three years since 1979, are organized by independent statisticians, climatologists and atmospheric scientists. The meetings facilitate communication between the science and statistics communities and promote good statistical practice in climate and atmospheric science. The local organizer of the 13th meeting is Dr Francis Zwiers. This meeting is sponsored by the Pacific Climate Impact Consortium and the World Climate Research Program.

Contributions are invited in all aspects of the application of statistical methods in climate research and the development of new statistical methods and theories relevant to climate applications. In addition, a number of named sessions are planned, including:

• Climate Data Homogenization and Climate Trends/Variability Assessment
• The Detection and Attribution Model Intercomparison Project (DAMIP) and Relevant Applications
• The WCRP Grand Challenge on Extremes
• The Attribution of Extreme Weather Events and their Impacts to External Drivers of Climate Change
• Understanding Climate Variability and its Teleconnections Under Global Warming
• Extreme Value Theory and its Applications
• Nonlinear Methods in Statistical Climatology
• Statistical Approaches for Weather and Climate Model Validation and Evaluation
• Advanced Methods for Evaluating Weather and Climate Extremes in Climate Model Simulations
• Statistical Downscaling of Climate Model Simulations
• The Stochastic Analysis of the Hydrologic Cycle.

The deadline for submitting an abstract is 15 February 2016.

On behalf of obs4MIPs, Robert Ferraro from JPL received a NASA Group Achievement Award for 'Innovative leadership and implementation of the Observations for Model Intercomparison Project and its contribution to the international climate research community'. The obs4MIPs effort was initiated with support from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and has now expanded to include contributions from the broader community including ESA, EUMETSAT, NOAA and DLR under the leadership of the WCRP Data Advisory Council. For more information about obs4MIPs, see https://www.earthsystemcog.org/projects/obs4mips/.

The 1st WCRP Summer School on "Climate Model Development: Atmospheric Moist Processes" was held on 15-26 June 2015 at Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. Video lectures from this event are now available here.

We are pleased to announce that Dr Catherine Rio from LMD/IPSL, France, has been awarded the WCRP/WWRP International Prize for Model Development 2015.

The Prize Committee, consisting of representatives from WCRP, WWRP and WGNE was greatly impressed by her strong profile and the high quality of her contribution to model development.

In making the selection, the Committee considered a range of criteria, including the importance of the contribution in the field, but also the community impact and supporting statements by referees. The Committee was faced with the very difficult task to make a selection from truly outstanding nominations and is thankful to all nominees, proposers and seconders for the numerous and high quality applications received.

The WCRP and WWRP have established the Prize in recognition of the essential role model development plays in weather and climate science. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding contribution to model development by an early- to mid-career researcher. It comprises a certificate signed by the Chairs of the WCRP JSC and WWRP SSC as well as funding for the recipient to present the results of his/her research at a major relevant conference or meeting of his/her choice.

After an extensive search, we would like to welcome the new director of the Climate and Cryosphere Project (CliC) of WCRP, Lawrence Hislop.

Lawrence is from Montreal, Canada and has more than ten years of international experience leading UN and EU funded projects, and has produced many environmental assessments and related communications products. From 2009-2014, Lawrence led the Polar and Cryosphere programme at GRID-Arendal in Norway and collaborated on projects with the Arctic Council, University of the Arctic and UNEP-linked activities in Polar and mountain regions. He was also on the management team of the Himalayan Climate Adaptation Programme (HICAP) from 2011 - 2014 and initiated long-term research on environmental impacts in Nepal, India, Pakistan and China. In addition to his research work, Lawrence also produces documentary photography, films and infographics.

The CliC office is generously hosted at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, Norway.