The workshop on CMIP5 Model Analysis and Scientific Plans for CMIP6, jointly organized by the WCRP Working Group on Coupled Modelling and the European Commission FP7 project EMBRACE, will take place in Dubrovnik (Croatia) during 20-23 October 2015. Those interested in submitting an abstract are invited to visit the workshop webpage. Deadline for abstracts submission is 13 April 2015

CliC is pleased to release its 2014 Annual Report which summarizes the amazing number of activities that the Project sponsored, and in many cases, initiated over the past few years. The publication lists the achievements as well as the CliC plans for the coming years.... read more

The workshop is part of the S2S project activities and will take place in Jeju, Republic of Korea, on 22-24 June 2015. This will provide a forum for researchers and forecasters to discuss recent advances and current issues covering the sub-seasonal to seasonal prediction of monsoons, with an emphasis on lead times of 2 to 4 weeks... more information

The World Meteorological Organization has issued a report on the Climate in Africa 2013, the first of an annual series of peer-reviewed statements on the continent climate conditions. The report examines temperatures, rainfall and extreme events on the African region which is especially vulnerable to natural climate variability and long-term climate change... read more

The WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) working closely with WG 1 of the IPCC, organized a meeting on Lessons Learnt from the recently published IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5). The meeting took place in September 2014, in Bern, Switzerland, hosted by the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) and with substantial support from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment read more

Eleanor O’Rourke has been hired as the Director of the new WCRP International Project Office for CORDEX (IPOC), kindly hosted by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Sweden. The WCRP JPS staff in Geneva is looking forward to further developing CORDEX with her and the SMHI team.

Eleanor O’Rourke completed a BSc (Hons) in Meteorology and Oceanography at the University of East Anglia, UK. She then spent a year working in scientific conference development and management before undertaking a PhD at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (now National Oceanography Centre) in Liverpool, UK. Her thesis focused on ‘The effect of topography on thermohaline adjustment’ and was funded through the NERC RAPID programme. During her time as a PhD student, Eleanor was also involved in a number of outreach and education activities in the local area gaining beneficial experience in communicating science to the public. Further she undertook a three month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office for Science & Technology at the Westminster Parliament in London where she provided UK parliamentarians with concise and easily understood information regarding the impact of climate change on renewable energy potential.

After completing her PhD, Eleanor then spent three years working at a scientific consultancy in Glasgow, UK gaining wide ranging experience of European Framework Programme project management, stakeholder engagement and proposal preparation. In 2012 she moved to the Rossby Centre at SMHI, Sweden to project manage the FP7 EMBRACE project and further took a number of roles in communication and dissemination for the Rossby Centre and other FP7 projects, proposal preparation, and group coordination. Eleanor also quickly became involved in CORDEX as a member of the Communications and Early Career Scientist group and later as part of the CORDEX 2013 conference organising team.

Eleanor is tremendously excited about taking on the role of Director of the International Project Office for CORDEX and working with the whole CORDEX community and many other stakeholders.

The 11th International Conference on Southern Hemisphere Meteorology and Oceanography will take place this year (5-9 October 2015) in Santiago, Chile. This is a great opportunity to showcase WCRP ocean and atmosphere sciences specific to the Southern Hemisphere. Prof. James Renwick, WCRP JSC member, and Prof. Rene Garreaud, GEWEX SSG member, are the Chair of the Programme Committee and the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee respectively. For more information go to the conference webpage

This topical conference jointly organized by ESA and GEWEX will take place on 20-23 October 2015 in Frascati, Italy. The main objectives are to review the latest contributions in water cycle science, to assess the uncertainties and consistency of observations, to identify current gaps in our knowledge and observations, and to consolidate a scientific roadmap for future priorities. Deadline for abstracts submission is 30th April 2015... read more

The Climate Symposium 2014 main findings and recommandations are now available on the symposium website. They are split into 3 themes: (1) Research and Process Understanding, (ii) Observations and (iii) Coordination and Integration of Observations... read more. A new video has also been produced with many interviews to international experts attending the symposium... watch the video

Dr. Boram Lee is the new Senior Scientific Officer of the WCRP Joint Planning Staff. Before joining the WCRP, Boram worked at the Marine Meteorology and Oceanography Programme (MMOP), WMO, being responsible for the international coordination of the marine affairs including coastal disaster forecasting and warning through the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanographyand Marine Meteorology (JCOMM). She also managed the WMO Coastal Inundation Forecasting Demonstration Project (CIFDP) that are implemented in five countries/regions. Boram has worked at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO  from 2003 to 2011 as Programme Specialist, at the National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences of Japan in 2002 as visiting scientist, and at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) from 1995 to 2001 as research scientist for applied meteorology. Since 2010, Dr Lee serves as adjunct professor in the College of Ocean Science, Jeju National University, Republic of Korea.

Boram Lee holds Ph.D. in climatology from the Université Paris VI, France, Masters and Bachelors degrees in atmospheric science from the Seoul National University in Korea.

Geneva/Tromsø (19 January 2015) The World Climate Research Program (WCRP) is launching a Polar Challenge to reward the first team able to send an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for a 2,000 kilometer mission under the sea-ice in the Arctic or Antarctic... read more

Welcome to Prof. Dr. Guy Brasseur as the new Chair of World Climate Research Programme Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) from 1st January 2015, and farewell to Prof. Antonio Busalacchi who finished his term with the end of 2014. The JSC, on behalf of the worldwide community of WCRP affiliated scientists, wishes to express its gratitude to "Tony" for his extraordinary active leadership in the last 6 years during which a highly successful Open Science Conference took place and the future directions of WCRP emerged in the form of Grand Challenges.... read more

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), Max-Planck-Institute für Meteorologie (MPI-M), and Hans Ertel Centre for Weather Research announce the 1st Summer School on Climate Model Development hosted by the MPI-M, in Hamburg, Germany, from 15 to 26 June 2015. The School is open to graduate students and early career researchers in meteorology and associated fields. The application deadline is 28 February 2015; please turn to our on-line application system at this web site: http://schools.enes.org/WSSCMD1

A group of international experts convened in Pasadina, USA, to discuss the next steps in coordinating global and regional information on drought understanding, monitoring, forecasting and management. The International Global Information System (GDIS) Workshop: Next Steps was held from 11-13 December 2014 and featured a joint open session with representatives of the GEWEX Hydroclimatology Panel (GHP)... read more

We are pleased to announce that Peter H. Lauritzen from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, USA, has been awarded the WCRP/WWRP International Prize for Model Development 2014. The Prize Committee, consisting of representatives from WCRP, WWRP and WGNE was greatly impressed by his strong profile and the high quality of his contribution... read more

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issues regular El Nino / La Nina updates based on observational monitoring of the current situation, seasonal predictions through climate model simulations and input from top international experts. This publication, however, aims to explain the phenomenon in its typical manifestation from the physical mechanism to the global impacts including socioeconomic implications. Reliable forecast of El Nino / Southern Oscillation are a good example of a climate service that helps communities to reduce vulnerability and adapt... read the brochure

Emerged from an open consultation process the document presents a framework for global change and sustainability agenda-setting for researchers and funders and identifies key priorities for the next 3-5 years. The strategic research agenda 2014 advocates a set of research priorities as well as a novel way of doing research which includes a strong emphasis on full integration among scientific disciplines... read more

In the wake of the Climate Symposium 2014, which united international experts in climate observations, research, analysis and modelling, Ghassem Asrar, former Director of WCRP and Alain Ratier, EUMETSAT Director General, share their highlights of the events in a recent article published in International Innovation. They both agree that the speakers and presenters at the symposium contributed significantly to its overall success... read the article

The 7th International GEWEX Conference held in The Hague, The Netherlands, in July 2014, attracted over 560 scientists, managers and students worldwide. The theme of the conference and the related topics dealt in the programme set the scene for extensive discussions on the science and implementation plans of the WCRP Grand Challenge on Water Availability. After the conference the Pan-GEWEX and Pan-CLIVAR meetings took place in the same venue thus stimulating joint sessions and cross interactions... read more

The Australian Department of Environment and Industry produced several animations for informing farms and food managers on the global climate processes that influence the local wet and dry seasons variability. These animations won the international prize for raising public awareness and trust in science... watch the short movies

A recent study published in Environmental Research Letters investigates the reliability of seasonal to multi-decadal climate simulations of the wet seasons of several key African regions. The group of researchers affiliated at the Met Office Hadley Centre found that reliability varies across regions and seasons and that simulations of precipitations are universally less reliable than simulations of temperature... read the article

 Dr. David Carlson, Director of WCRP and Ms Valery Detemmerman, Executive Director of International CLIVAR Global Project Office, visited the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) of China and met with Dr. Haiwen Zhang, Director General of International Cooperation Department, SOA. Dr Carlson and Ms Detemmerman introduced the WCRP and CLIVAR respectively and expressed their gratitude to SOA for the strong support to the IGCPO. Dr. Zhang introduced the Science Programme of SOA which relates to WCRP and CLIVAR scientific plans, she emphasized that SOA will continue to support CLIVAR and hopes to have more opportunities to cooperate with WCRP.

International CLIVAR Global Project Office (ICGPO) has been officially operating at the First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), State Oceanic Administration (SOA), in Qingdao, China, since September 1st, 2014. Qingdao is sometimes referred to as the ocean science capital of China, with four major oceanographic institutions in addition to FIO: OUC (Ocean University of China), IOCAS (The Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) nad YSFRI of CAFS (Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences). With the generous support of SOA, China, four officers are on location at the ICGPO: Valery Detemmerman as Executive Director of the ICPO, Dr. Nico Caltabiano, previously with the ICPO in Southampton, Dr. Lei Han, physical oceanographer from FIO and Ms Lina Kang, administrative assistant. The staff are busy preparing for the upcoming CLIVAR SSG meeting in Moscow, input to the new CLIVAR Science Plan and for a major conference in 2016.... read more

SMHI has been chosen as the host of the new International Project Office for Regional Climate Modelling, more specifically for CORDEX. The Office will support the development of climate models and projections of future climate, facilitate cooperation among countries in regions, and promote knowledge exchange and capacity building with particular focus on developing countries... read more

Arctic and Antarctic weather and climate prediction and predictability issues are high up on the polar (research) communities' agenda. To help connect sending and receiving parties, a dedicated electronic mailing list tailored to people interested in Arctic and Antarctic prediction and predictability is being set up by CliC and the Polar Prediction Project... read more