A large proportion of the global population is influenced by monsoons, which can affect people in every aspect of their lives. Adequate and timely monsoon rains are crucial for providing drinking water, farming operations, water resources management, the generation of hydropower, and more. Monsoon variability has a marked influence on the economies of countries in monsoon regions. Understanding, modeling, and predicting monsoons is also considered to be a great challenge to climate science. Recognizing this, monsoons have always been of great interest to WCRP and have been pursued with a special focus through its Core Projects CLIVAR and GEWEX, both globally and within relevant regions of the world. Monsoons are also of key interest to the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), particularly through its Working Group on Tropical Meteorology Research (WGTMR).
In recognition of this shared interest in monsoons, WCRP and WWRP are delighted to announce that a joint International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) has recently been established at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India. The office, which was previously called the International CLIVAR Monsoon Project Office and that coordinated WCRP monsoon activities, will now coordinate monsoon-related activities of both Programmes for an initial period of five years with effect from 30 July 2021. Both WCRP and WWRP thank IITM for making this possible and also thank the Government of India for their support of this initiative. In close coordination with the leadership of WCRP and WWRP, the IMPO will promote and implement mutually agreed activities to enable monsoon research that serves society. For more information on IMPO, please see: https://impo.tropmet.res.in.
