March 2022

The future of CMIP and climate modelling

In this issue of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Insights, we focus on the future of climate modelling. There is an ever-increasing demand on climate models to answer questions about what our climate will be like in the next years, decades and centuries. In 2022, the WCRP community will be looking at the best way forward to ensure that we are ready to answer those questions to our best ability.

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), and the International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) held an online celebratory event on 28 February 2022 to officially launch the IMPO and to highlight the consolidation of monsoon research under WCRP and WWRP. The IMPO is hosted and kindly supported by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM, Pune - India) and will be a global hub of monsoons research.

To view the recording of the event, click here

In parallel, a recently published review in online BAMS on `Monsoons in Climate Change’ also highlights WCRP/WWRP joining hands to advance global monsoons research as well as the establishment of the IMPO. To read the review, click here.

"Dear members of the WCRP community,

I am writing to you all today to express my personal dismay about the war of aggression that the Russian government has unleashed on Ukraine and its citizens. I am following here the ISC Governing Board, one of our co-sponsors, which expressed its unequivocal support of the Ukrainian people. The Governing Board also affirms its intention to assist scientists from Ukraine, and to seek to maintain international scientific collaboration amidst geopolitical tensions. The ISC therefore is not considering the suspension of any of its members. The statement of the ISC Governing Board can be read here: https://council.science/current/news/isc-statement-ukraine/  
As to our work, every member of WCRP bodies acts in a personal capacity and does not represent their country. Certainly, the conflict is impacting climate research and we have to await how the entire conflict will evolve. We all hope for the rapid return to peace and a rational interaction of nations. Until further notice, every member of all WCRP bodies must act according to the instructions given by their home institutions.
With respect to scientific events to be held in Russia or Ukraine, our clear advice is to find alternative options until peace is restored.

With best regards
Detlef"

We are delighted to invite you to the sixth event in the discussion series on tipping elements, this time focusing on the role of monsoon systems. It will take place on 9 March 2022, 15:30 - 17:00 CET. The two talks of the event will be given by:

• South Asian Monsoon tipping – Ashwin Seshadri
• African Monsoon and potential greening of the Sahara – Francesco Pausata

The session will be recorded and posted on the event site a day or two after the event. To register for the event, please see the event site. 

The “CMIP Community next steps survey” has already received over 200 responses but we want to make sure that a wider range of groups around the world have had time to provide input, and in many cases, in a coordinated way.

Therefore, we are extending the deadline for the completion of the survey to 14^th March 2022.

 https://www.wcrp-climate.org/cmip-survey

We are in particular very keen to have responses from users of the data, from the academic and policy-making world. This is your chance to help us shape the future of CMIP!

Building on the success of the Sea Level 2017 Meeting in New York, the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Grand Challenge on “Regional Sea-Level Change and Coastal Impacts” will hold the Sea Level 2022 meeting on 12-16 July 2022 in Singapore. This is three years after the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) report and one year after the publication of the new IPCC WG1 AR6 report. The conference will provide an opportunity to share the present status of climate-related sea-level research and will have a strong focus on application of sea-level science for adaptation and stakeholder needs.

Call for abstracts and registration to the Sea Level 2022 Conference are open.

• Deadline for abstract submission has been extended to 15 April 2022.
  
• Deadline for Early bird registration: 1 April 2022
• To read the conference flyer, click here.

The forum brings together a diverse set of communities who are using or developing scenarios for use in climate change and sustainability analysis to:

• exchange experiences, ideas, and lessons learned;
• identify opportunities for synergies and collaboration;
• reflect on the use of scenarios; and
• identify knowledge gaps for future research.

The Scenarios Forum welcomes abstracts for sessions during the conference. Deadline extended to February 21, 2022

• For further details see: https://scenariosforum.org/

Future Earth, The Earth League, and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) have begun preparing the 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2022 and are scoping expertise from around the globe for inputs on which key findings should be featured. You are invited to contribute to the 2022 instalment of the 10 New Insights in Climate Science by answering the call for topics form by February 20. This annual series is a major synthesis of essential and recent climate-related research and an important science-policy contribution.

• To  see the outcomes of 2021 edition, click here

Climate models are an important tool for scientists to understand our past climate and provide projections of future change. As such, they are in increasing demand as part of efforts to avert global warming and reduce risks associated with environmental change. To meet this demand, the World Climate Research Programme will open a new international office in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2022 that will coordinate the programme’s Climate Model Intercomparison Project. The new office will be under the leadership of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM), its Infrastructure Panel (WIP) and the CMIP panel. This will enable participating research groups to focus on the most urgent climate science questions, while also meeting the needs of a growing and diverse user base.

Headed by incoming director, Eleanor O’Rourke, the new office will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of support for national and international assessments, and coordinate discussions with the scientific and user communities on further standardisation protocols, data policy and quality-control of model output and analysis.

To learn more, click here.

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP), and the International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) cordially invite you to an online event celebrating the launch of the International Monsoons Project Office hosted by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, India.

IMPO, a joint effort by WMO and IITM that will coordinate and support global monsoon research activities of WCRP and WWRP, was established at IITM in 2021. To commemorate the launch and to highlight the consolidation of monsoon research under WCRP and WWRP with IITM’s continuous support, we are holding an online celebratory event on 28 February 2022 at 13:00 UTC. The event will feature a key scientific talk by international monsoons expert Prof Chih-Pei Chang, on the current highlights of global monsoons research.

More information and link to the live YouTube event can be found in the IMPO launch event flyer.

The GEWEX Global Atmospheric System Studies Panel (GASS) will hold its 3rd Pan-GASS Meeting, Understanding and Modeling Atmospheric Processes (UMAP 2022) in Monterey, CA, USA, from 25-29 July 2022. The program will include all aspects and methods of model development from deterministic numerics to stochastic forcing; process modeling to parametrization; observational constraints to diagnostic techniques; and idealized modeling to operational forecasting and climate predictions. The purpose of the conference is to discuss progress in understanding atmospheric processes and representing them in models, to coordinate current initiatives and make plans for the future.

Extended deadline for abstract submission: 1 March 2022

To know more about the 3rd PAN-GASS meeting, click here

We are delighted to invite you to the fifth event in the discussion series on tipping elements, this time focusing on the role of the ocean and of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). It will take place on 11 February 2022, 13:30 - 15:00 CET. The two talks of the event will be given by:

• Ocean tipping points - an overview – Christoph Heinze
• Recent insights on the AMOC – Stefan Rahmstorf

The session will be recorded and posted on the event site a day or two after the event. To register for the event, please see the event site. 

The WCRP Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change Lighthouse Activity invites interested researchers to apply for positions in its Scientific Steering Group and their three Working Groups.

The overarching objective of this Lighthouse Activity is to “design, and take major steps toward delivery of, an integrated capability for quantitative observation, explanation, early warning, and prediction of Earth System change on global and regional scales, with a focus on multi-annual to decadal timescales.” This includes three main themes, which are developed by three Working Groups; the bullet points indicate specific topics of interest to each group:

• WG1: Observing and modelling Earth system change
• WG2: Integrated attribution, prediction, and projection
• WG3: Assessment of current and future hazards

Check on the full call that contains the link for the application form:

Deadline for applications: 15th March 2022.

The WCRP Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) and the CMIP Panel are already working hard in preparation for the next phase of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). Specifically, we need to hear from everyone their views on the positive aspects and challenges they faced in CMIP6, and how they would like to see future phases of CMIP structured and delivered. 

For that, we are inviting the community to take part in the “CMIP Community next steps survey”. It is your chance to help us shape the future of CMIP! 

 https://www.wcrp-climate.org/cmip-survey

Deadline for completing the survey: 28 Februray 2022

The latest edition of GEWEX Quarterly features articles on:

• The Digital Earths LHA invites GEWEX community to engage in the task of describing and predicting the Earth in detail 
• Modelers and mathematicians collaborate to improve  numerical accuracy of atmospheric physics parameterizations in models 
• Introducing TEAMx
• A summary of the field campaign phase of LIAISE
• Looking at how synergistic Earth observing systems can aid precipitation assessment in high latitude and cold regions
• ... and many other articles

To read the Gewex Quarterly, click here

The Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity, partnering with AIMES and the Earth Commission, has four exciting discussions planned for early 2022. Join us for talks on the role of permafrost, ice sheets, ocean, and monsoons in tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt change in the Earth System. Please see our event website for more information and to register.