The 41st Session of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee was held last week, marking the first time in history that leaders of the WCRP community and key partners joined together in an online forum. To find out more, click the heading above.

A reminder that WCRP is calling for proposals to host a dedicated project office to support the coordination and activities of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). The deadline for proposals is 15 September 2020 (extended from the previous deadline of 31 August 2020). For further details, click the headline above.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is having a profound impact on many people, both personally and professionally. The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) looks at the challenges that we currently face and the opportunities that we have for the future. 

The Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) Community is planning for the future, with a newly elected leadership and a Strategic Action Plan under consultation. In response to COVID-19, the YESS community invites you to attend a series of online activities to share your science and to encourage scientific interaction. 

Jason Evans reports on a session on "regional climate projections and applications", including CORDEX, at the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Annual Conference last February. To find out more, click the heading above.

Esplanade Hotel Fremantle. Venue of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Annual Conference (10-14 Feb 2020, Fremantle, Australia)

The WCRP Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Project announces the publication of its Annual Report for 2019. The report gives an overview of CliC activities in 2019 and includes contributions from all of the CliC Projects/Groups Leads. 2019 was another productive year for the CliC community and CliC is pleased to share this annual report highlighting some of our progress and achievements during the past year. The report also covers the outputs resulting from the WCRP Grand Challenge on “Melting Ice and Global Consequences.“ For more details, click the headline above.

WCRP note, with great gratitude and admiration, the life of Sir John Houghton, who passed away last week. Please click the heading above to read more.

The report from the WCRP High-level Science Questions and Flagship Workshop, commonly called the "Hamburg Workshop", is now available for download. The workshop report includes proposed new WCRP Implementation Priorities and Lighthouse Activities for the next decade. Click the heading above for more details.

Over 30 experts from across the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the wider science community gathered in Hamburg last week to discuss the scientific direction of the Programme. Click the heading above to find out more.

Participants of the WCRP Flagship Workshop (Photo: CLICCS).

WCRP is currently inviting self-nominations from highly enthusiastic and dedicated experts for membership of the following groups:

• WCRP Data Advisory Council (WDAC)
• WCRP Modeling Advisory Council (WMAC)
• Working Group on Coupled Modeling (WGCM)
• Working Group on Subseasonal to Interdecadal Prediction (WGSIP)
• Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE)
• CORDEX Science Advisory Team (CORDEX-SAT)
• Subseasonal to Seasonal (S2S) Project Steering Group

Please click the heading above to find out more. The deadline for submitting self-nominations is 20 March 2020.

Two training courses will be held back-to-back in Qingdao, China, in July:

1. CLIVAR-FIO Joint Summer School on ‘Ocean Macroturbulence and Its Role in Earth’s Climate’ (6 — 11 July 2020)
2. UNESCO/IOC-RTRC-ODC Training Course on 'Regional Application of Coupled Climate Models' (13 — 22 July 2020)

Registration closes on 27 March 2020. For more information click the heading above.

WCRP congratulates the 2019 winners of the WCRP/WWRP International Prize for Model Development, Drs Clément Albergel and Baoqiang Xiang, and the WCRP/GCOS International Data Prize, Drs Phu Nguyen and Hamed Ashouri. The prize winners were announced at the WCRP 40th Anniversary Symposium in San Francisco on 8 December 2019. To learn more click the heading above.

The WCRP Climate Science Week took place last week in San Francisco. It included an early career workshop, 40th Anniversary Symposium, Union Session, 4 Town Halls, more than 40 science sessions and an exhibition booth. To find out more about this successful week, click the heading above.

The WCRP Climate Science Week, taking place this week as part of the American Geophysical (AGU) Fall Meeting, began with a Joint Early Career Researcher (ECR) Workshop on Water Cycle in a 1.5° Warmer World: Interdisciplinary Approaches. To find out more, click the heading above.

On Saturday the 7th of December, the #VirtualBlueCOP25 will hold a unique 24-hour event all around the world. It will give the opportunity to decision makers, scientists, activists, artists, NGOs and many more to share and take their work to the COP25 from their home country. Additionally, the 24-hour event will provide insights and updates on the international climate-ocean negotiations at COP25 with real-time discussion and analyses among a wide group of participants. To find out more, click the heading above.

The 34th session of the Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) was held on 24-27 September 2019 in Offenbach, Germany, and kindly hosted by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). Members agreed on the necessary evolution of WGNE into a broader Earth System Model development group across weather-climate time scales. To find out more about proceedings, click the header above.

WCRP is awarding annually, together with its two respective partners WWRP and GCOS, two prizes for notable achievements in model as well as data development. For the 2019 editions, nominations are now open with a deadline of 30 September 2019. For details and links to the individual announcements, click the headline above.

WCRP Joint Scientific Committee chair Detlef Stammer provided a statement yesterday at the launch event of a new synthesis report by UN agencies and international initiatives in climate research. The report, titled "United in Science", was coordinated by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO, one of WCRP's three co-sponsors) and underlines the glaring and growing gap between agreed targets to tackle global warming and reality. Click the headlines for details as well as links to the full report and session recordings.

The Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science is now published, in time for the 2019 Climate Action Summit. It is the primary outcome of the Cities and Climate Science Conference that was held in March 2018 in Edmonton, Canada, and was reported to the 48th IPCC Plenary session in October 2018 in Incheon, Korea. To find out more and to download the full and abridged versions of the report, click the heading above.