CliC Director, Jenny Baeseman, attended the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Committee meeting in Kiel, Germany 6-9 May 2013. This created a great opportunity for developing stronger connections between the two WCRP core projects. CLIVAR has managed the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Panel for many years, and hopefully discussions resulting from this meeting will develop stronger participation from CliC. In addition, CLIVAR is managing the WCRP Grand Challenge on Sea Level Rise, which CliC is to contribute expertise on the cryosphere contribution to sea level rise. To help CLIVAR understand the current status of CliC, our new targeted activities, and some of the recent successes of the project were presented. Dr. Baeseman’s presentation covered some of the developments of the office, which is now staffed again after several years of hiatus, and some recent developments such as the new agreements with the Norwegian Polar institute, SCAR and IASC, a new SSG Chair and several new SSG members, new website and online tools, highlights from various international workshops, plans for upcoming meetings, the development of a cryosphere projects catalog and specialists directory and the new targeted activities for CliC. Highlights of particular interest to CLIVAR were discussed: In June, the CliC Sea Ice Modeling and Observing Workshop will concentrate on the observational needs for sea ice models; the new Ice Watch project from Jenny Hutchings and Alice Orlich (UAF); the West Antarctic Glacier-Ocean Modelling led by David Holland; the Arctic Freshwater System Synthesis led by Terry Prowse, Arvid Bring and Johanna Karlsson; and CliC will join as co-sponsor of the SCAR/IASC Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level group (ISMASS). In addition, CLIVAR was encouraged to participate in the WCRP Cryosphere in a Changing Climate Grand Challenge workshop to be held in Tromsø in October. This workshop will help to plan the activities needed to address the grand challenge’s science foci: Predictions and Projections of Polar Climate, Cryosphere Model Biases and Shortcoming, Ice Sheet Models, dynamics and sea level rise, Permafrost and Carbon for Earth System Models.
