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Update on International Research Funding from the Belmont Forum

At the April meeting Sustained Arctic Observing Network (SAON) Board meeting, Erica Key from the US National Science Foundation gave an update on the Belmont Forum that might be of interest to CliC Researchers. Greg Flato, CliC Scientific Steering Group Chair attended the meeting and can be contacted for further information.

The Belmont Forum (http://igfagcr.org/index.php/belmont-forum) is a subset of the IGFA nations, including representatives from 13 nations, the European Union, and 2 international scientific councils (ICSU, and ISSC). The Forum identifies shared global priorities and leads multi-national calls for proposals called Collaborative Research Actions (CRA). Past examples of Belmont CRAs include calls for research on coastal vulnerability and freshwater security. The Forum requires each Collaborative Research Action to address the Belmont Challenge: To deliver knowledge needed for action to avoid and adapt to detrimental environmental change including extreme hazardous events. Belmont further requires consideration of human and natural systems in each proposal, and a minimum of three nations involved in each project.

The themes for an Arctic CRA — Arctic observing and Arctic sustainability science — were developed during a first scoping workshop in Canada during the IPY meeting in 2012. These themes were approved by the Belmont Forum Principals at their spring 2013 meeting.

Continue ReadingUpdate on International Research Funding from the Belmont Forum

About the World Climate Research Program

The man objectives of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) set at its inception and still valid today, are to determine the predictability of climate and to determine the effect of human activities on climate.

Since 1980, the WCRP has made enormous contributions to advancing climate science (25th Anniversary Brochure). As a result of WCRP efforts, it is now possible for climate scientists to monitor, simulate and project global climate with unprecedented accuracy so that climate information can be used for governance, in decision-making and in support of a wide range of practical end-user applications.

In 2005, after 25 years of serving science and society, the WCRP, in collaboration with the broader scientific community, developed and launched the WCRP Strategy Framework 2005-2015. Implementing this strategy will ensure that WCRP continues to work efficiently and effectively towards strengthening our knowledge and increasing our capabilities with regard to climate variability and change.

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Norway Sea Ice Workshop Report Available

Norway has significant expertise in sea-ice observations, research, and provision of operational sea-ice services. To help bring this community of experts from geophysics, remote sensing, modeling, observing and user groups together, the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Project, the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Norwegian Ice Service, and the Research Council of Norway held a 2-day workshop at the Fram Centre in Tromsø, on 18-19 February 2013. The workshop represented an opportunity for these groups to engage in dialog, strengthen and develop new collaborations and share future research objectives. The full report can be downloaded here. Special thanks to Jennifer King for putting the report together.

Report sections:
Sea Ice Research Priorities
Stakeholder Priorities
Recommendations for future Norwegian Sea Ice Research
Participant List
Compendium of Norway Sea Ice Research Projects and PIs

Continue ReadingNorway Sea Ice Workshop Report Available

PALSEA 2013 Workshop: Estimating rates and sources of sea-level change during past warm periods

The workshop will take place on October 21-24 (25) 2013 at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), in Rome, Italy, and is sponsored by the WCRP Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Project Office, Past Global Changes (PAGES) and International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA).

The aim of this workshop is to explore, discuss, and debate what the paleo record can say about rates, sources, and processes of sea-level change across a range of magnitudes and timescales during past warm periods such as the Holocene, the last interglacial period, other interglacial periods such as marine isotope stage 11, and the Pliocene optimum. We encourage diverse contributions such as evidence from geologic records, geochronological controls, and models of climate, ice sheets and glacial isostatic effects. For meeting flyer go to: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~carlsand/PALSEA2/PALSEA_2013_Meeting_files/PALSEA2_2013_circular.pdf

The deadline for submitting abstracts will be 15 June 2013 to adutton@ufl.edu, workshop homepage at: http://people.oregonstate.edu/~carlsand/PALSEA2/PALSEA_2013_Meeting.html

Continue ReadingPALSEA 2013 Workshop: Estimating rates and sources of sea-level change during past warm periods

WCRP Special Workshop on Climatic Effects of Ozone Depletion in the Southern Hemisphere Report Available

Contributed by Marilyn Raphael, UCLA

A WCRP Special Workshop on the ‘Climatic Effects of Ozone Depletion in the Southern Hemisphere: Assessing the evidence and identifying gaps in the current knowledge’, was convened at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 25 February to 1 March, 2013.

The WCRP Special Workshop was held to examine our understanding of the links between stratospheric ozone depletion and recovery and the climate of the Southern Hemisphere including the Southern Ocean. Our understanding of the influence of increasing greenhouse gas concentration was also examined. Of immediate relevance to the CliC community is the discussion of the links between observed changes in the atmospheric circulation due to stratospheric ozone depletion and contemporary Antarctic surface temperature and sea ice trends.  While the links to surface temperature changes in regions such as the Peninsula are clear, those to sea ice changes are not. The discrepancy between the modeled and observed sea ice trends was highlighted as an area for future research with specific reference to the need for a better understanding of sea ice formation processes and the interaction with the ocean and atmosphere. Download the report

Continue ReadingWCRP Special Workshop on Climatic Effects of Ozone Depletion in the Southern Hemisphere Report Available