About CLIVAR

_{Photograph by Dr Charlotte Marcinko}

CLIVAR (Variability and predictability of the ocean-atmosphere system) is one of the four core projects of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). CLIVAR’s mission is to facilitate observation analysis and prediction of changes in the Earth’s climate system, with a focus on ocean-atmosphere interactions, enabling better understanding of climate variability, predictability, and change, to the benefit of society and the environment in which we live.

CLIVAR objective

To describe and understand the ocean-atmosphere processes responsible for climate variability and predictability on seasonal, interannual, decadal, and centennial time-scales, through the collection and analysis of observations and the development and application of models of the coupled climate system, in cooperation with other relevant climate-research and observing activities.

How International CLIVAR works

CLIVAR Panels and working groups made up of senior and early career scientists from around the world meet regularly and interact to coordinate and facilitate research activities in their respective domains world-wide (Figure 1).

The CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG) establishes these groups and their terms of reference to ensure that the key objectives of the programme are met. The current list of CLIVAR panels and working groups can be found here. The SSG determines overall priorities for the project in concert with the goals and plans of the WCRP, and oversees and provides guidance to the scientific work undertaken by CLIVAR panels and groups. The International CLIVAR Project Office (ICPO) provides secretariat support to the SSG and the various panels and groups and is responsible for the project’s outreach activities. It also serves as the point of contact for the project with the WCRP as a whole and with other relevant activities.

The structure of CLIVAR (Figure 2) is in place to promote international collaboration and cooperation, increasing the global scientific capacity beyond regional and institutional capabilities. Intra group/panel collaboration is promoted alongside liaison with the WCRP sister programs, GEWEX, CLiC and SPARC. Some panels and groups are organized jointly with other WCRP components and partner organisations, such as, International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), the Global Climate and Global Ocean Observing Systems (GOOS), WMO Commission for Climatology, Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM). For more information on CLIVAR partners and sponsors click here.

Each group/panel meets regularly to address research priorities in the scientific knowledge, develop best practices, guidelines and recommendations for the community as a whole and promote scientific capacity development.

CLIVAR History and Evolution

The beginnings of CLIVAR …

In 1985 the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) initiated the TOGA (Tropical-Ocean Global Atmosphere), to study interannual variability driven by the ocean-atmosphere system in the tropics. In particular the El Nino-Southern Oscillation was focused upon, with the view to better predicting events on seasonal timescales. Five years after the initiation of TOGA, in 1990 the first observational phase of another WCRP programme began, the WOCE (World Ocean Circulation Experiment, 1990 - 1997), studying the circulation of the global ocean and its influence on the climate system over long time scales. Together both the TOGA and the WOCE programmes represented major contributions to the global understanding of the world ocean and the links between the ocean and atmosphere.

In 1991, the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) called on a group of experts to come together and consider the possible future directions for climate research. Building on the foundations put in place by the WOCE and TOGA projects, the aim was to establish a sound scientific framework for the continuing study of ocean dynamics and coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics related to climate. Their deliberations were published in 1992 in a brochure entitled ‘CLIVAR – a study of Climate Variability and Predictability’. It was suggested that the next step in climate research would require a unified effort, cutting across disciplinary boundaries, which could be implemented by a new, internationally coordinated research programme on climate variability and predictability.

In 1993 the WCRP JSC formally decided to undertake CLIVAR as a major new activity. CLIVAR would exploit the scientific accomplishments of the TOGA programme, continuing the studies of the dynamics of the global tropics. Concurrently, CLIVAR would also develop ocean circulation and variability research on the global or basin wide scale, envisaged by the WOCE project. Overall, it was intended that CLIVAR would become the main programme studying of, the role of the ocean in coupled climate system models and anthropogenic climate change using coupled models. CLIVAR was officially launched in 1995, initially as a 15 year project, at the end of the TOGA project¹.

The first part of the CLIVAR Implementation Plan was published in 1997; a year that was marked with an unprecedented level of interest in issues relating to the Earth's climate, its variability and climate change. The Third meeting of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Kyoto in 1997, focused the world's attention on how human activities may influence global climate. While the meeting established emission targets, it also asked nations to continue their efforts in climate research. The state of the climate system itself was a major news event as the 1997 - 1998 El Niño emerged as the biggest on record by some measures. CLIVAR scientists received recognition for having successfully forecast the event. The TOGA-TAO Pacific observing system had captured its development, providing a wonderful natural experiment for CLIVAR scientists to watch unfold. Many of the effects felt around the world were foreseen, but some were not.

The CLIVAR SSG continuously reviews the organizational structure and science plan of the programme, keeping the research focus in line with current scientific developments, and policy needs and decisions. Today CLIVAR is evolving rapidly in response to scientific advances and the ever-growing demand for improved and useful climate information. Up to date information about current CLIVAR research opportunities, plans and strategy can be found here.