Sponsors and Partners

CLIVAR works closely with its sponsor (World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)) and partner organisations. Collaborative working between organisations helps to push forward scientific fronteirs. This section provides more detail about CLIVARs sponsors and partners and how CLIVAR science interlinks with overarching scientific challenges facing the whole climate science community.

World Climate Research Programme

The World Climate Research Programme was established in 1980, under the sponsorship of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). Since 1993 WCRP has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). WCRP works to improve the predictive skill of climate models over seasonal to centennial timescales. WCRP provides an international platform to align thousands of climate scientists worldwide placing emphasis upon producing the best possible climate observing networks, models and data analysis, making these tools and climate information products available for practical applications. The two overarching WCRP objectives are:

  1. To determine the predictability of climate
  2. To determine the effect of human activities on climate


To achieve these objectives, WCRP has identified six scientific grand challenges (Figure 1), which address a current barrier to the advancement of science. Ideally they will enable the development of targeted research efforts with a likelihood of significant progress over the nest 5 -10 years. The six WCRP Grand Challenges are as follows;

  1. Regional Climate Information
  2. Sea-Level Rise and Regional Impacts
  3. Cryosphere in a Changing Climate
  4. Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity
  5. Changes in Water Availability
  6. Science Underpinning the Prediction and Attribution of Extreme Events

Learn more about WCRP

The science of these six Grand Challenges is implemented through four core projects, CLIVAR, CliC, SPARC and GEWEX (Figure 1). Each of the core projects has some degree of overlap (Figure 1), and project is involved to differing degrees with the WCRP Grand Challenges (Figure 2). CLIVAR is most strongly associated with are Regional Climate Information, Sea Level Rise and Regional Impacts, and Science Underpinning the Prediction and Attribution of Extreme Events.

Learn more about the CLIVAR involvement with WCRP Grand Challenges

 

 

 

 

 

WCRP Integrating Themes

WCRP carries out many activities that support research efforts across the whole spectrum of the Programme and which serve as integrating themes. The activities in support of WCRP Integrating themes are carried out by the following ad hoc working groups:

  • Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) Coordinating WCRP modelling activities and organizing numerical experimentation for the IPCC assessments. CLIVAR has a strong involvement with this group.
  • Working Group on Seasonal to Interannual Prediction (WGSIP) Developing a program of numerical experimentation for seasonal-to-interannual variability and predictability. CLIVAR has a strong involvement with this group.
  • Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE) Fostering the development of atmospheric circulation models for use in weather, climate, water and environmental prediction on all time scales
  • WCRP Modelling Advisory Council (WMAC) Coordinating high-level aspects of modelling across the WCRP, ensuring cooperation with main WCRP partners such as IGBP and WWRP
  • WCRP Data Advisory Council (WDAC) Acting as a single entry point for all WCRP data, information, and observation activities and coordinating their high-level aspects across the WCRP, ensuring cooperation with main WCRP partners such as GCOS and other observing programmes.

Learn more about the WCRP integrating themes.

WCRP Cross Cutting Initiatives

WCRP engages the international climate research community in a number of crosscutting initiatives through the implementation of task forces and working groups in areas such as:

Learn more about the WCRP cross cutting initiatives.

CLIVAR is involved with the Climate Extremes cross cutting initiative. Learn more about CLIVAR’s involvement.

CLIVAR science also investigates at Monsoons and Climate, Sea Level Variability and Decadal Variability, Predictability and Prediction.

 

 

WCRP Core Projects

Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project, encourages and promotes research into the cryosphere and its interactions as part of the global climate system. The principal goal of CliC is to assess and quantify the impacts of climatic variability and change on components of the cryosphere and their consequences for the climate system, and determine the stability of the global cryosphere. It seeks to focus attention on the most important issues, encourage communication between researchers with common interests in cryospheric and climate science, promote international co-operation, and highlight the importance of this field of science to policy makers, funding agencies, and the general public. Learn more about CliC

 

 

Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC). Founded in 1992 SPARC is the core project of WCRP, which coordinates international efforts to bring knowledge of the stratosphere to bear on relevant issues in climate variability and prediction. The three main themes SPARC covers are climate-chemistry interactions, detection, attribution and prediction of stratospheric change, stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling. Learn more about SPARC.

 

 

Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) is an integrated program of research, observations, and science activities that focuses on the atmospheric, terrestrial, radiative, hydrological, coupled processes, and interactions that determine the global and regional hydrological cycle, radiation and energy transitions, and their involvement in climate change. The goal of GEWEX is to reproduce and predict, by means of suitable models, the variations of the global hydrological regime, its impact on atmospheric and surface dynamics, and variations in regional hydrological processes and water resources and their response to changes in the environment, such as the increase in greenhouse gases. Learn more about GEWEX.

 

 

Partners

Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) is a permanent global system for observations, modelling and analysis of marine and ocean variables; providing accurate descriptions of the present state of the oceans, including living resources; continuous forecasts of the future conditions of the sea for as far ahead as possible, and the basis for forecasts of climate change. It is a system of programmes, each of which is working on different and complementary aspects of establishing an operational ocean observation capability for all of the world's nations. Learn more about GOOS.

 

 

Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), is an intergovernmental body of technical experts that provides a mechanism for international coordination of oceanographic and marine meteorological observing, data management and services, combining the expertise, technologies and capacity building capabilities of the meteorological and oceanographic communities. Learn more about JCOMM.

 

Past Global Changes (PAGES). Founded in 1991, PAGES is a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme and supports research aimed at understanding the Earth’s past environment in order to make predictions for the future. PAGES scope of interest includes the physical climate system, biogeochemical cycles, ecosystem processes, biodiversity, and human dimensions, on different time scales—Pleistocene, Holocene, last millennium and the recent past. Learn more about PAGES.

 

 

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the single international, interdisciplinary, non-governmental organization which can draw on the experience and expertise of an international mix of scientists across the complete scientific spectrum. For over 30 years, SCAR has provided scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System and made numerous recommendations on a variety of matters, most of which have been incorporated into Antarctic Treaty instruments. Foremost amongst these have been the advice provided for the many international agreements which provide protection for the ecology and environment of Antarctica. Learn more about SCAR.

 

 

Commission for Climatology (CCL) is a World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) programme, which provides world leadership in promoting expertise and international cooperation in climatology. CCL works jointly with CLIVAR as part of the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). Learn more about CCL.

 

 

 

 

Related Projects

CLIVAR is also involved with the NACLIM project. NACLIM aims at investigating and quantifying the predictability on interannual to decadal time scales of the climate in the North Atlantic/European sector related to North Atlantic/Arctic Ocean surface state (SST and sea ice) variability and change. Learn more about CLIVAR’s involvement with the NACLIM project.