Links to useful FAQs on climate & climate change

http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_FAQs.pdf
http://www.wmo.ch/web/wcp/ccl/faq/faq.shtml
http://www.un.org/climatechange/bg.shtml
http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/index.htm
http://www.ucar.edu/news/backgrounders/patterns.shtml

Glossary:
http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/Report/AR4WG1_Pub_Annexes.pdf

WCRP measures of success

Each element of WCRP is developing a set of success measures against which they will assess progress throughout the year and report to the JSC annually. Some examples are given below. Others are under development and will be added as they become available.

CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES:
SEASONAL PREDICTION
MONSOONS
ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATE CHANGE

CORE PROJECTS:
CLIVAR
GEWEX
SPARC
CliC

CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES:

SEASONAL PREDICTION

• Involvement of WCRP projects in assessment and experiment
• Easy access to experimental data
• Hand over Task Force responsibilities to CLIVAR in 2007
• Implementation of the WCRP coordinated seasonal prediction experiment including the GLACE-2 land surface initialization experiment
• A written assessment of seasonal prediction skill based on the 2007 workshop to be published by WCRP
• A well defined process for future seasonal prediction skill assessments

MONSOONS
Future Development Plans:

• Targetted workshops to sustain CLIVAR and GEWEX interactions
• Pan GEWEX monsoon workshop - Oct 2006
• Form pan-WCRP monsoon panel
• Workshop on diurnal cycle of rainfall
• Coordination with THORPEX
• Implement MAHASRI

Future Successes Anticipated

• Improved modelling of intraseasonal oscillation
• More process studies and modelling of maritime continent and the Indian ocean
• Better understanding of atmospheric moisture distribution and transport
• Reverse decay of observing system
• Collect observations over sparsely sampled regions of the tropical oceans
• Better observations of land surface conditions
• Investigate role of aerosol & dust impact on development of monsoon precipitation
• Application studies on hydrology, health, agronomy
• Implementation of Indian Ocean Observing System

• Reanalysis of sea ice data to combine data sets, evaluate errors
• Sea ice assimilation project
• Develop "physics" ensembles to identify key processes

Future Successes Anticipated (desired)

• Reduce climate sensitivity
• Targetted intercomparisons to identify specific components
• Use observations to constrain key parameters
• Use observing programmes to reduce remaining uncertainties
• More computer time, but not just to increase resolution
• Investigate role of glaciers and ice sheets in climate change
• Incorporate glaciers and ice sheets into global climate models
• Attribute stratospheric change, role of natural variability v. anthropogenic
• Be able to model stratospheric Anthropogenic Climate Change signal
• Determine influence of stratosphere on variability in dynamics of the troposphere
• CCMVal - chemistry climate model validation activity - ongoing
• Assess and update stratospheric temperature trends
• Assess role of transport in modelling chemistry and ozone recovery
• Characterize variability in the stratosphere

CORE PROJECTS:

CLIVAR

• New resources enabled by leveraging off CLIVAR efforts
• Scientific improvements in:
• the spectral character (i.e. spectral power, frequency)
• predictability of ISO, seasonal, interannual, decadal variability in coupled models
• Transitions into operational benefits:
• reduction of uncertainty in climate models, bias reduction
• number of new parameterizations incorporated into operational models
• Global ocean observation improvement:
• number of deployments and
• transition of process study and research observations to operational status
• Capacity building within and incorporation of developing nations into activities
• Global and regional data products enabled

GEWEX

• New resources enabled by leveraging off GEWEX efforts.
• Transition into operational benefits:
• reduction of uncertainty in climate models, bias reduction,
• number of parameterizations incorporated into operational models
• Capacity building within and incorporation of developing nations into activities
• Enabling global and regional data products.
• Scientific advances in:
• the understanding of radiation, cloud, precipitation and land processes and their role in the climate system.
• Data sets used to improve models through parameterization developments and intercomparisons
• Contributions to the advance of water cycle observation systems:
• number of actions addressed under GEO and IGOS,
• transition of process study research, research data systems and data management and analysis systems to operational status.

SPARC

• New resources enabled by leveraging off SPARC efforts
• Transition into operational benefits:
• reduction of uncertainty in climate models, bias reduction,
• number of parameterizations incorporated into operational models
• Capacity building within and incorporation of developing nations into activities
• Enabling global and regional data products.
• Data sets used to improve models through parameterization developments and intercomparisons
• Contributions to the advance of stratosphere observation systems
• Baseline experiment (similar to AMIP-type experiments)
• Encourage and strengthen links to rest of WCRP
• Clarity on (i) SPARC in WMP; (ii) SPARC in WGSCIP/TFSP
• Stimulate major international activities
• Influential reports
• Significant funding
• Co-ordinate science assessments
• Provide intellectual home, stimulus etc. for young scientists

CliC

• New resources enabled by leveraging off CliC efforts
• Transition into operational benefits:
• reduction of uncertainty in climate models, bias reduction,
• number of parameterizations incorporated into operational models
• Capacity building within and incorporation of developing nations into activities
• Develop global and regional data products.
• Scientific advances in:
• Data sets used to improve models through parameterization developments and intercomparisons
• Contributions to the advance of cryosphere observation systems.

Success measures will be developed for all WCRP activities, including:

OVERSIGHT BODIES
JSC
WOAP

MODELLING GROUPS
WGCM