WCRP Global Sea-Level Rise Update 5.2.2010
WCRP and WMO jointly issued an update on Global sea-level rise in the occasion of the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen last December 2009. The short document presents some recent observations and analysis suggesting that the IPCC AR4 conclusions concerning the rate of future change in the global mean sea level may be on the conservative side. Read the document.

EUMETSAT approves the Optional Jason 3 Altimetry Programme 5.2.2010
EUMETSAT Member States approved the European part of the EUMETSAT Optional Jason 3 Altimetry Programme enabling this entry into force. Developed in close partnership with CNES, NOAA and NASA, it will ensure continuation of the series of measurements made by the Jason-2 satellite and its predecessors in support of meteorology, operational oceanography and in particular the monitoring of the sea level trend, a key indicator of climate change. This result is a major contribution to the CEOS OST Constellation. Read the Press Release.

Job Announcement: Director of Climate and Environmental Sciences 4.1.2010
Candidates are sought for the position of Director of the Climate and Environmental Sciences Division in the Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) within the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science. For more information please contact Anna Palmisano by 20 January 2010.  Read more information on the post.

Article on Nature Reports Climate Change: More Knowledge, Less Certainty 26.1.2010
Kevin Trenberth, WOAP Chair, anticipates that the uncertainty in AR5's climate predictions and projections will be much greater than in previous IPCC reports, primarily because models will attempt new and better representations of important climate processes and their feedbacks . While our knowledge of certain factors does increase, so does our understanding of factors we previously did not account for or even recognize. This could present a major problem for public understanding of climate change. Read the article.

BAMS article: A Unified Modeling Approach to Climate System Prediction 20.1.2010
In a recent BAMS article, J. Hurrell (WCRP CLIVAR SSG Co-chair) and colleagues discuss different strategies for a more unified approach to climate system prediction.  At the heart of this new approach is the realization that all climate system predictions, regardless of time scale, share common processes and mechanisms; moreover, interactions across time and space scales are fundamental to the climate system itself. Read the article.

Article: Sea level budget from space gravimetry, satellite altimetry and Argo 12.1.2010
In an article published in the Global and Planetary Change, Anny Cazenave of the Laboratory for Studies in Space Geophysics and Oceanography (LEGOS) in Toulouse, France, and her colleagues quantified the contributions of melting land ice and thermal expansion to sea-level rise. They used gravity data from the GRACE satellites and temperature records collected by the Argo network of buoys. Read more.