Most of you know the Grand Challenges that our community have identified. In July of last year Guy Brasseur and I published an article for Earth & Space Science News that discussed Future directions for the WCRP. Working from the 'Lessons Learnt for Climate Change Research' meeting in 2014, our article confirmed the urgent Grand Challenge topics but called for increased attention to ocean heating and circulation, prediction on decadal time scales and direct incorporation of biogeochemical cycles. We also reported  a continuing and expanding need for better and more systematic sources of and access to data.

In that same article we recognized that, despite focus and relevance of the WCRP Grand Science Challenges, we had a weak record of public engagement. This newsletter responds directly to our communication challenges. We plan to enhance communication within WCRP and among the research community to facilitate cooperative and collaborative climate research. Externally, we will work with all of you to support the continuing – indeed growing – need for fundamental climate research. Very recent events remind us of the fragile nature of our coalition: we remain highly vulnerable to adverse decisions in any nation. Our strength derives from the optimistic sense of urgency and possibility that we observe in this community and that we will do our best to share and convey.

If you read AGU’s Editors' Vox you will know that Guy Brasseur did us a strong favor by reminding the American Geophysical Union community of WCRP’s continuing focus on climate Grand Challenges. He did that in part because he and I share the concern that, in the glow of the Paris agreement, attention and resources will move away from fundamental climate research. In the COP21 preamble the mandate for “the widest possible cooperation by all countries and their participation in an effective and appropriate international response” basically shouts the need for WCRP’s advanced international research. Across the 140 paragraphs that follow we find repeated examples where progress and monitoring of progress depends on skillful modelling and reliable observations. The necessary research involves a sharpened effort by our community to predict how the climate system will respond to adverse or favorable emission trajectories and enhanced partnerships with ecological and social sciences. If nations or the general public have relaxed their attention to climate change, based on a ‘problem solved’ assumption, the agreement itself presents a strong ‘attention needed’ message.

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (MIP) Phase 6 (CMIP6) community, under the able leadership of Veronika Eyring and the CMIP Panel, has submitted its overall design and descriptions of the various MIPs to the journal of Geoscientific Model Development (GMD) (Eyring et al., 2015).  There you can read the proposed modelling approaches to persistent problems (clouds, carbon cycle), new attempts (ice sheet contributions to sea level), strengthened attention to regional processes (monsoons) including an innovative high-resolution MIP, and a more visible and inclusive approach to scenarios.  All of this available in open access – nice!  CMIP6 represents a huge effort in terms of time, output and people: in the GMD article Veronika estimates 40,000 model simulation years and 20 to 40 Petabytes of model output.  Our analysis of CMIP impact on climate research shows that 40% of the research papers in Journal of Climate during 2014 explicitly mention CMIP.  

I don’t know another community that puts such a large effort into intercomparison and exchange and that sustains such a remarkable effort through community motivation.
 

Have you ever wished you could be a great explorer like Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton or Roald Amundsen? Would you go to great depths to succeed? Yes? Then we have the perfect challenge for you. A polar challenge!

WCRP and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation (FPA2) are jointly promoting a Polar Challenge to reward the first team to complete a 2000 km continuous mission with an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) under the Arctic or Antarctic sea ice. The prize details and the start of the competition will be officially announced at the Arctic Science Summit Week on 15 March 2016 in Fairbanks, USA.
 
Yes, it is exciting. However, this initiative also aims to address an important scientific issue. In situ ocean observations in polar regions are inherently expensive, risky and sparse, and even more so under sea ice. A new paradigm is required to complement remotely sensed Earth observations. WCRP and FPA2 aim to promote technological innovation towards a future cost-effective, autonomous and scalable observing network for sea-ice covered regions based on a fleet of AUVs. This initiative will have a tremendous impact in shaping future climate research and services in the polar regions and could revolutionize our knowledge of climate change in these areas.

 

Abstract submission is now open for the CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean: Variability, Predictability and Change) Open Science Conference. This is a fantastic opportunity for the international climate community to collectively shape the coupled ocean–atmosphere system research agenda by reviewing current progress in understanding ocean-atmosphere dynamics, prioritizing international research plans and initiating new collaborations. Key themes include: 'ocean’s role in the climate system', 'climate variability and predictability', 'understanding ocean and climate processes', 'the ocean in a warmer world' and 'climate information and sustainable development and future of climate and ocean science'. Alongside the main conference, the CLIVAR Early Career Scientists Symposium (ECSS) (18 and 24–25 September) offers 3 days of scientific presentations, career building workshops and the opportunity to network with peers and senior scientists.The full scientific programme is available on the conference website.

NOTE: Abstract submission and applications for support and to attend the ECSS close 15 March 2016. So mark your calendar and get that abstract in!
 

We look forward to meeting the international community in Stockholm, Sweden, in May of this year at the International Conference on Regional Climate (ICRC)–Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) 2016. Focusing on high resolution climate information, and its applications to the vulnerability, impacts and adaptation community, ICRC–CORDEX 2016 will provide a forum for discussion for the full spectrum of potential end users of regional climate information.  This promotes the CORDEX vision to advance and coordinate the science and application of regional climate downscaling through global partnerships. Come along and help CORDEX meet the challenge of making scientifically rigorous climate information available for effective impact and adaptation planning!

Abstract submission is now closed and registration is open. Register on the website before 17 March 2016 to get the early bird rate!