Chapter 5 Climate Research

WCRP Activities

The activities of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) are aimed at the development of the fundamental scientific understanding of the climate system and its processes required for predicting climate variability and human-induced change. The program encompasses studies of the global atmosphere, oceans, sea and land ice, and the land surface, as well as the interactions between these individual elements of the climate system.

The WCRP was established as a component of the World Climate Programme WCP) in 1979 under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU). Following the restructuring of the WCP in 1991, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO joined WMO and ICSU as a cosponsor of the WCRP in 1993.

The broad objectives of WCRP (WMO, 2000) are:

• Assessing the nature and predictability of seasonal to inter-decadal variations of the climate system at global and regional scales, and providing the scientific basis for operational predictions of these variations for use in climate services in support of sustainable development;
• Detecting climate change and attributing causes, and projecting the magnitude and rate of human-induced climate change, regional variations, and related sea-level rise;
• Responding to the research needs of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and climate-related Conventions, and of other components of the World Climate Programme (WCP) in the framework of the Climate Agenda; and
• Encouraging greater participation of scientists from developing countries in the WCRP through the joint WCRP-IGBPIHDP System for Analysis Research and Training (START) and intergovernmental groupings such as the Inter- American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).

Research activities that contributed to the WCRP have provided substantial scientific input to the First, Second and Third Assessment Reports of the WMO-UNEP Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Similarly, WCRP research activities are contributing to current preparations for the Fourth Assessment Report.

Through the period covered by this report (2001-2003), the major research programs of WCRP were (Figure 5.1):

GEWEX Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment

WOCE World Ocean Circulation Experiment

CLIVAR Climate Variability and Predictability

SPARC Stratospheric Processes and their Role in Climate

ACSYS-CliC Arctic Climate System Study - Climate and Cryosphere

Figure 5.1. The structure of the World Climate Research Programme which is co-sponsored by WMO, ICSU and the IOC and which included five research programs during 2001-2003.

The CLIVAR program was established part of the WCRP in 1993 to focus on studies of climate variability, to extend effective climate predictions and to refine estimates of anthropogenic climate change. The work builds on the understanding of climate variability and predictability developed from the ten-year WCRP Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere (TOGA) program, which was formally completed at the end of 1994.

The WOCE program involved a ten-year observing period until 1998, followed by a synthesis period which was completed at the end of 2001. The continuing activities of WOCE are being carried forward in CLIVAR.

In March 2000, the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) of the WCRP, at its twenty- first session, approved the establishment of the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) program. Australian scientists played a significant role in the development of this program, which involved integrated studies of the impact and response of the cryosphere in the overall global climate system.

The development of global climate modelling is an important unifying component of WCRP that extends across all major programs. Models are the fundamental tool for understanding and predicting natural climate variations and for providing reliable estimates of anthropogenic climate change. The Working Group on Numerical Experimentation (WGNE), jointly sponsored by the JSC of the WCRP and the WMO Commission for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS), leads the development of atmospheric circulation models for both climate studies and numerical weather prediction. The Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM), jointly sponsored by the JSC and CLIVAR, leads the development of coupled ocean-atmosphere-land models used for climate studies on longer time scales.

The WCRP is increasingly involved with the development of integrated programs for climate-related research, and has joined with IGBP and IHDP to form the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP); the new Diversitas program of ICSU is also a partner in the ESSP. Under the ESSP, there are now joint programs on the carbon cycle (Global Carbon Project (GCP)), water systems (Global Water Systems Project (GWSP)), and food security (Global Environmental Change and Food Security Project (GECAFS)); these programs are cross-cutting with a focus on the human dimensions of each issue. The main Australian contribution to these joint programs is through the GCP.

A continuing focus for collaboration between WCRP, IGBP and IHDP is the System for Analysis, Research and Training (START) program. Most of the capacitybuilding activities of WCRP are initiated through START projects, which include the Climate and Agriculture (CLIMAG) project and the Monitoring Extreme Climate Events (MECE) project. Australian scientists have contributed to the development of both activities.