The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is celebrating 40 years of international climate science. To mark this milestone, the WCRP Climate Science Week will be held as part of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in San Francisco, December 2019. The WCRP Climate Science Week will include a 40th Anniversary Symposium, Science Sessions, Town Halls, Union Session, and an Early Career Researcher Workshop.

Please check the WCRP webpage for more details.

Would you like to support the WCRP Climate Science Week in recognition of the importance of climate research? Please get in touch with Michel Rixen at .

We look forward to seeing you in December!

First Circular (June 2019)

The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is seeking nominations for its Steering Committee to guide the scientific and technical developments during the activity’s second phase. TOAR is an ongoing IGAC activity and has recently completed its first phase (2014-2019). The second phase of TOAR (TOAR-II) will commence in early 2020 and last five years, covering the four goals listed below.  TOAR-II will be led by a Steering Committee, comprised of co-chairs Owen Cooper and Martin Schultz and 9 additional members, who shall cover all world regions and reflect diversity in gender and other aspects. With this announcement TOAR encourages scientists to apply for the 9 seats on the Steering Committee, with rotating membership terms of 2.5 or 5 years.  Nominees are expected to devote sufficient time and effort to allow for regular participation at TOAR events and shall actively engage in the development and promotion of TOAR-II. They must be senior scientists or mid-career scientists with notable peer-reviewed publication records, demonstrating expertise in the realm of tropospheric ozone research.  Specializations of the nominee’s research should be related to one or more of the following: atmospheric chemistry or transport; ozone impacts on human health, vegetation or climate; statistics or “Big Data” analysis.  Self-nominations must be made by December 21, 2019, using the following web-form:

http://igacproject.org/activities/TOAR/TOAR_SC_Nomination_Form

Please direct any questions to the TOAR co-Chairs:

Dr. Owen R. Cooper
CIRES U. of Colorado/NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, USA

Dr. Martin G. Schultz
Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Highlight papers (office choice):

The role of the stratosphere in subseasonal to seasonal prediction Part I: Predictability of the stratosphere. By D.I.V. Domeisen et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The role of the stratosphere in subseasonal to seasonal prediction Part II: Predictability arising from stratosphere ‐ troposphere coupling. By D.I.V. Domeisen et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A statistical analysis of the propagating quasi 16‐day waves at high latitudes and their response to sudden stratospheric warmings from 2005 to 2018. By Y. Gong et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Which orographic scales matter most for medium‐range forecast skill in the Northern Hemisphere winter? By T. Kanehama et al. in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Does the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex exhibit signs of preconditioning prior to sudden stratospheric warmings? By Z.D. Lawrence and G.L. Manney in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Unusual trapped mountain lee waves with deep vertical penetration and significant stratospheric amplitude. By J.J. Metz, D.R. Durran, and P.N. Blossey in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Predictability of extratropical upper tropospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere by its main modes of variability. By M. Osman and C.S. Vera in the Journal of the Climate.

Realistic quasi‐biennial oscillation variability in historical and decadal hindcast simulations using CMIP6 forcing. By H. Pohlmann et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

The Elbrus (Caucasus, Russia) ice core record – Part 1: reconstruction of past anthropogenic sulfur emissions in south-eastern Europe. By S. Preunkert et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The Emerging Technological Revolution in Earth Observations. By G. Stephens et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Impact of the QBO on Prediction and Predictability of the MJO Convection. By S. Wang et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Is the recovery of stratospheric O3 speeding up in the Southern Hemisphere? An evaluation from the first IASI decadal record (2008–2017). By C. Wespes et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Two overview papers have been prepared by the SNAP (Stratospheric Network for the Assessment of Predictability) community, and have recently been published int he Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. The publications are now available online:

The role of the stratosphere in subseasonal to seasonal prediction Part I: Predictability of the stratosphere. By D. I. V. Domeisen, A. H. Butler,  A. J. Charlton‐Perez, B. Ayarzagüena, M. P. Baldwin, E. Dunn‐Sigouin et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The role of the stratosphere in subseasonal to seasonal prediction Part II: Predictability arising from stratosphere ‐ troposphere coupling. By By D. I. V. Domeisen, A. H. Butler,  A. J. Charlton‐Perez, B. Ayarzagüena, M. P. Baldwin, E. Dunn‐Sigouin et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The World Data System (WDS; www.World-Data-System.org) is currently looking to fill three vacancies in their Scientific Committee, for current the period 2018-2021, due to members stepping down from the committee for personal reasons.

Please find a letter from Rorie Edmunds, Acting Executive Director, about the call:

Download cover letter

The WDS is dealing with a variety of data issues relevant to WCRP, so please consider responding to this call until 1 December 2019.

The World Data System (WDS) is an Interdisciplinary Body of the International Science Council (ISC; formerly ICSU) created by its 29th General Assembly in Maputo, Mozambique in 2008.

As an ISC Interdisciplinary Body, the mission of the World Data System is to support the ISC’s vision by promoting long-term stewardship of, and universal and equitable access to, quality-assured scientific data and data services, products, and information across all disciplines in the Natural and Social Sciences, and the Humanities. WDS aims to facilitate scientific research under the ISC umbrella by coordinating and supporting trusted scientific data services for the provision, use, and preservation of relevant datasets, while strengthening their links with the research community.

Read more

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Possible implications of enhanced chlorofluorocarbon-11 concentrations on ozone. By M. Dameris, P. Jöckel and M. Nützel in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Observed changes in Brewer–Dobson circulation for 1980–2018. By Q. Fu et al. in the Environmental Research Letters.

The role of zonally averaged climate change in contributing to inter-model spread in CMIP5 predicted local precipitation changes. By C.I. Garfinkel et al. in the Journal of the Climate.

The Detailed Dynamics of the June–August Hadley Cell. By B.J. Hoskins, G.-Y. Yang, and R.M. Fonseca in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Assessment of Atmospheric Reanalyses with Independent Observations in the Weddell Sea, the Antarctic. By M.O. Jonassen et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The Buffer Zone of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. By A. Match and S. Fueglistaler in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Spring Aleutian Low weakening and surface cooling trend in northwest North America during recent decades. By C. Sun et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Decreases in wintertime total column ozone over the Tibetan Plateau during 1979–2017. By Y. Li et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Observational evidence of moistening the lowermost stratosphere via isentropic mixing across the subtropical jet. By J. Langille et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Dear SPARC colleagues,

we encourage to take the opportunity for collaborations with our fellow WCRP project CORDEX. Please find below a message from the CORDEX CORE activity. The SPARC office is happy to establish contact.

Dear colleagues,

The regional climate simulations of the CORDEX CORE activity are now available in the ESGF (see, e.g. https://esgf-data.dkrz.de/search/cordex-dkrz/ and look for the XXX-22 domains, for other RegCM simulations not available in ESGF, please find further information on data access in http://users.ictp.it/~jciarlo/).

The simulations cover all major inhabited areas of the world at a resolution of 25km. Two RCMs (RegCM from ICTP and REMO from GERICS) are used to downscale three GCMs at two RCPs (RCP2.6 and RCP8.5).

Purpose of CORDEX CORE

Provide a foundation of high-resolution regional climate model projections to improve the understanding of local fine scale phenomena and to allow ensemble-based vulnerability, impact, adaptation and climate services research world-wide.

CORDEX CORE

… aims to create an initial homogeneous dowscaled ensemble
… aims at covering the major populated areas of the world
… will be extended by further simulations in the regions
… will allow new research:

• to assess future climate (mean, extremes and hazards, …)
• to study one phenomena across multiple domains (e.g., monsoons, tropical cyclones)
• to assess consistency of climate change signals and possible added value (in comparison with coarser resolution)

Method

CORDEX CORE is designed

• to use a core set of RCMs
• RegCM and REMO (so far)
• to downscale a core set of GCMs with high, medium and low Climate Sensitivity
• HadGEM (backup: MIROC5)
• MPI-ESM (backup: EC-Earth)
• NorESM (backup: GFDL-ESM)
• to have a validation simulation and use different representative concentration pathways
• ERA-Interim, RCP2.6 and RCP8.5
• to be incrementally extended with further contributions by additional models/experiments

CORDEX CORE (25km) is extending CORDEX (50km) regional climate information.

Papers / Science

3 main papers coming out from the CORDEX core effort (and are encouraged to be used as further reference)

• evaluation of mean climate and projections
• evaluation of extreme climate and projection
• evaluation of hazard and projections

We encourage the use of CORDEX CORE for any scientific studies by the entire CORDEX  research community.

Data Policy:
we strongly encourage people using the data from the CORDEX-CORE database to contact the model data producers in order to give feedback on the model simulations, interact on the scientific studies and/or propose co-authorships.

Further information can be found here:
http://www.cordex.org/experiment-guidelines/cordex-core/

Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns,

Armelle Remedio, Claas Teichmann and Erika Coppola

Download second circular

This is a workshop on the stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling in the tropics, and also teleconnections to the extratropics, jointly organized with the following collaborative research activities:

• Years of the Maritime Continent (YMC)
• Project for solar-terrestrial environment prediction (PSTEP)
• JSPS KAKENHI “Stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling in the tropics”
• JSPS-DG-RSTHE Joint Research Project “Scientific research on extreme weather in changing climate in the Maritime Continent and its societal application”

Two-day core sessions are planned for the latest results of observations and data analyses, numerical experiments, and theoretical studies on the stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling in the tropics, whereas a couple of sessions are also planned for some specific subjects related to the influences of solar activity variations on weather and climate, and the implications for extreme weather and climate in the Maritime Continent under the scope of stratosphere-troposphere dynamical coupling. Participation of early career scientists and PhD students is encouraged, and limited amount of grants will be available to support the participation from Asian countries.

Important Dates  

• Deadline for abstract submission with grant application:
  November 30, 2019
• Deadline for abstract submission: December 20, 2019
• Deadline for registration without presentations:
  January 31, 2020

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Highlight article (office choice):

100 Years of Progress in Understanding the Stratosphere and Mesosphere. M.P. Baldwin et al. in the Meteorological Monographs.

Nitrification of the lowermost stratosphere during the exceptionally cold Arctic winter 2015–2016. By M. Braun et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Solar Irradiance Variability: Comparisons of Models and Measurements. By O. Coddington et al. in Earth and Space Science.

Technical note: Reanalysis of Aura MLS chemical observations. By Q. Errera et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

A simple decomposition of European temperature variability capturing the variance from days to a decade. By P.G. Meyer and H. Kantz in Climate Dynamics.

Quantifying the timescale and strength of Southern Hemisphere intra‐seasonal stratosphere‐troposphere coupling. By E. Saggioro and T.G. Shepherd in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Exploring the Need for Reliable Decadal Prediction. Workshop report by S. Sandgathe et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Intercomparison of in-situ aircraft and satellite aerosol measurements in the stratosphere. By O.S. Sandvik et al. in nature: Scientific Reports.

Quantifying the importance of interannual, interdecadal and multidecadal climate natural variabilities in the modulation of global warming rates. By M. Wei et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Increasing water vapor in the stratosphere and mesosphere after 2002. By J. Yue et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.