After a long battle with illness, Dieter Perner died on 31 May 2012.

Find the obituary written by John Burrows.

Two WCRP/SPARC workshops will be held in November 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in conjunction with the SPARC Scientific Steering Group meeting: (1) Regional SPARC workshop with focus on the Southern Hemisphere and South America, 26-27 November; (2) WCRP workshop on climatic effects of ozone depletion in the Southern Hemisphere, 3-7 December. Note that limited funding is available for young scientists/students.

Find SSGworkshops_2012.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a secondment with the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) for the position of Director of the International CLIVAR Project Office (ICPO), located at NOC’s Southampton headquarters.

Apply before 14 June 2012.

Find more information

The May issue of the CLIVAR eBulletin includes news, opportunities and announcements.

Find CLIVAR Bulletin.

A session of particular interest to the SPARC community is on "Stratospheric and solar influences on surface climate" with invited speeches from Dave Thomson and Joanna Haigh.

The 3rd International Conference on Earth System Modelling (3ICESM) will be held on 17-21 September 2012 in Hamburg, Germany. Abstract submission deadline is 15 May.

Find 3ICESM Conference website.

SPARC has started organising its 5th General Assembly to be held 12-17 January 2014 in Queenstown, New Zealand.

As for previous GAs, the programme is being structured around twelve oral presentation sessions and four poster sessions. Registration will open early 2013.

Find Conference website.

The discussion on SPARC’s potential name change goes into the second round.

Contribute to the blog.

NOTE: this blog was discontinued in June 2012. Find the results here.

The CLIVAR VAMOS Workshop on Modeling and Predicting Climate in the Americas will be held on 04-06 June 2012 in Petropolis, Brazil. Abstracts can be submitted until 5 May.

Find workshop website.

IGAC Conference participants can submit their abstracts until 30 April. The Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in the Anthropocene will be held in Beijing, China, 17-21 September.

Find IGAC Conference website; see keynote speakers and invited speakers.

The APN Secretariat is inviting applications from highly motivated individuals for the position of Coordinator at the APN Secretariat based in Kobe, Japan. Application deadline is 11 May.

Find vacancy online.