A Joint AerChemMIP / RFMIP / PDRMIP Workshop in Support of CMIP6

Dates: 11-15 June 2018

Venue: University of Reading, Reading, UK

Theme: New Science opportunities from CMIP6 multi-model forcing response experiments.

The Joint workshop will focus on the use of multi-model experiments to quantify the effective radiative forcing driven by changes in composition and the consequent climate responses. Data from idealised experiments are already available from PDRMIP. For the first time in CMIP, forcing data from all the CMIP6 climate models will be generated under the RFMIP protocols, and further broken down by forcing component in RFMIP and AerChemMIP.

Workshop goals:

1. To discuss RFMIP and AerChemMIP experiments and plan analyses
2. To discuss the scientific results coming from PDRMIP and related analyses and the potential for new science from CMIP6 on composition, forcing and response.

This workshop will be of interest to all those analysing/planning to analyse model forcing and response. Attendance from modelling centres contributing to RFMIP or AerChemMIP experiments is encouraged.

Abstract submission:

Email your title and abstract (around 200 words) as a word document to by 20th April. Please indicate whether your abstract is focused on PDRMIP (Monday and Tuesday) or RFMIP/AerChemMIP (Tuesday and Wednesday).

Find more details in the 2nd Announcement (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Join the 6th SPARC General Assembly from 1st to 5th October 2018 in Kyoto, Japan!

Abstract submission is closing soon.

We are accepting abstract submissions until Wed, 11 April 24:00 UTC (Thu, 9:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time)

Sumit your abstract here.

NOTE: If you experience technical problems with the webpage, please send your abstract and personal information via email to .

Awards will be made to the best presentations by Early Career Scientists (ECS) in each of the six science themes of the conference.

Early-bird registration will open on 22 April 2018.

Find more information on  the science themes, venue, registration details, and more on the  conference web pages:  http://www-mete.kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp/SPARC_GA2018/index.html or  http://www.aparc-climate.org/meetings/general-assembly-2018/.

We look forward to a great conference, and hope you will join in!

See you in Kyoto!

The CORDEX Central America and South America Training Workshop on Downscaling Techniques to take place during 25-27 June 2018 in La Paz, Bolivia.

The workshop is intended for PhD students and early career researchers with a background in regional climate science. The main objectives of the workshop are to build capacity in regional climate downscaling techniques and to coordinate future CORDEX activities in the domains over South and Central America/Latin America and the Caribbean.

Online registration and financial support requests will be open from April 4 to April 23.

Find more details on the workshop website.

Download 1st Announcement (PDF.0.65 MB)

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

Stratospheric role in interdecadal changes of El Niño impacts over Europe. By B. Ayarzagüena et al. in Climate Dynamics.

The influence of the Stratospheric state on North Atlantic Weather Regimes. By A.J. Charlton‐Perez, L. Ferranti, and R.W. Lee in the Quaterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Changing world extreme temperature statistics. By J.M. Finkel and J.I. Katz in the International Journal of Climatology.

Nonlinear response of tropical lower-stratospheric temperature and water vapor to ENSO. By C.I. Garfinkel et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Computation and characterization of local sub-filter-scale energy transfers in atmospheric flows. By D. Faranda et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Nucleation of nitric acid hydrates in polar stratospheric clouds by meteoric material. By A.D. James et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Descent rate models of the synchronization of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation by the annual cycle in tropical upwelling. By K. Rajendran et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Discussion papers – open for comment

The Climatology of Brewer-Dobson Circulation and the Contribution of Gravity Waves. By K. Sato and S. Hirano in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Effects of different stratospheric SO2 injection altitudes on stratospheric chemistry and dynamics. By S. Tilmes et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/2017JD028146

The Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is one of the most fundamental metrics defining the status of global climate change and expectations for continued global warming. WCRP Core Projects work together for a new WCRP-wide initiative to identify research goals and opportunities for Earth’s Energy Imbalance and to strengthen future international scientific collaboration with experts for EEI assessments.

Save the dates for this opportunity for international scientific collaborations: The WCRP workshop will be held on  13-16 November 2018 in Toulouse, France. Further details can be found here and will be updated through the websites of WCRP and its Core Projects.

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

Scale-Dependent Background-Error Covariance Localization: Evaluation in a Global Deterministic Weather Forecasting System. By J-F. Caron and M. Buehner in the Monthly Weather Review.

A warming tropical central Pacific dries the lower stratosphere. By Q. Ding and Q. Fu in Climate Dynamics.

Consistency of climate change projections from multiple global and regional model intercomparison projects. By J. Fernández et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Interdecadal variability of the Warm Arctic and Cold Eurasia pattern and its North Atlantic origin. By M.-Kyung Sung, S-H Kim, B-M. Kim, and Y-S. Choi in the Journal of Climate.

Directional Absorption of Parameterized Mountain Waves and Its Influence on the Wave Momentum Transport in the Northern Hemisphere. By X. Xu et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Coupled interannual variability of the Hadley and Ferrel cells. By P. Zurita-Gotor and P. Álvarez-Zapatero in the Journal of Climate.

The abstract submission deadline for the SPARC General Assmebly (1-5 October 2018 in Kyoto, Japan) has been extended.

>> Submit abstract now

The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is a current IGAC activity with a mission to provide the research community with an up-to-date scientific assessment of tropospheric ozone’s global distribution and trends from the surface to the tropopause.

Guided by this mission, TOAR has two goals:

1. Produce the first tropospheric ozone assessment report using all available surface observations and based on the peer-reviewed literature and new analyses.
2. Generate easily accessible, documented data on ozone exposure and dose metrics at hundreds of measurement sites around the world (urban and non-urban), freely accessible for research on the global-scale impact of ozone on climate, human health and crop/ecosystem productivity.

The report is being written as a series of eight stand-alone publications to be submitted for peer-review to Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, an open-access, non-profit science journal founded by five US research Universities and published by University of California Press. As the papers become available each will be posted to the TOAR comment webpage for a 30-day open comment period. We invite members of the atmospheric and biological sciences communities as well as the general public to read the papers and provide comments if they wish to do so.

One more TOAR paper has just become available for open comment:

Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Tropospheric ozone observations – How well do we know tropospheric ozone changes?

Author Team: David Tarasick, Ian E. Galbally, Owen R. Cooper, Martin G. Schultz, Gerard Ancellet, Thierry Leblanc, Tim J. Wallington, Jerry Ziemke, Xiong Liu, Martin Steinbacher, Johannes Staehelin, Corinne Vigouroux, James Hannigan, Omaira García, Gilles Foret, Prodromos Zanis, Elizabeth Weatherhead, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Helen Worden, Mohammed Osman, Jane Liu, Meiyun Lin, Maria Granados-Muñoz, Anne M. Thompson, Samuel J. Oltmans, Juan Cuesta, Gaelle Dufour, Valerie Thouret, Birgit Hassler and Thomas Trickl

The paper can be downloaded from: http://igacproject.org/activities/TOAR/OpenComments

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

Overview of experiment design and comparison of models participating in phase 1 of the SPARC Quasi-Biennial Oscillation initiative (QBOi). By N. Butchart et al. in Geoscientific Model Development.

How Sudden Stratospheric Warming Affects the Whole Atmosphere. By N.M. Pedatella et al. in Earth & Space Science News.

Spring Arctic Atmospheric Preconditioning: Do Not Rule Out Shortwave Radiation Just Yet. By J. Sedlar in the Journal of Climate.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Requirements for a global data infrastructure in support of CMIP6. By V. Balaji et al. in Geoscientific Model Development Discussions.

WMO GAW is currently seeking input on the draft publication entitled Low-cost sensors for the measurement of atmospheric composition: overview of topic and future applications. Comments will be accepted until 31 March 2018.

To turn in comments, please use the excel spread sheet from the link below and send your comments via email to

Download draft (PDF)

Download comment file (MS Excel)