Letter of petition available to sign

CSIRO is cutting over 200 positions in climate-related science positions. The reported rationale is that the science debate on climate is effectively over and the research agenda should move rapidly into the mitigation/adaptation arena (see links at end of email for more info). Such a decision would have important international as well as national ramifications. These arguments are outlined in a statement which was posted on the World Climate Research Programme website yesterday morning (and tweeted, etc): www.wcrp-climate.org/rss-news-highlights.

A letter with a more detailed rationale (http://goo.gl/forms/P2JrAA0ido) will be sent to the Australian government and to CSIRO’s board later this week. It is written by Paul Durack (LLNL) and Anna Pirani (new head of IPCC WG1 TSU) and has been signed by many scientists internationally.

If you think you might like to sign this letter, it can still be signed as a show of support.

The relevance for SPARC is CSIRO’s important contribution to measurements and modeling. As more emphasis is put in on nearer term climate predictions and on understanding regional changes, large reductions in CSIRO’s capability would have a really significant impact on our overall capability in these areas.

For more information:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-will-be-all-gone-as-csiro-swings-jobs-axe-scientists-say-20160203-gml7jy.html

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/heat-to-stay-on-csiro-climate-cuts-amid-claims-malcolm-turnbull-was-blindsided-20160207-gmnug5.html

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/feb/08/csiro-climate-cuts-will-cost-australia-dear-world-scientists-warn-government

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science are delighted to announce the launch of the 3rd European Earth System and Climate Modelling School (3rd E2SCMS) which will take place in Helsinki, Finland, from Thursday 9 June to Tuesday, 21 June 2016.

Applications are now being accepted and the deadline for applications is 1100 UTC on Monday 21 March 2016.

For more information about the school and to apply, please go to bit.ly/E2SCMS3.

Organised jointly between NCAS, the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, and the University of Barcelona, the E2SCMS Earth System and Climate Modelling Summer School is open to early career scientists (advanced PhD candidates, postdoctoral scientists, and scientific programmers) who are affiliated with European research institutions.

Hosted by the University of Helsinki, with the support of the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Finnish Supercomputing Centre, the course is delivered by international experts in Earth system and climate modelling ensuring an advanced and stimulating learning environment.

The course begins with a series of lectures, which are followed by practical sessions where participants apply what they have learnt by analysing the results of their own Earth system simulations. In this part of the course three well established Earth System Models will be used: HAD-GEM (FAMOUS), MPI-ESM, and EC-Earth, which will be run at
international supercomputing centres remotely from the course.

Registration for the school is free and students are asked only to cover the cost of travel and accommodation (some accommodation and boarding grants are available).

For more information about the school and to apply, please go to bit.ly/E2SCMS3.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to email .

Best wishes,
Steven Sharpe
Events and Administration Officer
National Centre for Atmospheric Science

+44 (0) 113 343 6408

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

Measurements and Modeling of Contemporary Radiocarbon in the Stratosphere. By A.M. Kanu et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Reanalyses and Observations: What’s the difference? By W.S. Parker in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign: Studying tropical deep convective clouds and precipitation over Amazonia using the new German research aircraft HALO. By M. Wendisch et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

A wave-activity view of the relation between the Mediterranean storm track and the North Atlantic Oscillation in winter. By M. Rezaeian et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Synoptic and meteorological drivers of extreme ozone concentrations over Europe. By N. Otero et al. in Environmental Research Letters.

New approaches to quantifying aerosol influence on the cloud radiative effect. By G. Feingold et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Potential for long-lead prediction of the western North Pacific monsoon circulation beyond seasonal time scales. By J. Choi et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

How do carbon cycle uncertainties affect IPCC temperature projections? By R.W. Bodman et al. in Atmospheric Science Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Persistance of upper stratospheric winter time tracer variability into the Arctic spring and summer. By D.E. Siskind et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Representation of the Tropical Stratospheric Zonal Wind in Global Atmospheric Reanalyses. By Y. Kawatami et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Observations of PAN and its confinement in the Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone in high spatial resolution. By J. Ungermann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Adapted ECC ozone sonde for long-duration flights aboard boundary-layer pressurized balloons. By F. Ghuesi et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Interpreting Space-Based Trends in Carbon Monoxide. By S. Strode et al in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Gravity-wave effects on tracer gases and stratospheric aerosol concentrations during the 2013 ChArMEx campaign. By F. Chane Ming et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Important dates:

Abstract submission deadline: 10 Feb 2016
Registration deadline: 30 Mar 2016

DLR Conference on Climate Change 2016 – Challenges for Atmospheric Research in collaboration with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA)

Climate change has become one of the most important issues mankind will have to contend with in forthcoming decades. Though we are basically certain that human activity is causing global warming, the magnitude of the warming and the associated changes in the probability distributions of many climate variables are still quite uncertain. We need a better understanding of, e.g., the cloud processes and their impact on climate sensitivity.

This scientific conference aims to provide a discussion forum for international scientists, research centers and space agencies together with United Nations entities such as UNOOSA, UNFCCC, WMO and GCOS to investigate the considerable challenges in atmospheric climate research.

During the conference, invited presentations will be given by

• Prof. Dr. Guy Brasseur, NCAR, Boulder, CO, USA, and MPI for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
• Prof. Dr. John Burrows, Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Matthew Collins, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
• Dr. Gerhard Ehret, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Veronika Eyring, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• Dr. Rolando R. Garcia, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, NCAR, Boulder, CO, USA
• Dr. Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Directrice de Recherche CNRS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales, Paris, France
• Prof. Dr. Martin Heimann, Director, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Jos Lelieveld, Director, MPI for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany
• Dr. Norman Loeb, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA
• Dr. Douglas Mach, Universities Space Research Association, Science and Technology Institute, Huntsville, AL, USA
• Dr. Matthew McGill, Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA, Greenbelt, MD, USA
• Dr. Louise Nuijens, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Peter, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
• Prof. Dr. Martin Riese, Director, Institute of Energy and Climate Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Robert Sausen, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Sonia I. Seneviratne, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland
• Prof. Dr. Bjorn Stevens, Director, MPI for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Ted Shepherd, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK
• Prof. Dr. David W. J. Thompson, Department of Atmospheric Science, CSU, Fort Collins, CO, USA
• Mr. Florin Vladu, Programme Officer, Technology, UNFCCC secretariat, Bonn, Germany

Please visit www.ccc2016.net for further information.

Online registration is now possible.

The deadline for abstract submission has been extended to 10 February 2016.

We are looking forward to seeing you in April 2016!

• Prof. Dr. Hansjörg Dittus, German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.)
• i.V. Prof. Dr. Markus Rapp, German Aerospace Center (DLR e.V.)

Prof. Dr. Robert Sausen
Program Board
DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics
climate-conference@dlr.de
www.ccc2016.net

Organisational matters: contact@ccc2016.net

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

Modulation of the boreal wintertime Madden-Julian Oscillation by the stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. By C. Yoo and S.-W. Son in Geophysical Research Letters.

Quantification of relative contribution of Antarctic ozone depletion to increased austral extratropical precipitation during 1979-2013. By K. Bai et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A re-evaluated Canadian ozonesonde record: measurements of the vertical distribution of ozone over Canada from 1966 to 2013. By D.W. Tarasick et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

High solar cycle spectral variations inconsistent with stratospheric ozone observations. By W.T. Ball et al. in Nature Geoscience.

Comparison of GOME-2/Metop-A ozone profiles with GOMOS, OSIRIS and MLS measurements. By A. Kauppi et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Observed and modelled tropospheric cold anomalies associated with sudden stratospheric warmings. By I. Lehtonen and A.Y. Karpechko in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Stratospheric polar vortex splits and displacements in the high-top CMIP5 climate models. By W.J. Seviour et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Brewer-Dobson circulation diagnosed from JRA-55. By C. Kobayashi and T. Iwasaki in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Upper tropospheric CO and O₃ budget during the Asian Summer Monsoon. By B. Barret et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Historically SPARC concentrated on the role of the stratosphere in climate, but now includes foci throughout the atmosphere in recognition of the latest research, which clearly calls for a "whole atmosphere" approach.

The new SPARC implementation plan 2016-2020 is organised around three refined scientific themes and a number of current and future activities of which many reflect the more regional focus and interdisciplinary nature of SPARC research.

Find the SPARC implementation plan 2016-2020.

Find information on current SPARC activities and themes.

Call for abstracts

This is the first call for abstracts for the 2016 QOS.

The symposium website is now live and ready to take submissions:
http://www.ozone-symposium-2016.org/
(Online registration opens at the end of January.)

All 5 sessions will likely be of interest to the CCMI community – please see the website for further details.

1. Stratospheric Ozone
2. Tropospheric Ozone
3. Ozone chemistry-climate interactions
4. Global ozone observations and measurement techniques
5. Effects of ozone on climate, human health, ecosystems and food production

Deadlines:

Abstracts – 1st March 2016
Early bird registration – 31st May 2016
Standard registration – 31st July 2016

Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy, 28 Aug – 2 Sep 2016

CETEMPS (Center of Excellence for remoTE sensing and numerical Modeling for the Prediction of Severe weather, http://cetemps.aquila.infn.it) is organizing the 12th edition of the International Summer School on Atmospheric and Oceanic Science (ISSAOS) with the title:

“Advanced Programming Techniques for the Earth System Science”

The intent of the ISSOAS-2016 summer school is to review and to provide the basics for the effective exploitation of increasingly available High Performance Computing (HPC) resources in the field of Earth System Science.

The location of the ISSAOS-2016 school will at the:

Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila, Italy, from August 28 to September 2, 2016.

More details can be found at the URL:

http://cetemps.aquila.infn.it/issaos

A free pre-registration to the school is now open with the deadline of February 29, 2016:
http://cetemps.aquila.infn.it/issaos/index.php/presentation/pre-registration/

For more information, please contact Gabriele Curci ().

Looking forward to seeing you in L’Aquila for this exciting experience!

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

Climate model biases in the width of the tropical belt. By N. Davis and T. Birner in the Journal of Climate.

Sensitivity of polar stratospheric cloud formation to changes in water vapour and temperature. By F. Khosrawi et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The Climate-system Historical Forecast Project: Do stratosphere-resolving models make better seasonal climate predictions in boreal winter? By A.H. Butler et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological society.

Ozonesonde profiles from the West Pacific Warm Pool: measurements and validation. By R. Newton et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Forced Atmospheric Teleconnections During 1979-2014. By T. Zhang et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Intercomparison of in situ water vapor balloon-borne measurements from Pico-SDLA H₂O and FLASH-B in the tropical UTLS. By M. Ghysels et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

The impact of the ozone effective temperature on satellite validation using the Dobson spectrophotometer network. By M.E. Koukouli et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

The representation of solar cycle signals in stratospheric ozone – Part 1: A comparison of satellite observations. By A. Maycock et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Exploring atmospheric blocking with GPS radio occultation observations. By L. Brunner et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The airborne mass spectrometer AIMS – Part 1: AIMS-H₂O for UTLS water vapor measurements. By S. Kaufmann et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

The airborne mass spectrometer AIMS – Part 2: Measurements of trace gases with stratospheric or tropospheric origin in the UTLS. By T. Jurkat et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

Regional and global climate response to anthropogenic SO2emissions from China in three climate models. By M. Kasoar et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Effect of tropical cyclones on the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange observed using satellite observations over north Indian Ocean. By M. Venkat Ratnam et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Stratosphere-troposphere exchange in the vicinity of a tropopause fold. By C. Hofmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Measurement of horizontal wind profiles in the polar stratosphere and mesosphere using ground based observations of ozone and carbon monoxide lines in the 230–250 GHz region: Proof of concept. By D.A. Newnham et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

On instrumental errors and related correction strategies of ozonesondes: possible effect on calculated ozone trends for the nearby sites Uccle and De Bilt. By R. van Malderen et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

Vertical wind retrieved by airborne lidar and analysis of island induced gravity waves in combination with numerical models and in-situ particle measurements. By F. Chouza et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A novel technique including GPS radio occultation for detecting and monitoring volcanic clouds. By R. Biondi et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Future Arctic ozone recovery: the importance of chemistry and dynamics. By E.M. Bednarz et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Find the January 2016 issue of the SPARC Newsletter as well as BibTex/Endnote information at:

http://www.aparc-climate.org/publications/newsletter/