the workshop will be held at ECMWF in Reading on 18-21 November 2019

This workshop will bring together experts to discuss and propose ways forward in representing the stratosphere in current and future numerical weather prediction models (1-50 km resolution, forecast lead times from medium-range to seasonal), and pathways by which better treatment of the stratosphere can improve predictive skill in the troposphere.

For further information and to register, please visit: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/learning/workshops/workshop-stratospheric-predictability-impact-troposphere

If you wish to attend this workshop, please complete the registration form before 31 July 2019.

A number of SPARC-related sessions have been organised for this year’s fall AGU meeting (abstract submission deadline: 31 July 2019). The following is a non-exhaustive list:

A003 – Advances and Challenges for Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction
Primary Convener : Harry Hendon
Conveners: Ben P Kirtman, Amy H Butler, and Duane Edward Waliser
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/77076

A042 – Cirrus, Chemistry and Dynamics of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere
Primary Convener: Jessica B Smith
Conveners: Elisabeth J Moyer, Troy D Thornberry, and Thomas P Ackerman
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/83328

A079 – Impact of the Asian Summer Monsoon on the Composition of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere
Primary Convener : Hans Schlager
Conveners: Martina Kraemer
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/82754

A104 – Observations from Stratospheric Ballooning: Research and New Concepts
Primary Convener : Robert W Carver
Convenors: Max Kamenetsky
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/79247

A109 – Progress in Reanalysis: Development, Evaluation and Application
Primary Convener : Jan Dominik Keller
Conveners: Michael G Bosilovich, Masatomo Fujiwara
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/77084

A110 – Recent findings from spaceborne observations of the middle atmosphere
Primary Convener : Nathaniel J Livesey
Conveners: D A Degenstein, Kaley A Walker
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/77967

A119 – Stratospheric composition change, its impact on climate and understanding of uncertainties in data records.
Primary Convener : Irina V Petropavlovskikh
Conveners: Dale F Hurst, Viktoria Sofieva
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/80537

A135 – Understanding the unexpected increase in CFC-11 emissions
Primary Convener : Neil Richard Peter Harris
Conveners: Sunyoung Park, Paul A. Newman
https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm19/prelim.cgi/Session/78200

Also note the 40-year celebration of WCRP during AGU. Find all information on Symposia, town halls, and WCRP related sessions at the

WCRP climate science week webpage

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

Influence of the QBO on the MJO during coupled model multiweek forecasts. By S. Abhik and H.H. Hendon in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Water vapor in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone: Comparison of balloon‐borne measurements and ECMWF data. By S. Brunamonti et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Role of latent heating vertical distribution in the formation of the tropical cold trap. By K.-W. Chang and T.S. L’Ecuyer in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A high-resolution 1983-2016 Tmax climate data record based on InfraRed Temperatures and Stations by the Climate Hazard Center. By C. Funk et al. in the Journal of the Climate.

Meridional Structure and Future Changes of Tropopause Height and Temperature. By S. Hu and G.K. Vallis in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal meteorological Society.

Banned CFC Emissions Tracked to Eastern China. By M.C. Morton in Earth and Space Science news (EOS).

Influence of quasi‐biennial oscillation on the boreal winter extratropical stratosphere in QBOi experiments. By H. Naoe and K. Yoshida in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal meteorological Society.

Modulation of the Northern Winter Stratospheric El Niño–Southern Oscillation Teleconnection by the PDO. By J. Rao, C.I. Garfinkel, and R. Ren in the Journal of the Climate.

The Effects of a 1998 Observing System Change on MERRA‐2‐based Ozone Profile Simulations. By R.M. Stauffer et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Surface temperature response to the major volcanic eruptions in multiple reanalysis data sets. By M. Fujiwara, P. Martineau and J.S. Wright in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

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

Quantifying Regional Sensitivities to Periodic Events: Application to the MJO. By A.M. Jenney, D.A. Randall, and E.A. Barnes in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.
–> See also: EOS article at: https://eos.org/editor-highlights/linking-regional-weather-and-climate-to-remote-events

The ENSO and QBO impact on ozone variability and stratosphere‐troposphere exchange relative to the subtropical jets. By M.A. Olsen, G.L. Manney, and J. Liu in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Setting and smashing extreme temperature records over the coming century. By S.B. Power and F.P.D. Delage in Nature: Climate Change.

Spectral Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis of weather and climate data. By O.T. Schmidt et al. in the Monthly Weather Review.

An international conference that presents current advances in simulating and observing atmospheric processes.
–> Conference report on: UCP2019 – Understanding Clouds and Precipitation. By W. Schubotz et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Intercomparison of gravity waves in global convection-permitting models. By C.C. Stephan et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Efficient modelling of the interaction of mesoscale gravity waves with unbalanced large-scale flows: Pseudomomentum-flux convergence versus direct approach. By J. Wei, G. Bölöni, and U. Achatz in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Isotopic constraint on the twentieth-century increase in tropospheric ozone. By L.Y. Yeung et al. in Nature.

Trends in summer heatwaves in Central Asia from 1917 to 2016: association with large‐scale atmospheric circulation patterns. By S. Yu et al. in the International Journal of Climatology.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

On the impact of future climate change on tropopause folds and tropospheric ozone. By D. Akritidis, A. Pozzer, and P. Zanis in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The UK Environmental Change Network datasets – integrated and co-located data for long-term environmental research (1993–2015). By S. Rennie et al. in Earth System Science Data.

SCAR WMO joint fellowship scheme announcement

Download announcement

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (www.scar.org) is excited to be collaborating with the World Meteorological Organisation on a new fellowship opportunity for researchers in countries with developing economies.

It will enable researchers to undertake research at major international laboratories, field facilities, and/or institutes in or operated by SCAR’s member countries, with the goal of exposing them to recent advances in research and to develop long-term scientific links and partnerships.

To find out more visit https://www.scar.org/awards/fellowships/overview/. The deadline is 17^th July 2019.

To be eligible for this fellowship you need to be:

• enrolled in a PhD or within 5 years of finishing PhD;
• a citizen of a WMO Member Country;
• a citizen of a developing economy;
• Visiting an Antarctic research facility in or run by a SCAR member country, which is different from applicant’s (a) country of origin and (b) current country of residence;
• Proposing a topic in a weather, climate, or operational hydrology related discipline which links to the objectives of one or more of SCAR’s science groups, including the Humanities and Social Sciences group, and/or the Scientific Research Programmes.

There are two Symposia of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) coming up in 2020:

Contributions to both symposia have to be submitted by 1 August 2019

Susan Solomon Symposium

Ozone, Climate, and Policy: Susan’s Contributions Then and Now
Jauary 2020

Workshop Announcement [PDF]

This symposium aims to honor Prof. Solomon’s past achievements in and ongoing contributions to atmospheric science. Sessions will highlight the history and future of environmental policy and assessments, breakthroughs in middle atmospheric and ozone science, and provide perspectives on our changing climate—one of the greatest challenges of our time. Each of these three topics will be communicated through invited talks and solicited posters.

Call for Papers

• Wisdom of Solomon: History & Successes in Environmental Policy
• Ozone & the Middle Atmosphere: Past, Present and Future
• Climate Change: The Challenge of the 21st Century

Conference Contact(s)

Daniel Gilford () & A.R. Ravishankara ()

Find webpage

Middle Atmosphere One-Day Symposium

Call for Papers

• Middle Atmosphere – Posters Only

Conference Contact(s)

For additional information, please contact the Program Chairs:  Rei Ueyama (), Sean Davis ()

Find webpage

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

Significant uncertainty in the representation of orography in numerical weather prediction and implications for atmospheric drag and circulation. By A.D. Elvidge et al. in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Weakening of the teleconnection from El Niño‐Southern Oscillation to the Arctic stratosphere over the past few decades: What can be learned from subseasonal forecast models? By C.I. Garfinkel et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Radiative Convective Equilibrium and Organized Convection: An Observational Perspective. By C. Jacob, M.S. Singh, and L. Jungandreas in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Rising methane: A new climate challenge. By S.E. Mikaloff Fletcher and H. Schaefer in Science.

Strongly coupled data assimilation in multiscale media: experiments using a quasi‐geostrophic coupled model. By S.G. Penny et al. in the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.

Extratropical age of air trends and causative factors in climate projection simulations. By P. Šácha et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Attribution of Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) ozone radiative flux bias from satellites. By L. Kuai et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The TRI-MIP-ATHLON-2 Workshop is taking place from 11 June – 14 June in Princeton, New Jersey, USA.

There is a possibility to remotely join the TRI-MIP-ATHLON-2 Workshop for those, who are not able to attend in person.

Please find the agenda here.

To remotely join the workshop, please register for TRI-MIP-ATHLON-2 Workshop at:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3538240912109755649

The joint workshop will focus on new results from the multi-model experiments to quantify changes in composition, the resulting effective radiative forcing and the consequent climate responses.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

7-8 December 2019 University of California – Berkeley, USA

More information will be available soon at: www.catchscience.org

CATCH is a jointly sponsored IGAC and SOLAS Activity. The CATCH mission is to facilitate atmospheric chemistry research within the international community, with a focus on natural processes specific to cold regions of the Earth. Cold regions include areas which are seasonally or permanently covered by snow and ice, from the high mountains to the polar ice sheets and sea ice zones as well as regions where ice clouds that undergo chemistry are found.

Dear members of the WCRP Community,

 We are delighted to report that the final draft of the WCRP Strategic Plan 2019-2028 is now available:

 https://www.wcrp-climate.org/wcrp-sp

 Note that while the Plan still requires the official approval of the WCRP Co-sponsors, it is not envisioned that any further changes will be made. We will notify you again once all three Co-sponsors have given their final approval. 

 We should all congratulate ourselves on completing this first step in the process of delivering a WCRP that will be fit for purpose and fit for the future. Particular thanks go to Guy Brasseur and Amanda Lynch for their outstanding leadership and for all their hard work over the two years that it took to develop this Plan; to the JSC Officers of 2018, Anny Cazenave, Mauricio M. Mata, and Martin Visbeck, for all the time that they invested in the process; and to Detlef Stammer and Helen Cleugh for addressing the Co-sponsor comments and pulling together the final document.

 We now look forward to implementing this Plan and to build on the enthusiasm and momentum that was apparent at the Implementation and Planning Meeting and JSC Session just a few weeks ago. We will be in touch soon with further details on the next steps of this process.

 Kind regards

 Pavel Kabat and the WCRP Joint Planning Staff