The IPCC Secretariat is inviting governments and experts to review the Second Order Draft of the Working Group I Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report.

Find invitation letter with further details, received through the WCRP Secretariat.

The latest GAW report on megacities’ impact on air pollution and climate is currently in the review process.

Find draft report.

The UK government’s plan to merge the British Antarctic Survey with the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton goes along with a substantial cut back on polar research. Sign the petition!

Find the full story in the Guardian.

Sign the petition.

Rationale for signing the petition prepared by SPARC scientists:

1. It is of strong national importance to have a dedicated polar research institute with a leading international reputation given the threats posed to the UK by dramatic climate change in the polar regions (e.g. Arctic sea ice decline potentially leading to adverse winter weather in the UK and the unstable West Antarctic Ice Sheet leading to a risk of significant sea level rise).

2. It is of strong national importance to have a dedicated polar research institute with a leading international reputation given the sensitive geopolitical situations in the Arctic, Antarctic and South Atlantic. Indeed I am told that, for example, every other nation who is a claimant to the Antarctic territories has a dedicated polar research institute.

3. The world-leading scientists that currently work at BAS enhance our international reputation. Those excellent scientists have been proud to work for BAS: the culture is very strong. But such internationally renowned scientist are internationally mobile. With BAS’s demise, there is a significant risk of an international brain-drain of polar scientists.

4. With its HQ in Cambridge, BAS was also embedded in a wider centre of research excellence (and indeed polar excellence with the Scott Polar Research Institute which is part of the University of Cambridge). With a new centre based in Southampton, these links will be greatly weakened.

In addition, it is not clear that the merger will save any money, and any synergies in the science or logistics could be achieved without merging institutes.

Students from least developed countries are invited to apply for the IPCC scholarship programme before 30 September.

Find more information.

The 1st SPARC Stratospheric Network for the Assessment of Predictability (SNAP) and 3rd DynVar Workshop will be held in April 2013 in Reading, UK.

Find workshop website.

Find information on the new emerging activity SNAP, on DynVar.

Find BAMS article online.

The Institute of Environmental Physics is offering three positions in the fields: Brewer-Dobson circulation, tropospheric ozone and solar irradiance. Application deadline is 8 October.

Find job advert.

Limited funding is available for early-career researchers’ participation at the Regional WCRP/SPARC Workshop on Southern Hemisphere Climate. Submit abstract before 31 August.

Working Group 3 of the IPCC invites experts to register for the expert review of the First Order Draft of its contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report.

Find more information .

Plans to disestablish numbers of measurement scientists positions and reduce or discontinue some measurements at the NIWA atmospheric-research centre in Lauder, New Zealand have prompted a barrage of international concern.

Find the full story on Nature News (13 July 2012).

Find the letter of concern prepared by SPARC’s co-chair Ted Shepherd and sent to the New Zealand Ministers for the Environment and for Science and Innovation (5 July 2012).

Find NIWA’s letter of acknowledgement (31 July 2012).

Find response from the NZ Minister of Science and Innovation, Hon. Steven Joyce (7 August 2012).