Category Archives: News

Now open: Call for nominations to the SPARC Scientific Steering Group

We are currently inviting nominations from highly enthusiastic and dedicated experts to  become a member of the SPARC Scientific Steering Group (SSG) – you can either nominate a candidate or nominate yourself. The SSG and co-chairs guide SPARC’s priorities and research activities and work together with, and are supported by, the SPARC project office. The SSG provides leadership for SPARC and represents a broad spectrum of disciplines and nationalities, including both junior and senior scientists. The duties and responsibilities of SSG members are outlined in the Terms of Reference. SSG members are expected to provide scientific guidance and oversight to the SPARC community and its activities and participate in developing and reviewing the scientific strategy for the SPARC community.

More information and the online form for your (self-)nomination can be found here.

The four-year membership term will be from January 2024 – December 2027, with a possible two year extension. Among all applications received, the current SSG and co-chairs will propose new members for final approval by the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC). 

Note: all applications/nominations received since 2019 are still being considered.

The deadline for submitting your nomination is 1 November 2022. (Self-)Nominations can be submitted through an online form on the SPARC website or via email to the SPARC project office.

Upcoming events : Climate Week & “Supporting a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture”

  This event will bring together speakers from the worlds of politics, science, and social activism to collectively craft a common message on what Africa’s global partners need to deliver at UNGA and COP27.

Note: Space is limited for in-person attendance so be sure to get your ticket if you’ll be joining us in New York!  
Thursday, September 22, 2022
10:00 – 14:00 EDT
The Forum, 601 W 125th St, New York
or online
 
Find more details online


ALSO NEXT WEEK:       Tuesday September 20th, 12:30-2:00 EST

SPARC’s 30th anniversary – third and last webinar

This year marks the 30th anniversary of SPARC, a core project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). In this time, SPARC has evolved into a major international research coordination hub for atmospheric sciences, with the primary goal to facilitate research that improves our understanding of atmospheric processes and their role in climate.

SPARC is particularly recognised for its lively scientific community. To celebrate SPARC’s achievements over the last three decades, we invite you all to celebrate with us and join us for a series of three webinars leading up to the grand SPARC General Assembly in October 2022.

We are delighted to announce we will host the third and last SPARC 30th anniversary webinar on Friday 7 October 2022 at 12.00 UTC. Prof. Thomas Peter from the ETH Zürich will give a presentation on “Research on climate intervention by stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) – should SPARC engage?”

To participate the webinar register here.

Announcement: Webinar series: Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change

The WCRP Explaining and Predicting Earth System Change Lighthouse Activity invites you to join the first webinar of the series that will provide a discussion forum on topics focused on predicting and explaining a range of different climate phenomena and events, while supporting the further development of a scientific agenda.

This first webinar will focus on record breaking extreme events and will provide a view of such events in different regions of the world.

SPEAKERS:

  • Erich Fischer (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
  • Understanding and quantifying very rare and record-shattering extremes

  • Maria Laura Bettolli (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
  • Record extreme precipitation events in Southeastern South America: from observation to modelling

  • Tianjun Zhou (Institute of Atmospheric Physics, China)
  • Record-breaking extreme events over Asia: Attribution and Projection

The event will take place on 21st September 2022, from 12:00hs to 13:30hs UTC. Speakers will give a 20-minute talk each followed by a round table discussion, with questions from participants.

Registrations are open: https://explaining-and-predicting-extremes.eventbrite.co.uk

SPARC Science update: 06 September – 12 September

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


Updated trends of the stratospheric ozone vertical distribution in the 60° S–60° N latitude range based on the LOTUS regression model. By S. Godin-Beekmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Northern Hemisphere Stratosphere-Troposphere Circulation Change in CMIP6 Models. Part 1: Inter-Model Spread and Scenario Sensitivity. By A.Y. Karpechko et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmosphers.

Early Exploration of the High Latitude Stratosphere Part I: Pre-World War II Era. by K. Hamilton in the CMOS Bulletin.

Early Exploration of the High Latitude Stratosphere Part II: Discovery of the Polar Night Jet Stream. by K. Hamilton in the CMOS Bullletin

Ozone depletion in the Arctic and Antarctic stratosphere induced by wildfire smoke. By A. Ansmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Influences of Antarctic ozone depletion on Southern Ocean aerosols. By Y.A. Bhatti, L.E. Revell, and A.J. McDonald in the Journal of geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Which Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events are Most Predictable? By D. Chwat et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Significant Effective Radiative Forcing of Stratospheric Wildfire Smoke. By C.-C. Liu et al. in the Geopyhsical Research Letters.

Deadline extension and remote participation: WCRP Workshop on Modelling the Climate System at ultra-high resolution

The WCRP Digital Earths Lighthouse Activity and Earth System Modelling and Observations (ESMO) Core Project are jointly convening a workshop to bring together all relevant communities interested in ultra-high-resolution modelling. 

There is an opportunity for remote participation on October 5th 2022.  You can register for an online breakout session here: https://forms.gle/L58Jt5toSU8eVzM29 

The workshop will be in person from October 3-7, 2022 at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, CO, U.S.A.  The talks will be recorded and we are making available a pair of virtual breakout sessions to serve participation in different time zones, to be conducted on Wednesday, October 5th 2022 for 1.5 hours each. 

This workshop is motivated by the urgent need for improved climate information and the major advantages and scientific potential of ultra-high-resolution climate modeling.

The intended outcomes include the establishment of a global research network with expertise in ultra-high-resolution (kilometer-scale or finer) global and regional Earth system modelling including its individual components. The workshop outcomes will be documented in a white paper.

For those who still want to submit an abstract and register for in person participation, please go to the workshop website for more information:

https://www.mmm.ucar.edu/events/2022/wcrp

●      Abstract submission deadline: September 14, 2022

●      Registration deadline: September 20, 2022

If you would like to participate in an online session answering the same questions as the onsite participants please sign up at the link above (https://forms.gle/L58Jt5toSU8eVzM29). We look forward to hearing your contributions!


Best regards

The organising committee

Announcement: Workshop on Consolidating downscaling for the provision of regional climate information to society – Cordex Consolidate (ConCord)

Date: October 11-13, 2022.

Venue: Kulturhuset in Oslo, Norway, and online.

Register here! OBS! Updated link!!

Free of charge! First come – first serve: max 50 onsite participants.

The deadline for registration is 30 September at 23:59 UTC.

The main objectives of this workshop are to:

  • promote reconciliation of global and regional climate models (GCMs, RCMs), empirical statistical downscaling (ESD) and historical observations/reanalyses for better information in support of robust future climate outlooks and climate change adaptation
  • discuss how to further facilitate the use of climate information that is embedded in the data that it produces
  • discuss what information is needed for various purposes and how to use it.  
           
How do we best use the available information based on the context? We will discuss principles for consolidating downscaled information in decision-making/climate services/climate change adaptation. We also want to bring in know-how on how to involve statistics. The workshop, hosted by the Norwegian Meteorological Insitute, is held in collaboration with the Norwegian Public Health Institute and the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services, to foster co-production of knowledge on climate-health issues and for the provision of robust actionable information.    

WCRP Open Science Conference calls for Poster Clusters and Side Events

Poster Clusters

Poster clusters should be designed to bring together a community working on a specific topic within the broader conference themes. The aim is to help participants to organize their poster viewing and to provide a forum for discussion about the cluster topic. In addition to dedicated on-site poster sessions, all posters will be available on the hybrid platform poster gallery at least two weeks before the conference. Virtual poster sessions will be organized during these two weeks. The poster cluster names will be listed under the OSC programme sessions in the abstract submission system when it opens in December 2022.

If you or your organization/working group/etc., would like to propose a poster cluster topic, please click here to know more about the poster cluster application and to fill in the survey form, no later than 30 September 2022.

Side Events

The OSC will occupy the entire Kigali Convention Center during the week of 23-27 October 2023. The venue has many rooms of varying sizes that can accommodate workshops, meetings, learning labs, townhalls or other events.There is also the option to propose a video for transmission on hybrid platform during breaks and possibly during the conference itself. If you or your organization would like to host an event at the OSC, please click here to know more about the side event application and to fill in the survey formno later than 30 September 2022.

  • To download the flyer that provides a brief overview of the conference, click here.

SPARC Science update: 23 August – 05 September

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


Distinct Upward Propagation of the Westerly QBO in Winter 2015/16 and Its Relationship With Brewer-Dobson Circulation. By M.-J. Kang, S.-W. Son, and H.-Y. Chun in the Geophysical Research Letters.

The “Polar Vortex” Winter of 2013/2014. By J. Cohen et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmosphers.

Bayesian assessment of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) and halon banks suggest large reservoirs still present in old equipment. By M. Jeramaz Lickley et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Predictability of European winter 2020/2021: Influence of a mid-winter sudden stratospheric warming. By J.F. Lockwood et al. in the Atmospheric Science Letters.

A Lagrangian View of Seasonal Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange. By M.R. Schoeberl, R. Ueyama, and L. Pfister in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles during the 2019 TROpomi vaLIdation eXperiment (TROLIX-19). By J.T. Sullivan et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Gravity Wave Morphology During the 2018 Sudden Stratospheric Warming Simulated by a Whole Neutral Atmosphere General Circulation Model. By S. Watanabe et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A Case Study of Midlatitude Noctilucent Clouds and Its Relationship to the Secondary-Generation Gravity Waves Over Tropopause Inversion Layer. By J. Miao et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.


Discussion papers – open for comment:

Ozone pollution in China affected by stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation. By M. Li et al. in Atmospherc Chemistry and Physics.