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

Shipborne lidar measurements showing the progression of the tropical reservoir of volcanic aerosol after the June 1991 Pinatubo eruption. By J.-C. Antuña-Marrero et al. in Earth System Science Data.

Structure, dynamics, and trace gases variability within the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone in extreme El Niño of 2015–16. By S. Ravindra Babu et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Evaluating the simulated radiative forcings, aerosol properties, and stratospheric warmings from the 1963 Mt Agung, 1982 El Chichón, and 1991 Mt Pinatubo volcanic aerosol clouds. By S.S. Dohmse et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Is solar geoengineering ungovernable? A critical assessment of governance challenges identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. By J.L. Reynolds in WIREs Climate Change.

Data Availability Principles and Practice. By A.K. Smith et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

The response of stratospheric water vapor to climate change driven by different forcing agents. By X. Wang and A.E. Dessler in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Measurement report: Regional trends of stratospheric ozone evaluated using the MErged GRIdded Dataset of Ozone Profiles (MEGRIDOP). By V.F. Sofieva et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Find the most-recent news from WCRP.

The newsletter includes the topics:

• The ‘new’ WCRP will soft launch in 2021
• Two new JSC members bring social science to WCRP
• New WCRP Lighthouse Activities
• WCRP Climate Research Forums
• New Head of WCRP Secretariat
• Updates from the Young Earth System Scientists (YESS) and the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP)
• Selected community, sponsor and partner news

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

Large atmospheric waves will get stronger while small waves will get weaker by the end of the 21st century. By R. Chemke and Y. Ming in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Near‐global CFC‐11 Trends as Observed by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder from 2003 to 2018. By X. Chen, X. Huang, and L.L. Strow in the Journal of Geophysical research: Atmospheres.

Recommendations for future research priorities for climate modelling and climate services. By C.D. Hewitt et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Exceptionally low Arctic stratospheric ozone in spring 2020 as seen in the CAMS reanalysis. By A. Inness et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Atmospheric Water Vapor Budget and its Long‐Term Trend over the Tibetan Plateau. By H. Yan et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Differences in the QBO response to stratospheric aerosol modification depending on injection strategy and species. By H. Franke, U. Niemeier, and D. Visioni in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The SOLAS Science Plan for 2015-2025 follows a continually-evolving 2-year strategy that provides a moving target and a solid basis to continue the operation of the project. This month, the Implementation Strategy 2020 has been released by the SOLAS Scientific Steering Committee with significant community input. Read more about the strategy here.

Since 2004, the Surface Ocean – Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) project is an international research initiative aiming to understand the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere under the sponsorship of SCOR, Future Earth, WCRP, and iCACGP.

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

Deep-convective influence on the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere composition in the Asian monsoon anticyclone region: 2017 StratoClim campaign results. By S. Bucci et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Impact of sudden stratospheric warmings on United Kingdom mortality. By A.J. Charlton-Perez, W.T.K. Huang, and S.H. Lee in the Atmospheric Science Letters.

The Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology (version 2.0): 1979–2018. By M. Kovukajan et al. in Earth System Science Data.

Comparison of Key Characteristics of Remarkable SSW Events in the Southern and Northern Hemisphere. By M. Kozubek, J. Lastovicka, and P. Krizan in Atmosphere.

The Remarkably Strong Arctic Stratospheric Polar Vortex of Winter 2020: Links to Record‐Breaking Arctic Oscillation and Ozone Loss. By Z.D. Lawrence et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Variability in QBO Temperature Anomalies on Annual and Decadal Timescales. By Z. Martin et al. in the Journal of the Climate.

The vertical profile of recent tropical temperature trends: Persistent model biases in the context of internal variability. By D.M. Mitchell et al. in the Environmental Research Letters.

Polar stratospheric clouds initiated by mountain waves in a global chemistry–climate model: a missing piece in fully modelling polar stratospheric ozone depletion. By A. Orr et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Stratospheric Ozone in the Last Glacial Maximum. By M. Wang et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Stratospheric contribution to the summertime high surface ozone events over the western united states. By X. Wang et al. in the Environmental Research Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comments:

Mixing at the extratropical tropopause as characterized by collocated airborne H2O and O3 lidar observations. By A. Schäfler, A. Fix, and M. Wirth in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

QBO@60 – Celebrating 60 years of discovery within the tropical stratosphere – will gather together international researchers to celebrate 60 years of advances since the discovery of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. The event will hold overview presentations of key early observations and theoretical developments from eminent researchers working in the field.

The workshop was originally scheduled for July 2020, and is now postponed to the week of 5-9 July 2021 at the Met Office, Exeter, though of course that will depend on any developments in relation to the Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Find more information on the workshop including latest updats on the meeting schedule.

The SSG currently comprises 12-14 researchers from around the world with a wide range of expertise in atmospheric dynamics and chemistry. They guide SPARC’s priorities and activities, working together with the SSG co-chairs and the SPARC project office. SSG members will be responsible for the new SPARC implementation plan, the regional and international research agendas, and ensuring that SPARC’s priorities align with those of the new WCRP strategy.

Please find the Terms of Reference as a guideline to the work of the SSG.

The new deadline for nominations is 21 November 2020. Nominations can be submitted through the below online form (including the upload of a publications list). Please note that you can either nominate a candidate or nominate yourself. The SSG takes a strategic view of SPARC’s role, so we are looking for individuals with a broad view of atmospheric science and climate change as well as expertise in their own field. Scientific expertise, career stage as well as gender and geographical balance are taken into account. The initial term of service is for four years (January 2022 – December 2025), with a possible extension of two years.

We recommend that early career researchers consider getting involved in specific activities first, including leadership roles, as involvement in international activities is a great way to broaden one’s horizons. Activity Leaders can attend the annual SSG meetings. We are happy to advise anyone unsure about how best to get involved. If you are interested in getting involved in SPARC in other ways, including ideas for new foci, please visit the SPARC webpage for more information: www.sparc-climate.org/get-involved or contact the SPARC Office.

SOLARIS-HEPPA generated and made available the solar forcing recommendations for the planned CCMI experiments in support of the 2022 Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion (CCMI-2020).

The solar forcing data is an extension of the historical CMIP6 forcing dataset (extended until end of 2019) and can be found here: https://solarisheppa.geomar.de/solarisheppa/ccmi2022

12–14 October 2021, Darmstadt, Ger­many

The Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), with the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), and supported by EUMETSAT will be holding a conference that aims to assess how well the current global climate observing system supports current and near-term user needs for climate information. In particular the meeting will examine how well observations of the global Earth cycles (the global energy balance, global water and carbon cycles, and explaining changing conditions of the biosphere) support users’ needs for climate data. The outputs will provide inputs into the next GCOS implementation plan which will make recommendations to meteorological networks, major observing systems and satellite agencies and also it will be presented to the UNFCCC in 2022 as a contribution towards the UNFCCC’s Global Stocktake.

This conference follows on from the first climate observations conference, Global Climate Observation: The Road to The Future held on 2–4 March 2016 in Amsterdam. Sustained observations of the global climate system are essential for understanding, predicting, mitigating and adapting to climate change. The progress in understanding and attributing climate change have been largely based on climate observations. In order to this progress, it is vital to make further progress towards achieving a fully implemented, sustainable, global observing system for climate.

An organising committee is being setup under the leadership of Prof. A.J. (Han) Dolman, chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of GCOS which will issue an invitation for abstracts in January 2021.

Please mark your calendars now for this important conference from 12–14 October 2021. Depending of the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic the meeting may be held partly virtual. The registration page for the conference will open in February 2021 and more detail on the programme will be available at that time. For more details please visit our meeting website: https://www.eventsforce.net/gcos-coc

Please also feel free to pass this announcement on to colleagues and contacts who would also be interested in participating.

In the meantime, if you have any questions related to the conference, do not hesitate to contact us via email: .

Further details about GCOS can be found at https://gcos.wmo.int and WCRP at https://www.wcrp-climate.org

Information about the FIRST climate observations conference is available at http://www.gcos-science.org