# Presentation: 285242

## David M. Legler
U.S. CLIVAR Office
U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program

www.usclivar.org
legler@usclivar.org

*U.S. CLIVAR Office*
*U.S. Climate Variability and Predictability Program*
- www.usclivar.org
- legler@usclivar.org

- CLIVAR Welcome
*Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Workshop/CLIVAR Drought Workshop*
*October 2008*

- Thanks to these
- additional sponsors

## CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability)

-  CLIVAR is an multidisciplinary
-  research effort within the World
-  Climate Research Programme
-  (WCRP) focusing on the
-  variability and predictability of
-  the slowly varying components
-  of the climate system.
- CLIVAR coordinates activities in support of its mission to observe, simulate and predict Earth’s climate system, with focus on ocean-atmosphere interactions, enabling better understanding of climate variability, predictability and change, to the benefit of society and the environment in which we live.
-        http://www.clivar.org

## CLIVAR - Principal Research Areas

-  weeks - seasons - interannual	   seasons  - interannual - decadal				         decadal - centennial

## CLIVAR Drought Workshop, Wed-Fri

- Observing and monitoring drought
- Drought impacts, products, and addressing user needs
- Simulating drought
- Mechanisms that contribute to drought
- Predictability of drought/prediction capabilities
- Understanding and attribution of drought and its impacts
- incorporating climate predictions /projections in the development and delivery of drought products to meet societal needs

## DRICOMP (DRought In COupled Models) Project

***DRICOMP (DRought In COupled Models) Project***
- Follow-on to CMEP (Coupled Model Evaluation Project) which was the kernel that lead to a large international workshop (Hawaii) and many papers that contributed to the IPCC FAR.
- DRICOMP: Evaluation of existing relevant model simulations
- CMIP3, Paleo Models, NARCCAP, SMIP, C20C

**Aims**: Identify and characterize physical and dynamical mechanisms leading to drought and the mechanisms through which drought may change as climate changes. Diagnose simulation of drought in current models.

- 17 projects - supported by NOAA, NASA, NSF, and DOE

## http://www.usclivar.org/Organization/drought-wg.html

- Coordinating key aspects of the (US) long-term drought research agenda outlined in the 2005 drought workshop recommendations

***Drought Working Group***
***(16 members:  CLIVAR, GEWEX, Service Providers, International Scientists)***

- _[http://www.usclivar.org/Organization/drought-wg.html](http://www.usclivar.org/Organization/drought-wg.html)_

**Coordinated Global Model Experiments Addressing the Role of SSTs and Soil Moisture in Regional Drought**
- Multiple modelling groups performed identical idealized experiments to address issues of model dependence on the response to SSTs (and the role of soil moisture), and to look in more detail at the physical mechanisms linking the SST changes to drought
- All runs 50+ years, fixed SST patterns added to seasonally varying SST climatology
- Participating groups/models: NASA (NSIPP1), Lamont(CCM3), NCEP(GFS), GFDL (AM2.1), NCAR (CAM3.5), and COLA/Univ. of Miami/ (CCM3.0)

## WCRP Extremes

- Goals
- To summarize, compare and assess definition(s) of climate extremes and develop a common language amongst researchers and end users.
- To design an intercomparison framework through which both observations, model representations of extremes & projections of climate can be assessed & by which changes in climate extremes can be better evaluated.
- To accelerate progress on the prediction of climate extremes with a focus on developing capabilities and products which facilitate practical applications for stakeholders (end users/constituents) & regions around the world.
- To assess and improve the observational and dataset framework for study of global extremes
- To determine how extremes are changing and varying and why (including their relationship to mean variables, physical factors, shape of pdf etc).

- GEWEX and CLIVAR have agreed to catalyze & coordinate an international focus on drought

## Have a great workshop!

## U.S. CLIVAR Outlook 

***Two Major Opportunities Identified:***
***I   ***_***Drought***_
***II  ***_***Decadal Variability & Prediction***_

- US CLIVAR will continue to focus special effort in the interagency and intra-agency context on these topics
- US CLIVAR panels will continue their coordination, and other activities addressing major research needs, including many that intersect CPPA
- US CLIVAR welcomes ideas for new Working Groups (contact Panel co-chairs)
- CPPA community should continue working with US and Int’l CLIVAR

## U.S. CLIVAR Organization

- US CLIVAR Scientific Steering Committee

**Panels**

- Predictability, Predictions & Applications Interface (PPAI)

- Working Groups (short-term)

- Inter-Agency Group (IAG)
- Federal Program Managers

- Process Studies & Model improvement (PSMI)

- Phenomenology, Observations, & Synthesis (POS)

**Committee**

**Working **
**Groups**

- U.S. CLIVAR Office

- As of September 2008:
- Ocean Salinity (completed)
- MJO (completed...Int’l development)
- Drought
- Western Boundary Current
- High-latitude fluxes
- Decadal Prediction (to be considered)
- IESA (to be considered)

**U.S. CLIVAR Organization**

*“**Best Practices”*
*Research Priorities*
*Coordination*