CLIVAR
CLIVAR (climate variability and predictability) is a component of the World Climate Research Programme. Its purpose is to describe and understand climate variability and predictability on seasonal to centennial time-scales, identify the physical processes responsible for climate change and develop modeling and predictive capabilities for climate modelling. History. The following is an approximate timeline of CLIVAR and its precedents: Panels and working groups. CLIVAR has a number of panels and working groups based on the study of climate variability and predictability of different components of the global climate system. Global panels. CLIVAR has three global panels: Regional panels . Regional panels focus on specific aspects of the climate system. Since the different regions of the ocean are qualitatively different, and given the important role of the oceans in controlling climate over the interannual, decadal, and centennial scales considered by CLIVAR, the subdivision into panels is largely based on regions of the ocean system. Specifically, the following is the list of regional panels: National programmes. There are four national CLIVAR programmes, that run largely autonomously but contribute to the international CLIVAR program: