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Report on the 23rd Session of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
Hobart, Australia, March 18-22, 2002

Marvin Geller, SPARC Co-chair (mgeller@notes.cc.sunysb.edu)

 

The SPARC co-chairs, Marv Geller and Alan O'Neill, attended the 23rd meeting of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) of the WCRP in Hobart, Australia, March 18-22, 2002. At the meeting, they presented a review of SPARC progress in its present projects and its plans for the future. The point was made that while SPARC has made great progress in its present configuration of examining Stratospheric Indicators, Stratospheric Processes, and Modelling, its future efforts will be taking a more holistic approach to Documenting and Understanding Stratospheric Change. Examining Stratospheric Processes will remain an important part of SPARC's activities since some processes remain to be sufficiently understood to be incorporated reliably in models. It was also stressed that study of the stratosphere has changed from being an exotic branch of atmospheric science to one being squarely in the middle of the climate agenda, being pivotal in such topics as attributing observed climate changes and in recent research on the Arctic Oscillation. Plans for holding the SPARC 2004 Assembly in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, during the period July 19-23, 2004 were presented. Finally, some information on the status of the SPARC Office in Paris and the SPARC Data Center in Stony Brook was given. Members of the JSC were happy with the progress of SPARC and with its future plans.

Two topics that were discussed extensively at the meeting were for the JSC to emphasise its goal of improving climate forecasts on many time scales. SPARC's future plans fit in nicely with this. Another theme was to seek better integration with the IGBP, and particularly with IGAC in the area of Chemistry-Climate. Toward this end, a SPARC/IGAC workshop is planned in late June-early July to formulate how to proceed in this area.

One specific item that arose from the JSC meeting was a task force to develop an overarching WCRP activity, "Predictability Assessment of the Climate System."This task force will be chaired by B. Hoskins and include J. Shukla and J. Church from the JSC, as well as nominees from GEWEX, CLIVAR, SPARC, ACSYS/CLIC, WGNE, and WGCM. This task force will bring implementation proposals to the JSC at its next meeting in March 2003.

Another item was a call for increased dialogue among the WCRP projects on data management. The SPARC co-chairs were charged with developing studies and cooperation between IGAC and SPARC with the goal of launching an "Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate" initiative. This summer's SPARC/IGAC workshop is meant to make progress on this.

The 24th meeting of the JSC is planned for Reading, UK in March 2003.

 

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