Outcomes of CLIMAR-IV

DAVID I. BERRY

ETMC-V, 22 – 25 JUNE 2015

CLIMAR-IV (Asheville, North Carolina, June 2014)

Goals of the workshop:

(i) to highlight the societal benefits of the applications of marine climatology, including for climate services;

(ii) to review the needs of the scientific and operational communities for marine climate data and products;

(iii) to assess the state of the marine climate data component of the global climate observing system, identify gaps, and provide guidance on how to address them;

(iv) to review ongoing developments in the integration of observations across multiple observing domains (land - lower atmosphere / surface ocean - deep ocean - space); and

(v) to encourage submissions to the Dynamic Part of the WMO Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology.

Organisation

8 Sessions (43 presentations)• Applications of marine climatology• Air – sea interaction• Waves and storm surges• Oceanographic data• Surface temperatures• Characteristics of the observing system• Data management and recovery• Quality control

3 Plenary sessions• Applications of marine climatology• Extreme indices• Future priorities

Applications of marine climatology

Recommendations

1. It was recognized that better coordination and communication was needed within the regions, between WMO RAs and GOOS Regional Alliances, and with/within JCOMM in some cases;

2. There is a need for better connection between the data providers and the end users, and enhanced coordination between the three JCOMM Programme Areas on the applications of marine climatology; and

3. There is a need for pilot projects, or increased visibility of the marine component of existing GFCS pilot projects where appropriate, to help the science community understand climate services.

Extreme indices

Recommendations1. The set of extreme indices proposed for ocean waves should be developed

2. That extreme indices for storm surges should be investigated

The meeting recognised3. That development of other extreme indices (winds / air / sea temperature) as

proposed may not be sensible;

4. That there is a broader need for marine indices, and that many of these are already in production and use, e.g. NINO3.4, Thermal stress anomaly;

5. That JCOMM efforts might be better applied to a JCOMM-specific set of indices than working through the ETCCDI—thus it would appear helpful to follow-through as soon as practical on the JCOMM whitepaper on marine indices; and

6. The need for someone to champion the development and promotion of marine indices if there is going to be a community agreed set of indices and engagement with the ETCCDI.

Future priorities

Priorities identified

1. Expand the ICOADS lineage record—and capture its scientific impact via metadata;

2. Promote formal ICOADS data citation using DOIs;

3. Promote Open-source software development for ICOADS;

4. Promote QC and platform trajectory tracking – old and new sources;

5. Advance the management and availability of wave, buoy, and platform data and metadata in ICOADS;

6. Enrich logbook rescued data with image linkage scheme;

7. Promote development of in situ to satellite , and vice versa, data matchup web service;

8. Create climate credible products to inform IPCC and CMIP reports and research;

9. Participate in climate international service initiatives; and

10. Promote availability of enhanced near real time data.

Outcomes

Proceedings as JCOMM Technical Report (TR-79)

Summary WGSF FluxNews article

Special issue of the International Journal of Climatology (update to the dynamic part of the WMO Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology)

Applications of marine climatology

Key issues• The need for better user / stakeholder engagement, both at the regional and global

level. This includes addressing sector specific needs (e.g. fisheries, transports, agriculture [via seasonal prediction and the oceans links to floods and droughts]) as well as interaction with policy makers. There is also the need to organize JCOMM workshops in WMO Regional Association III;

• Better regional coordination between countries, including on regionally relevant indices, data access and sharing. This could be via regional workshops to define needs for data products for the region;

• Integration of research and datasets across the WMO GFCS societal challenges; • The need for long time series to aid attribution studies and the quantification of

extremes; and • The importance of efforts to recover historical data, extending time series and the

homogenization of the wind record.

Air – sea interaction

Key issues

• The need for high quality, homogenized satellite data• The need for the ICOADS Value-Added Dataset (IVAD) was also noted in a

number of talks and in the discussions

Waves and storm surges

Key issues• The need to improve the availability and utility of consolidated buoy

observational metadata, both historical and current; • The need to improve the representation of wave reports in ICOADS

(i.e. higher resolution and wider variety of wave parameters); • The need to assure the sustainability of an Extreme Waves Data

Set; and • The need for storm surge climatology.

Surface temperatures

Key issues• The need for improved understanding of structural uncertainties in

SST; • Whether benchmarking techniques can be developed for marine

temperatures; • The need to compare different methods of SST bias adjustment;

and • Promoting the use of a common language in describing different

uncertainty components

Characteristics of the observing system(s)

Key issues• The need to understand the structural uncertainty in SST

reconstructions; • What impact do these uncertainties have on observed variability?; • Challenges in funding the observing system and the importance of

highlighting the (financial) benefits of the observing system; and • The importance of performing integrated observing system

assessments as opposed to the platform based approach previously used.

Data recovery and management initiatives

Key issues• The need to improve the availability of buoy metadata, both

historical and current; • The need to progress on the establishment of JCOMM-IODE

CMOCs; • The importance of IVAD and ICOADS, and their further

development; and • The importance of correctly citing and attributing datasets.