About Us
CLIVAR Objectives
The specific objectives of CLIVAR are:
- To describe and understand the physical processes responsible for climate variability and predictability on seasonal, interannual, decadal, and centennial time-scales, through the collection and analysis of observations and the development and application of models of the coupled climate system, in cooperation with other relevant climate-research and observing programmes.
- To extend the record of climate variability over the time-scales of interest through the assembly of quality-controlled paleoclimatic and instrumental data sets.
- To extend the range and accuracy of seasonal to interannual climate prediction through the development of global coupled predictive models.
- To understand and predict the response of the climate system to increases of radiatively active gases and aerosols and to compare these predictions to the observed climate record in order to detect the anthropogenic modification of the natural climate signal.
A complete overview about CLIVAR can be found on the CLIVAR Handbook.
CLIVAR Scientific Frontiers and Imperatives
Scientific Frontiers: Major scientific themes
Frontier 1: Anthropogenic climate change
Undertake the predictive science that aims to develop the adaptation decisions that must be made in response to human activity
Frontier 2: Decadal variability, predictability and prediction
Identify and understand phenomena that offer some degree of decadal predictability and to skilfully predict these climate fluctuations and trends
Frontier 3: Intra-seasonal and seasonal predictability and prediction
Identify and understand phenomena that offer some degree of intra-seasonal to inter-annual predictability, to skilfully predict these climate fluctuations and trends and to increase interactions between scientists, operational forecasters and decision makers
Imperatives: Enabling science to achieve the goals of the Scientific Frontiers
Imperative 1: Improved atmosphere and ocean component models of Earth System Models
Reduce the negative impact of biases in model representations of atmospheric and oceanic processes
Imperative 2: Data synthesis, analysis, reanalysis and uncertainty
Provide credibility to climate projections by understanding the past and present state of the ocean
Imperative 3: Ocean observing system
Maintain over many decades a sustained ocean observing system capable of detecting and documenting global climate change
Imperative 4: Capacity building
See here for more information on CLIVAR's scientific frontiers and imperatives.
