WCRP Climate Extremes

 

Drought Interest Group (DIG)

Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate: Assessing Current Capabilities, User Requirements and Research Priorities

Objectives

The WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG) was formed as part of the WCRP Extremes crosscutting activity following a joint Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment-Climate Variability and Predictability Project (GEWEX-CLIVAR) meeting in 2008. DIG aims to identify and leverage current drought research activities already underway within WCRP, especially under CLIVAR and GEWEX, through the activities of the CLIVAR Variability of the American Monsoon Variability of the American Monsoon Systems (VAMOS) panel, the US CLIVAR Drought Working Group, the GEWEX-Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP), etc. DIG will also assess the missing links in drought research and coordinate drought research at an international level in order to advance, in particular, predictive understanding of extremes.

DIG has now embarked on identifying of strategic research needs in drought prediction and encouraging increased coordination of regional and international drought-research activities. Work has begun on a WCRP White Paper on ‘Drought Predictability and Prediction in a Changing Climate: Assessing Current Capabilities, User Requirements, and Research Priorities’. This White Paper will assess current prediction capabilities against user needs with the aim of identifying areas that would benefit from international coordination. A workshop is being organized on this topic on 2-4 March 2011 in Barcelona, Spain.

White Paper (password protected)
2011 Workshop Planning

Members

Pinhas Alpert	Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Ileana Bladé	University of Barcelona, Spain
Eleanor Burke	UK Met Office, UK
Wenju Cai	Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia
Howard Cattle	CLIVAR, UK
Tereza Cavazos	Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada, Mexico
Valery Detemmerman	WCRP, Geneva
Anmin Duan	State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), China
Tayeb El Hassani	Insitut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Morocco
Matthew England	University of New South Wales, Australia
Brad Garanganga	Southern Africa Develoment Community Drought Monitoring Centre (SADC DMC), Botswana
Ge Gao	China Meteorological Administration, China
Albert Klein Tank	KNMI, Netherlands
Rick Lawford	University of Manitoba, Canada
David Legler	US CLIVAR, USA
Brad Lyon	International Research Insitute for Climate and Society (IRI), USA
Annarita Mariotti	University of Maryland, USA and ENEA, Italy
Roberto Mechoso	University of California, USA
Kingtse Mo	NOAA Climate Prediction Center, USA
Leonard Njau	African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD), Niger
Peter van Oevelen	GEWEX, USA
Anna Pirani	CLIVAR, Italy
Xavier Rodo	Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences (IC3), Spain
Mathieu Rouault	University of Cape Town, South Africa
Gerard van der Schrier	KNMI, Netherlands
Sonia Seneviratne	Swiss Federal Institute for Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland
Siegfried Shubert	NASA, USA
Soroosh Sorooshian	University of California, USA
Ron Stewart	University of Manitoba, Canada
Jozef Syktus	Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence, Office of Climate Change, Australia
Ricardo Trigo	University of Lisbon, Portugal
Robert Vautard	Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, France
Sergio Vicente	Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
Guomin Wang	Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Australia
Eric Wood	Princeton University, USA
Elena Xoplaki	University of Bern, Switzerland and Cyprus Institute, Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC), Crete
Xuebin Zhang	Climate Research Division, Canada

Meetings

AGU Meeting, Fall 2008 - minutes
Feb 2009 teleconference - minutes
April 2009 teleconference - minutes
October 2009 teleconference - minutes
December 2009, San Francisco, USA - minutes

Articles

WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG) Coordinates Drought Research for Better Prediction of Regional Drought
D. Legler and A. Pirani, On behalf of the WCRP Drought Interest Group (DIG). CLIVAR Exchanges, 51, Oct 2009.

Presentations and Reports

Extremes - ppt by P. van Oevelen to the 30th Session of WCRP JSC, 6-9 April 2009.
Addressing Extremes in the Context of Climate Change: A GEWEX and CLIVAR Coordinated Approach on Droughts - poster by P. van Oevelen, EGU April 2009.
WCRP Extremes Cross-Cut, Drought Interest Group (DIG) - report by D. Legler for CLIVAR SSG-16, May 2009.

last updated Thu, Jul 15, 2010 by Anna Pirani