US CLIVAR’s 25th Anniversary

During the AGU Ocean Sciences Conference, CPAESS had the pleasure of celebrating our program, US CLIVAR. US Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) is a national research program with a mission to foster understanding and prediction of climate variability and change on intraseasonal-to-centennial timescales, through observations and modeling with emphasis on the role of the ocean and its interaction with other elements of the Earth system. It strives to serve the climate community and society through the coordination and facilitation of research on outstanding climate questions.  The US CLIVAR Program contributes directly to the broader US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) by coordinating and advancing research within the US to improve the documentation, understanding, modeling and prediction of variations in global and regional climate.  US CLIVAR also provides US research and organizational contributions to the International CLIVAR Program of the World Climate Research Program under United Nations auspices.

Among many other things, the CPAESS program hosts programs including US CLIVAR, that have unique missions and often numerous funding agencies. SPS | CPAESS Director Hanne Mauriello shared “We are proud of our role in supporting, managing, and oftentimes incubating these programs with critical niches in climate science. It is important that these interagency-funded programs have a space that enables them to grow and fully contribute to the Earth system science community. We are proud to be able to provide that home.”

US CLIVAR is a core program of the World Climate Research Program, that International CLIVAR launched in 1995 to serve as a forum for collective multi-country planning and implementation of research on the role of the ocean in climate variability and predictability. US CLIVAR is the US contribution to International CLIVAR and they share many goals and science questions.

Some of their work is accomplished through the US CLIVAR Inter-Agency Group (IAG) which includes program managers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR). This group meets regularly to coordinate implementation of research activities in support of US CLIVAR goals.

As the ocean plays a key role in providing a major long-term "memory" for the climate system, its study is critical in generating or enhancing our understanding of variability on a range of climatic timescales. Discerning the ocean's role in climate variability is therefore crucial for quantifying and harnessing the predictability inherent to the Earth system. US CLIVAR-led research has played a substantial role in advancing understanding of, and skill in predicting climate variability and change.

CPAESS staff at US CLIVAR include its director Mike Patterson, and Program Specialists Alyssa Cannistraci and Alyssa Johnson. During the AGU Ocean Sciences Conference, they were able to reach out to the ocean sciences community at the CPAESS booth, and host several town halls, in addition to celebrating their 25^th Anniversary at the New Orleans Aquarium.

If you would like to learn more about US CLIVAR please find many opportunities to engage with them on their website, announcements, news and publications, and numerous upcoming workshops that they will be hosting. Please sign up for their newsletter to get regular communication from this team concerning ongoing opportunities with them. A sincere congratulations on 25 years of wonderful work and research in this important part of the climate science community.