Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
measurement and its representativeness and calibration may not be sufficient to capture the
spatial characteristics, unless a sufficiently large number of such measurements are
obtained. Building and maintaining such large measurement networks have been chal-
lenging, especially over the developing regions of the world where such measurements are
needed most. Blended or hybrid satellite and in situ products are also growing in number
and attempt to capitalize on the strengths of each. Some are produced in a model frame-
work and may involve data assimilation. Nevertheless, with multiple products synthesized
in the framework of the overall water cycle, it is possible to make use of physical con-
straints inherent in a closed water budget, and physical models to help refine all compo-
nents that are not well observed, by taking their uncertainty into account.
2 The WCRP
The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) mission is to facilitate analysis and
prediction of Earth system variability and change for use in an increasing range of practical
applications of direct relevance, benefit and value to society. The two overarching
objectives of the WCRP are
(1) to determine the predictability of climate and
(2) to determine the effect of human activities on climate.
Progress in understanding climate system variability and change makes it possible to
address its predictability and to use this predictive knowledge in developing adaptation and
mitigation strategies. Such strategies assist the global communities in responding to the
impacts of climate variability and change on major social and economic sectors including
food security, energy and transport, environment, health and water resources (Asrar et al.
2012a
). The main foci of WCRP research are
• Observing changes in the components of the Earth system (atmosphere, oceans, land
and cryosphere) and in the interfaces among these components;
• Improving our knowledge and understanding of global and regional climate variability
and change and of the mechanisms responsible for this change;
• Assessing and attributing significant trends in global and regional climates;
• Developing and improving numerical models that are capable of simulating and
assessing the climate system for a wide range of space and time scales;
• Investigating the sensitivity of the climate system to natural and human-induced
forcing and estimating the changes resulting from specific disturbing influences.
The WCRP is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the
International Council for Science (ICSU) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO).
The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is organized as a network of core
and co-sponsored projects, working groups and cross-cutting initiatives. The current core
projects of WCRP are
•
Climate and Cryosphere (CliC): The principal goal of CliC is to assess and quantify the
impacts of climatic variability and change on components of the cryosphere and their
consequences for the climate system and to determine the stability of the global
cryosphere.
