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Research Programmes

Activity Areas (1)

Research Board

World Weather Research Programme

 

The World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) is the WMO’s international programme for advancing and promoting research activities on weather, its prediction and its impact on society. The Improvements in science and operational predictions are driven by international cooperation, and in turn international cooperation in weather science is a unique opportunity to drive sustainable development.  As the science is advancing, critical questions are arising such as: the potential sources of predictability on weekly, monthly and longer time-scales; seamless prediction from minutes to months; optimal use of local and global observing systems and the effective utilization of supercomputers. In addition, communication of forecasts, warnings and their uncertainty, as well as some indication of the impacts of these warnings, raise new challenges for weather related approaches for the full value chain. All of these challenges can only be met through strong interdisciplinary collaborations and thus WWRP relies on strong links with the social scientists, as well as the inclusion of Early Career Scientists.

WWRP

 

Global Atmosphere Watch Programme

 

The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme focuses on variability and trends in the composition of the global atmosphere and the related physical parameters. The Implementation Plan of the programme builds upon the growing importance of atmospheric composition observations and predictions and focuses on research that enables a wide variety of Products and Services related to atmospheric composition. GAW focal areas include stratospheric ozone and solar UV Radiation, reactive gases, greenhouse gases, aerosols and total atmospheric deposition. GAW addresses the aspects of the urban meteorology and environment through the dedicated GAW Urban Research Meteorology and Environment (GURME) project. The programme integrates the long-term observations from the dedicated research infrastructure, comprehensive quality assurance and quality control system and promotes open data sharing trough the dedicated world data centres. The programme contributes to the improvement of forecasting capability for air quality in support of disaster risk reduction and supports health applications through the Global Air Quality Forecasting and Analysis System. It addresses climate agenda by sustaining long-term global observations of the major climate change drivers and by developing the observation-based tools to improve knowledge of the greenhouse gas emissions via the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System (IG3IS).  It supports biodiversity community through development of the global maps of the total atmospheric deposition through the Measurement-Model-Fusion for Global Total Atmospheric Deposition initiative. GAW coordinated observations also contribute to the implementation of the WMO Integrated Global Observing System (WIGOS). Capacity development remains a key GAW activity and it is implemented through GAW dedicated training events, support of summer schools, exchange of expertise and other means. All the elements of the programme are interconnected to support the productions of the society relevant services.

GAW

 

World Climate Research Programme

 

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is taking the lead in ensuring that the global, regional and national climate research communities create the enduring, rigorous and scientific foundation required to meet the urgent demand for robust and useful regional climate information. WCRP is pursuing – through international coordination – frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency, institution, or scientific discipline. In doing so, WCRP brings together scientists from around the world, at all stages of their careers, to advance our understanding of the multi-scale dynamic interactions between components of the climate system and external forcing, as well as addressing and studying the role of humans on climate and society. WCRP informs the development of policies and operationally focused climate services, and promotes science capacity building and education, which is done through partnerships with other programs such as Future Earth. It works closely with its sister programmes at WMO, the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) and Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW), often through the WMO Research Board.

WCRP is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Science Council (ISC), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. Scientific oversight and direction for WCRP is the responsibility of the Joint Scientific Committee, appointed by the three sponsors and currently chaired by Prof. Dr. D. Stammer (University of Hamburg). Day-to-day management of the Programme is carried out by Secretariat Staff at WMO in Geneva and by international project offices, which are supported primarily by generous national contributions

Through its new Strategic Plan 2019-2028 WCRP is reorienting itself to ensure that there is the science, knowledge and understanding to target frontier problems, such as disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, mitigation, and intervention strategies, that need to be solved together with partners, for which WCRP’s core research continues to be essential for developing answers. The integral role of WCRP in developing knowledge of the climate system will result in an increased understanding of the Earth system, including the complex interactions between the physical environment and human society.

WCRP

 

Examples of joint activities of the Research programmes