Currently WWRP coordinates three core projects, which have been developed by relevant science communities, the Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project (S2S), Polar Prediction Project (PPP) and High Impact Weather Project (HIWeather).

Terms of Reference of Core Projects

Functions
a) The WWRP Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) makes recommendations on core projects for the WWRP. Such projects should typically have a lifetime of between 5 years and 10 years.
b) The recommendations for core projects should be approved by the WMO Executive Council or Congress. Criteria for proposal documentation are determined by the Executive Council or Congress.
c) The activities of WWRP core projects should have a global focus and mandate and be supported by International Coordination Offices.
d) The deliverables of the WWRP and its core projects should be based on the activities proposed in the Implementation Plan and in line with the key priorities outlined in the WMO Strategic Plan.
e) Membership of core projects pertains to the steering committees of those projects. Steering committee members are decided by core-project chairs in consultation with the WWRP SSC.

High Impact Weather Project

HIWeather aims to deliver a blueprint for the warning system of the future, by focusing on critical aspects of the end-to-end warning chain from observation to forecast to response. A key target is to contribute to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through improvements to Multi-Hazard Early Warning capabilities. In doing so, it complements other DRR programmes that are more focused on policy and preparedness.

HIWeather consists of five research teams, composed of scientists involved in a wide range of activities across the physical and social sciences: carrying out research that reviews and synthesizes current knowledge or addresses specific research gaps; leading and supporting projects that demonstrate the value of new research; trialling and evaluating new capabilities. Results are shared in team teleconferences; brought together in multi-disciplinary workshops; communicated through publications and conference presentations; and used to build capacity by feeding into training schools and development projects. Key areas of research currently being focused on by HIWeather are observations, prediction, coupled models, hazard impacts, communication of warnings and their benefits.

The direct donors for HIWeather are Met Office (UK), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canada), Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Norway) and Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany).

For more information and updates please visit the official HIWeather website.

Polar Prediction Project

The regions of the Arctic and Antarctic are attracting growing interest due to concerns about the amplification of anthropogenic climate change. Increasing economic activities and transportation in polar regions, among others, are driving demand for sustained and improved availability of integrated observational and predictive weather, water, climate and ice information in support of decision-making processes. However, many gaps in weather, sub-seasonal and seasonal forecasting in both regions still exist.

The goal of the WWRP Polar Prediction Project (PPP) is to promote cooperative international research to enable the development of improved weather and environmental prediction services for polar regions (including the Third Pole High Mountain region) on time scales from hours to seasonal. This project constitutes the hours-to-seasonal research component of the emerging WMO Global Integrated Polar Prediction System (GIPPS). A closely related WCRP Polar Climate Predictability Initiative covers GIPPS research on seasonal-to-decadal time scales.

The direct donors for PPP are Met Office (UK), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canada), Norwegian Meteorological Institute (Norway), Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany) and the Bureau Of Meteorology (Australia).

For more information and updates please visit the official PPP website.

Subseaonal-to-seasonal Prediction Project

The Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Prediction Project (S2S) started in 2013 as a collaborative structure set up by WCRP, WWRP and THORPEX for an initial 5 years until 2018 and the second phase for 2019 to 2023 was approved in 2018 by the WMO Executive Council. The goals of this project are:

• To improve forecast skill and understanding on the sub-seasonal to seasonal timescale with special emphasis on high-impact weather events;
• To promote the uptake of results by operational centres and exploitation by the applications community and
• To capitalize on the expertise of the weather and climate research communities to address issues of importance to the Global Framework for Climate Services.

Research Priorities:

• Evaluate potential predictability of sub-seasonal events, including identifying windows of opportunity for increased forecast skill;
• Understand systematic errors and biases in the sub-seasonal to seasonal forecast range;
• Compare, verify and test multi-model combinations from these forecasts and quantify their uncertainty; and
• Focus on some specific extreme event case studies

The direct donors for PPP are Met Office (UK), Environment and Climate Change Canada (Canada), Deutscher Wetterdienst (Germany) and the Bureau Of Meteorology (Australia).

For more information and updates please visit the official S2S website.