FOURTH WORKSHOP ON REGIONAL CLIMATE PREDICTION AND APPLICATIONS -- TROPICAL PACIFIC ISLANDS AND RIM

BACKGROUND

This Workshop is the fourth in a series being staged by the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) of the University of Oklahoma, with the primary financial sponsorship of the International Activities Office of the U. S. National Weather Service, and additional support from NOAA's Office of Global Programs (OGP) and the Climate Information and Prediction Service (CLIPS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The Workshop series is intended to improve the capabilities of national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHSs) in developing nations in the following respects -- to understand the behavior of the global climate system; to use such understanding to develop or adapt seasonal climate (especially rainfall) prediction schemes for their countries; and to work with other professionals in their countries to apply the prediction schemes in the management of agricultural production, water resources, energy generation and consumption, and public health. The need for these Workshops emerged from NMS leaders of many developing nations recognizing that their organizations did not possess the expertise to capitalize on the seasonal prediction and application opportunities offered by the 1997-98 El Niño. This need is emphasized further by current predictions that another El Niño will develop in mid-2002.

REGIONAL FOCUS

This Fourth Workshop will capitalize on the expertise of the CIMMS leadership (especially Professor Peter J. Lamb) and several of its long-time colleagues by focusing on the role of Tropical Pacific Ocean for climate in and immediately around that basin. Workshop participants will come from nations whose regional climate (especially rainfall) variability is influenced by the tropical Pacific on seasonal-to-interannual time-scales. Those nations extend from Southeast Asia across Indonesia and the Phillippines to the islands of the southwestern Pacific and French Polynesia, and also lie along the western coast of Central and South America. Thus, most of the participants will come from WMO Region V (South-West Pacific), with the remainder coming from WMO Regions II (Asia) and III (South America).

INSTRUCTION

Workshop instruction will be in English. Instructors will be internationally recognized experts, either on the role of the tropical Pacific Ocean for regional climate variability in and around that basin, or on the socioeconomic impacts of that variability in sectors such as agriculture, water resources, energy, and public health. Most of the instruction will be provided by Professor Lamb, Dr. José Marengo (native of Peru; now at Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climaticos, CPTEC, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espacias, Brasil) and Dr. Neville Nicholls (Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, Australia). Their Teaching Assistants will be Mr. Issa Lele (Nigerien Direction de la Météorologie Nationale, and African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development, Niamey, Niger) and Mr. Helio Camargo Junior (CPTEC, Brasil). In addition, guest lectures will be given by Dr. Elbert W. (Joe) Friday, Jr. (U.S. National Research Council; formerly Permanent Representative to WMO from USA), Dr. Patricio Aceituno (University of Chile), Dr. James W. Sallinger (National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research, NIWA, New Zealand), and possibly one or two other internationally renowned scientists.

QUALIFICATIONS OF PARTICIPANTS

The Workshop is intended primarily for young NMS personnel who have received excellent training in basic meteorology at a University (B.Sc. level) or World Meteorological Organization Training School (Class II level), but who have had limited exposure to the fundamental principles of modern climate dynamics and their application to economic management and other environmental and societal issues. Meteorologists who work outside their NMS (e.g., in oceanographic institutes, regional meteorological centers, universities, other government agencies, or NGOs), but who have strong working relationships with their NMS, may also be accepted. Applications are particularly encouraged from meteorologists who have attended preliminary training workshops in climate prediction (e.g., conducted by WMO CLIPS at Auckland, New Zealand, November 29-December 15, 2000) or had other opportunities to acquire some basic knowledge of climate dynamics and its applications. This Workshop will further develop the skills of such individuals, especially since substantial material will be presented from the University of Oklahoma M.Sc. course in Climate Dynamics. Applicants should have a working knowledge of PCs and basic statistics. The total number of participants will be 20-24, all of whom will be fully funded (travel, accommodation, meals, incidental expenses).

LOCATION AND DATES

This Fourth Workshop will be held at the College of Continuing Education of University of Oklahoma (OU, located in Norman) for a 6-week period from May 27-July 5, 2002. Some subsequent Workshops may be held in developing nations, but under the same OU leadership. The University of Oklahoma is one of the world's leading academic, research, and operational centers for meteorology. More than 550 faculty, research scientists, engineers, technicians, and graduate and undergraduate students are involved in the activities of the nine meteorological units (university, state, federal) located on its campus -- OU School of Meteorology; OU-NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies; Oklahoma Climatological Survey; OU Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms; NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory; NWS Radar Operations Center; NWS National Storm Prediction Center; NWS Warning Decision Training Branch; and NWS national prototype Weather Forecast Office. The total annual budget for these units now approaches $60 million. In recent years, they have hosted graduate students and visiting scientists from Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Korea, Russia, and China.

Links to projects from the first and second workshops.