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Breaking down barriers for climate prediction work

13 June 2006

The application and exchange of climate change research that can ultimately guide government policy and business decisions, is the focus of a workshop jointly organised by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Met Office, and the European Centre for Medium range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF).

The workshop - to be held on 14-15 June 2006 - targets the challenge of forecasting climate, months, years or decades ahead. This is a vital area for the application of climate science, for example the Met Office's forecasts for winter 2005, which were helpful to business and Government in preparing for the problems of bad weather, stemmed directly from UK research.

Better climate forecasts are urgently needed to reduce risks of droughts, flood, heat waves, and weather-related disruption to road, rail and air services. In all these areas the science of accurate forecasting will be key to meeting public, government and business needs. The workshop aims to create strategic links between science and government to exchange and support vital climate modelling research.

The climate research comes from NERC's Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Processes & European Climate (COAPEC) programme, which began in 1999 and will end in 2006. This represents a £5·5m investment with the goal of determining the impact of the linked effects of the Atlantic Ocean and the atmosphere on the European climate.

Bridging the gap between research and its application to improve forecasts, is a key goal of the workshop. Breaking down barriers and transferring knowledge across disciplines and organisations are core themes. By improving communication and developing new collaborations, researchers and public service forecasting bodies will be able to achieve the more accurate and detailed predictions needed by government, business and the public.

Those involved in the project include government departments such as DEFRA, DTI, DFID, OSI, the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, the NERC Centres for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the National Centre for Ocean Forecasting (NCOF), as well as NERC's Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) and High Resolution Global Environmental Modelling (HiGEM) programmes (see External Links, right).

Dr Rowan Sutton chair of COAPEC said, "This workshop is real evidence of science and government linking up for the benefit of the public, public policy and businesses. It also affords NERC scientists the opportunity to demonstrate the direct relevance of fundamental climate research to the challenge of forecasting future climate."

Further information

Dr Rowan Sutton
Royal Society Research Fellow
Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling,
Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading.
Tel: 0118 378 8337

Press release: 36/06