Program: U. S. Climate Variability and Predictability

Note: The official U.S. CLIVAR program description will be supplied by Steve Diggs.

A temporary description copied from the US CLIVAR Web site is:

CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability) is an international, interdisciplinary research effort within the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) focusing on the variability and predictability of the slowly varying components of the climate system. CLIVAR investigates the physical and dynamical processes in the climate system that occur on seasonal, interannual, decadal and centennial time-scales. CLIVAR recognizes that a critical measure of success in its research program is a transferal of insight and knowledge to routine production of climate forecasts, information and products.

The goals of U.S. CLIVAR include:

• Identifying and understanding the major patterns of climate variability on seasonal, decadal and longer time scales and evaluating their predictability;
• Expanding our capacity in short term (seasonal to interannual) climate predictability and searching for ways to predict decadal variability;
• Better documenting the record of rapid climate changes and the mechanisms for these events, and evaluating the potential for abrupt climate changes in the future;
• Evaluating and enhancing the models used to project climate change due to human activity, including anthropogenically induced changes in atmospheric composition, and:
• Detecting and describing any climate changes that may occur.

Program Data: The data from most projects associated with the US CLIVAR program are not managed by BCO-DMO. Information about these projects and their results are available from the Program and Data site URLs shown above. However, there are a few exceptions, and those projects are listed below when the project section is expanded.