Description
This volume offers a comprehensive survey and a close analysis of efforts to develop actionable climate information in support of vital decisions for climate adaptation, risk management and policy. Arising from submissions and discussion at the 2011 Open Science Conference (OSC) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), the book addresses research and intellectual challenges which span the full range of Program activities. 1. The World Climate Research Program Research Strategy and Priorities: Next Decade 2. Challenges of a Sustained Climate Observing System 3. On the Reprocessing and Reanalysis of Observations For Climate 4. Climate Processes: Clouds, Aerosols and Dynamics 5. Aerosol Cloud-Mediated Radiative Forcing: Highly Uncertain and Opposite Effects From Shallow and Deep Clouds 6. Improving Understanding of the Global Hydrologic Cycle 7. Land Cover and Land Use Changes and Their Impacts on Hydroclimate, Ecosystems and Society 8. Prediction From Weeks To Decades 9. Assessing the Reliability of Climate Models, CMIP5 10. Changes In Variability Associated With Climate Change 11. Understanding and Predicting Climate Variability and Change at Regional Scales 12. Attribution of Weather and Climate-Related Extreme Events 13. Challenges in Estimating and Understanding Recent Changes in the Frequency and Intensity of Extreme Climate and Weather Events 14. Carbon Dioxide and Climate: Perspectives on a Scientific Assessment 15. Atmospheric Composition, Irreversible Climate Change, and Mitigation Policy 16. Building Adaptive Capacity To Climate Change in Less Developed Countries 17. A Climate and Health Partnership to Inform the Prevention and Control of Meningococcal Meningitis in Sub-Saharan Africa: The MERIT Initiative
