earth science

World Climate Research Programme

World Climate Research Programme is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand World Climate Research Programme rather than just read about it. In short: The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is an international programme that helps to coordinate global climate research. The WCRP was established in 1980, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO since 1993.

Key takeaways

World Climate Research Programme belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect World Climate Research Programme to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of World Climate Research Programme from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is an international programme that helps to coordinate global climate research. The WCRP was established in 1980, under the joint sponsorship of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Council for Science (ICSU), and has also been sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO since 1993. The programme is funded by its three sponsors and additional contributions by nation states or other donors. WCRP uses these funds to organize science workshops or conferences and support collaboration between climate scientists at an international level. Its expert groups also develop international standards for climate data and propose future emphasis areas in international climate research, among others.

History The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) came into existence in 1980, with the International Science Council (ISC)—known as the International Council for Science (ICSU) until its reorganization in July 2018—and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) acting as its founding sponsors. The sponsorship circle widened in 1993 when the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO joined as a sponsor. Over a span of more than 40 years, the WCRP has been instrumental in propelling the advancement of climate science. It has fostered the ability of climate scientists to monitor, simulate, and forecast the global climate with unparalleled accuracy. This has led to the provision of essential climate information that aids policy and decision-making, as well as supports various practical applications for end-users across multiple sectors. The significance of the WCRP's contributions is documented in celebratory publications such as the "25th Anniversary Brochure," the "WCRP Film: 40 years of international climate science," and articles like "The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) celebrates its 40th anniversary."

Mandate WCRP's objective is stated as "a better understanding of the climate system and the causes of climate variability and change" and "to determine the predictability of climate; and to determine the effect of human activities on climate". In practice, the programme aims to foster initiatives in climate research which require or benefit from international coordination and which are unlikely to emerge from national efforts alone. The programme does not fund climate research directly, but may at times exchange views with research funding agencies on global research priorities.

Structure The largest group of contributors to WCRP are several thousands of climate scientists from around the world who offer their expertise and time as volunteers to, for example, help organize workshops in key areas of research, lay out avenues for future research in white paper articles, and serve on WCRP science or advisory boards. Official scientific guidance for the programme is provided by a Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) consisting of 18 volunteer scientists selected by mutual agreement between the three sponsoring organizations. Everyday operations are supported by a secretariat of around 8 full-time staff, hosted by the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva.

Activities and projects WCRP's largest activities are its four "Core Projects" (called SPARC, CLIVAR, CliC, and GEWEX), which support climate research on the global atmosphere, oceans, the cryosphere, and the land surface (together constituting the Earth's physical climate system) as well as interactions and exchanges between them. Each Core Project again has a structure similar to that of WCRP itself, namely contributing scientists, a scientific steering group, and a secretariat ("international project office") hosted by individual countries. The programme further maintains topical working groups and advisory councils on climate data, climate modelling, subseasonal-to-decadal climate prediction, and regional climate modelling. Additional "Grand Challenges" target specific questions of societal interest within climate science. One particular output by a WCRP task team is the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, which standardizes and coordinates regular comparisons of the world's climate models and which provides an important basis for the IPCC Assessment Reports' climate projections.

Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate Stratosphere-troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate (SPARC) is a core project of the programme. Founded in 1992, SPARC has coordinated high-level research activities related to understanding Earth system processes for over two decades. More specifically, SPARC promotes and facilitates cutting-edge international research activities on how chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere interact with climate and climate change.

Previous Programs World Ocean Circulation Experiment (1990 - 2002): An oceanographic campaign to explore and develop ocean models, including collecting data and standardizing acquisition processes, and to look at long-term ocean circulation behaviors.

See also World Meteorological Organization (WMO) International Council for Science (ICSU) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC/UNESCO) Coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP) Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere program (TOGA) Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Future Earth Group on Earth Observations (GEO) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

References

External links Official website SPARC home page

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with World Climate Research Programme

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what World Climate Research Programme claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to World Climate Research Programme before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about World Climate Research Programme ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of World Climate Research Programme

In research: World Climate Research Programme appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses World Climate Research Programme in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: World Climate Research Programme is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Climatological research organizations, International organisations based in Switzerland, International scientific organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for World Climate Research Programme outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study World Climate Research Programme in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what World Climate Research Programme means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain World Climate Research Programme out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is World Climate Research Programme in simple terms?

Why does World Climate Research Programme matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study World Climate Research Programme?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on World Climate Research Programme.