atmosphere
A year in the life of Earth’s CO₂
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center model GEOS-5 produced a visualisation of how carbon dioxide travels around the globe during the course of one year. Also, in July of this year NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory OCO-2, which makes the first space-based global measurements of CO2 that will be able to characterise its sources and sinks as well as its seasonal variability.
View the simulation

arctic
Interannual predictability of Arctic sea ice in a global climate model
This study investigates the predictability of Arctic sea ice at the interannual scale using decadal experiments. It concludes that the predictability of summer Arctic sea ice is weak and does not exceed two years, whereas the prognostic potential predictability (PPP) of winter sea ice is robust for up to several years. Also, the PPP is shown to decrease in more recent years.
Read the article

high impact events
On the Attribution of a Single Event to Climate Change
As climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, the issue of attributing single events to climate change is widely discussed. Recent focus has been on estimating the measure of attributable risk. This study describes a statistical formulation of this problem, which is used to construct a confidence interval.
Read the article

sea level
Time of emergence for regional sea-level change
An important climate change issue is to determine the time when the climate change signal from increasing greenhouse gases exceeds the natural variability – referred to as the time of emergence (ToE). While previous studies were mainly based on atmospheric variables, this study estimates the ToE for sea-level changes up to 2100 relative to 1986-2005. It concludes that half of the ocean area will show emergence of rising sea-levels by the 2040s. Including additional contributions such as land ice mass loss could lead to earlier emergence.
Read the article

hydrological cycles
Global assessment of trends in wetting and drying over land
Assessments of observed trends in hydrological conditions over land have contrasting results. This study by scientists at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and others analyzed over 300 combinations of various hydrological data sets over the period 1948-2005, and used them for trend analysis. They find that over around 3/4 of the global land area, robust dryness changes cannot be detected, and furthermore that the concept of an intensification of existing patterns, i.e. dry regions drying further and wet regions becoming wetter, is a simplification.
Read the article

european commission
“Lima outcome keeps climate talks on track for Paris Agreement”
The EU welcomes the outcome of the UN climate conference, which agreed on the Lima Call for Climate Action and a draft for the global climate deal to be made in Paris 2015. The Lima Call requires all countries to come forward with proposed emission reduction targets in the coming months, which will then be published by the UNFCCC. Furthermore, the Green Climate Fund for climate finance passed the USD 10 billion mark.
Read the press release

Contribution of EU-funded research to IPCC's 5th Assessment Report
After the publication of the three Working Group contributions to the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report over the course of the past year, the IPCC in November published its last element, the Synthesis Report. A number of research projects funded under the EU’s 6th and 7th Framework Programmes for Research (FP6 and FP7) were essential for the report’s findings, such as projects related to ocean acidification, sea level rise, climate projection, the costs of climate change, etc.
Read more

Switzerland and EU join forces in science and research
The EU and Switzerland signed a comprehensive international agreement associating the Alpine country to parts of Horizon 2020, Research and Training Programme of Euratom and the ITER project. Swiss beneficiaries will be able to participate with an associated status in several programmes, while the country will contribute with €400 million until 2016.
Read the press release

DG RTD Call for Ideas - Pilot / demonstration projects in Horizon 2020
As part of the work programme 2016-2017 of the societal challenge (SC 5) “Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials” (SC5) of the Horizon 2020 framework programme, the European Commission intends to open calls for large-scale pilot/demonstration projects. This builds on the advice from the SC 5 Advisory Group and on the response to a public consultation in spring 2014 for preparing a scoping paper for the 2016 – 2017 work programme. Topics: Systemic eco-innovation for a circular economy, Climate services, Nature-based solutions, Water.
Further information

SAVE THE DATE – ECRA General Assembly 25-26 March 2015, Brussels
The ECRA General Assembly includes a panel discussion with scientists and the European Commission about collaboration in Climate Science on 25^th March and the presentation of Science in all of the ECRA’s Collaborative Programmes. The detailed programme and registration opening will follow at the early beginning of next year.

International workshop on polar-lower latitude linkages and their role in weather and climate prediction,10-12 December, 2014, Barcelona
Climate scientists from Europe, the U.S. and Canada have discussed about the current understanding of polar-lower latitude linkages and their implications for prediction and services. Four breakout groups (Polar-Ocean linkages, Atmospheric linkages I and II (Prediction/Services) prepared recommendations providing input in the World Climate (Weather) Research Programme (WCRP/WWRP) that will guide international future research activities. ECRA co-sponsored this workshop.
Further information

feedback and contact
European Climate Research Alliance
Rue du Trône 98
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32 2 5000 983
Fax: +32 2 5000 980
Email: info[at]ecra-climate.eu
www.ecra-climate.eu

unsubscribe
by clicking here.

legal notice
You can find the ECRA Disclaimer here.