Data rescue and Data Visualisation Capability Improvements and Emerging Climate Research Programmes: an Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research Workshop in Auckland, New Zealand 27-29 September 2010

An Asia Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Reseach workshop will be held in Auckland, New Zealand in late September 2010.

The workshop will see Pacific Island meteorological service representatives engaging in cutting–edge research that uses rescued climate and weather data, and new data visualisation techniques. This project builds on the support network for Pacific Island National Meteorological Services currently provided by the Island Climate Update, and complements the Pacific Islands Forum (currently an APN-supported activity). New research projects like the International Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative, the South Pacific Rainfall Atlas (SPRAT) project, the Southeast Australia Recent Climate History (SEARCH) project, and the Pacific Climate Change Science Program (PCCSP) have emerged over the last two years. These projects have common aims focused on improving the quality of Pacific-region climate science and increasing understanding    of regional climate variability and change.

Pacific Islanders currently have to address climate variability and change on seasonal to multi-decadal time scales. Longer, detailed climate records can enable better climate prediction capabilities, and can improve testing runs for models that generate seasonal climate forecasts and future scenarios. Rescued data sets contribute to this effort, and therefore provide avenues toward improving decision-making within Pacific economic and social sectors that are impacted by climate and weather extremes. The hope is that rescued data that are incorporated in new climate analyses will filter through to help improve sustainable development decisions and formulation of short- and long-term climate change adaptation strategies.

This workshop will help to address some of the gaps that APN GEOSS has identified for capacity building needs in the Pacific region, including collaboration with new science initiatives, increasing research experience opportunities, and the priority actions of rescue, interpretation, and use of archived meteorological and climate data. APN support for this workshop is acknowledged and greatly appreciated for strengthening the South Pacific regional climate science and knowledge sharing network. For more information about the workshop, please contact Dr. Andrew Lorrey (see backpage for details).

The South Pacific Rainfall Atlas (SPRAT) viewed using Google Earth