Over a decade ago, US CLIVAR developed the concept of Climate Process Teams to improve the fidelity of coupled climate models by facilitating the transfer of knowledge from observational and process-oriented research to the development of models. Now we are seeking input to assess the need for renewing such future efforts. Responses to the questionaire are due June 19. 

This joint newsletter, organized by the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) and US CLIVAR programs, is called "Understanding and predicting ocean carbon uptake using coupled climate models: Recent achievements and open challenges." The newsletter is based on contributions from members of the Ocean Carbon Uptake Working Group and participants from a recent workshop. It is representative of the challenges and advances across disciplines in modeling and understanding mechanisms, sensitivities, and feedbacks of ocean carbon uptake.

An open, US CLIVAR-sponsored workshop called Translating Process Understanding to Improve Climate Models will be held October 15-16, 2015 at NOAA GFDL in Princeton, NJ. The purpose of the workshop is to assess the current understanding of physical processes, which could lead to significant climate and weather prediction model improvements on a 5-year timescale. Application and abstract submissions are due August 3.

To better serve the US CLIVAR community, we want to hear your experiences and opinions on interacting with our website, reading our reports and publications, and how you receive our communications. We invite you to take a short 5-10 minute survey. Your feedback will remain anonymous. The information will be used to assess how effective our program communication activities are and where there are areas we can improve or adapt. The survey will close June 1. 

Stay connected with US CLIVAR by signing-up to receive communications from us. We send out monthly Newsgrams that contain news and community announcements, upcoming deadlines for meetings and workshops, and job and funding opportunities. We also send quartly newsletter, Variations, which profiles interesting science questions and researchers from the community - like our last edition on ENSO prediction and predictability. Our mailing list will also keep you informed on time-sensitive matters like calls for workshops and Panel members. 

The 2015 US CLIVAR Summit will held August 4-6 in Tucson, Arizona. The Summit will bring together the members of the Scientific Steering Committee and its three implementation Panels, agency managers, and invited speakers to review progress, identify opportunities, and develop strategies to advance US CLIVAR goals under the direction of the Science Plan. The meeting will have two special sessions, one on the warming haitus and the other on forecasting ENSO. (Please note this is an invite only meeting.)

Now available online is the seventh annual report for the US AMOC Science Team. This report features progress made in the past year on the main objectives of the program, identifies programmatic gaps, and makes recommendations on near and long-term research priorities and goals for the program. Over 50 research projects are featured in the report. Furthermore, the report lists action items for each Task Team to address, which are based upon the discussions at the 2014 Annual Science Team meeting in Seattle.

Requests are now being accepted for US CLIVAR-sponsored workshops. The call for submissions is open to the US climate science community. Sponsored annually, open community workshops are used to coordinate, develop, plan, and implement new or focused activities for the benefit of the scientific community and relevant to the goals of US CLIVAR. Full details can be viewed in the request. Deadline for submissions is April 8.  

The 2015 winter edition of Variations examines ENSO observing system, predictability, and predictions. How has the prediction of ENSO and our understanding of variability improved? What does an observing system for ENSO look like for the future? The authors of this edition explore these questions and others. 

Eight science priorities have been identified by the National Academy of Sciences “to identify areas of strategic investment with the highest potential payoff” for the next decade. Such priorities include sea level rise, processes that contribute to climate variability, and the role of biodiversity, to name a few. Ultimately these priorities have broad societal relevance and will help shape investments in ocean-related infrastructure.