7th International Seminar on Climate System and Climate Change (ISCS) through the Eyes of a Trainee

At the invitation of Dr. Dahe Qin, the president of ISCS and the Co-Chair of IPCC WGI, the Hong Kong Observatory has been obliged to participate and benefit from the International Seminar in Beijing, China on 19–30 July 2010. Seminar topics included atmospheric chemistry and climate effects of aerosol, biogeochemical cycles, cryosphere and its role in the climate system and climate change, climate models and its application in climate change research, climate change adaptation and mitigation. Data is a common ground for these multi-disciplinary studies around the globe.

Prof. Claude Boutron studied natural variations in heavy metals in Antarctic and Greenland ice during the successive glacial/interglacial cycles. Iridium (Ir) and Platinum (Pt) are very difficult to measure because their concentration in ice is extremely low. Drilling the ice cores has to go through stringent and comprehensive procedures in order to obtain useful data. He delivered the key message of straight forward but not necessary being easily done, i.e., publishing data in quality rather than quantity.

In the climate policy context, Mr. Ned Helme demonstrated that the big bang approach in the Kyoto Protocol was replaced by a more preferable bottom up approach in Copenhagen Accord. New policy architecture included Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) and sectoral approaches. To offer financial support or credits effectively, good quality data, like the emission of 900 steel mills, were required. However, this has been an on-going process for archiving the goal of obtaining reliable data at regular intervals.

Prof. Klaus Fraedrich started with 3 bridges connect Europe and Asia, namely over space by teleconnections; over time by long term memory; and over models by synchronization. He suggested a simple model for beginners, for example, the SAM shallow atmosphere model before trying any 2, 3 or 4 dimensional model. Data assimilation may be used to improve model performance.

Both Prof. Steven J. Ghan and Prof. John A. Ogren gave lectures on aerosol with models to show the sensitivity. Prof. Ghan mentioned that historical record could be used to assimilate to test the model in order to understand and constrain the sensitivity. He also presented a study aiming at increased detail representation of the aerosol properties and processes would be added into future versions of climate models. Prof. Ogren reported that the reasons for the earth hadn’t warmed as much as expected were largely the uncertainty in greenhouse gas forcing and uncertainty in aerosol.

Prof. Teruyuki Nakajima showed the aerosol, cloud, and radiation measurements in Asia were under the networks of EANET, GAW, BSRN, AERONET, SKYNET, and LIDAR. Continuous measurement, sky measurement, calibration programme and data centre were required. To observe optical properties of various aerosol types, a SKYNET Sky radiometer was built by Prof. Nakajima which was a calibration free system as major advantage for the Asia countries. For AOD monitoring, remote sensing data like MODIS and GLI might need to be improved.

The seminar was a success as marked by smiling faces on the photos at http://ncclcs.cma.gov.cn/ . Much international exposure on climate system and climate change was gained. There were about 160 participants of more than 40 meteorological offices, universities and institutions originated from 15 countries/regions in Southeast Asia. Not only lectures by the six renowned scientists, but designated Q&A, TA sessions and discussions, a small paper submission and presentation, have enabled a systematic learning in 12 days. This seminar is very useful for forecasters and researchers in weather and climate, and climatological information service personnel as well.

Sponsorship of China Meteorological Administration (CMA), co-sponsorship of SAFEA (State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs), NSFC (Natural Science Foundation of China), START (Global Change System for Analysis, Research and Training), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST) and CMA Training Center, and the hospitality of Beijing Climate Center (BCC) are gratefully acknowledged.