The World Climate Research Program Strategy and Priorities: Next Decade

G.R. Asrar and J.W. Hurrell (eds.), Climate Science for Serving Society: Research, Modeling and Prediction Priorities, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6692-1_1, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract In this chapter an overview of the research planning and priorities of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) over the next decade is provided. The research, modeling and prediction plans are signifi cantly shaped by the major sponsors of the WCRP, as well as by its international network of scientists and stakeholders. However, major input into the planning process was also derived from sessions and discussions among the more than 1,900 scientists who attended the WCRP Open Science Conference (OSC) in October 2011. This monograph is comprised of position papers emanating from the OSC. They address many of the overall research and intellectual challenges across the WCRP spectrum of activities. A brief overview of these papers is given.