cc: <cvy@nerc.ac.uk>, <ppn@nerc.ac.uk>, <cg1@soc.soton.ac.uk>
date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 18:00:02 -0000
from: "Andrew Watson" <a.watson@uea.ac.uk>
subject: Re: RAPID modelling subgroup
to: "Eric W Wolff" <ewwo@bas.ac.uk>, <plemke@awi-bremerhaven.de>, <r.r.dickson@cefas.co.uk>, <maria.noguer@defra.gsi.gov.uk>, <mccave@esc.cam.ac.uk>, <haugan@gfi.uib.no>, <studhope@glg.ed.ac.uk>, <B.Turrell@marlab.ac.uk>, <rwood@meto.gov.uk>, <sfbtett@meto.gov.uk>, <j.m.slingo@reading.ac.uk>, <p.j.valdes@reading.ac.uk>, <j.lowe@rhbnc.ac.uk>, <jym@soc.soton.ac.uk>, <mas@soc.soton.ac.uk>, <pc@soc.soton.ac.uk>, <a.j.watson@uea.ac.uk>, <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>, <m.hulme@uea.ac.uk>, <lkeigwin@whoi.edu>

Dear Meric

I'd like to support Eric's view. As I remember it, the reason for keeping
back the sum of money, and for convening the modelling group, is to do
something to rectify the following problem: the programme at the moment
lacks any initiative that could help to unify the disparate elements, and
get at the "core" of the rapid climate change problem. At the moment, it's
not so much a programme, more some interesting research projects that have
some loose relevance to one another. This is important to rectify and I
don't think that we should wait until the next funding round to get
something underway.

Do we want the subgroup to actually commission the work? I would say yes,
subject to approval by the rest of the committee of course, but first we
should make sure that we are not missing out people who may be able to
contribute. I would recommend expanding this group to include members from
U. Liverpool, possibly Proudman, UEA (but not me!) and any other centre
(Imperial?) that is doing significant modelling work. Then we ask them to
design the core modelling programme of RAPID, within the budgetary limit of
0.5m. It's important to have this done, either by representatives of all
those groups who might materially contribute, or else by people who are
entirely disinterested -- but short of getting them all from outside the UK,
that is impossible to do.

Cheers,

Andy
***********************************
Prof Andrew J. Watson
email: a.watson@uea.ac.uk
or : a.j.watson@uea.ac.uk
phone: (44) 1603 593761 direct
1603 456161 switchboard
1603 507719 fax
School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia
NORWICH NR4 7TJ
U.K.
http://www.uea.ac.uk/~ajw/ajw.htm
***********************************

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric W Wolff" <ewwo@bas.ac.uk>
To: <plemke@awi-bremerhaven.de>; <ewwo@bas.ac.uk>;
<r.r.dickson@cefas.co.uk>; <maria.noguer@defra.gsi.gov.uk>;
<mccave@esc.cam.ac.uk>; <haugan@gfi.uib.no>; <studhope@glg.ed.ac.uk>;
<B.Turrell@marlab.ac.uk>; <rwood@meto.gov.uk>; <sfbtett@meto.gov.uk>;
<j.m.slingo@reading.ac.uk>; <p.j.valdes@reading.ac.uk>;
<j.lowe@rhbnc.ac.uk>; <jym@soc.soton.ac.uk>; <mas@soc.soton.ac.uk>;
<pc@soc.soton.ac.uk>; <a.j.watson@uea.ac.uk>; <k.briffa@uea.ac.uk>;
<m.hulme@uea.ac.uk>; <lkeigwin@whoi.edu>
Cc: <cvy@nerc.ac.uk>; <ppn@nerc.ac.uk>; <cg1@soc.soton.ac.uk>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:17 PM
Subject: Re: RAPID modelling subgroup


Dear Meric,

Thank you for the message.  i am very happy that progress is being made on
this, and that some people have agreed to serve on it.  However, my
impression was that the 0.5 M was for something a bit more than that.  I
suspect that none (or few) of the people on the group were in the room when
we decided about this, so it may be necessary for others to refresh their
memories about it.  The two tasks you have listed require a sub-group but
not a lot of money.

I think the reason for setting aside such a large sum of money was that we
perceived that our funding decisions had left some fundamental gaps - some
areas that we felt should be being modelled but where we had rejected
allcomers, and that we expected that the modeling group would recommend to
us how we could commission research to fill those gaps, without waiting for
the second call.  I don't any more have enough of the rejected proposals
that I can remember exactly which area we were concerned about, but I think
it was in the rather general area of modelling scenarios for THC
shutdown/changes, and the climatic impacts of such changes. (Effectively
objectives 5 and especially 6, an area that you yourself identified as
weak).

I think we need:
1) Other SC members to say if I am right, and to refine the area to be
filled;
2) To tell the subgroup whether we want them to commission the work, or
(more correctly) recommend to us how the work should be commissioned

Best wishes
Eric


----------------------------
Eric Wolff
British Antarctic Survey
High Cross
Madingley Road
Cambridge CB3 0ET
United Kingdom

E-mail: ewwo@bas.ac.uk
Phone: +44 1223 221491
Fax: +44 1223 221279
Alternate fax: +44 1223 362616

>>> Meric Srokosz <mas@soc.soton.ac.uk> 23/01/03 12:21:49 >>>
Dear Steering Committee

One of the decisions made at the last SC meeting was to put aside
0.5M for modelling activities, but there was no time to firm up what
this money is to be used for. This e-mail is to try to do that "firming
up" (apologies for not getting to this sooner, as a number of you
have asked me what is happening).

The state of play is as follows:
a) I have approached Julia, Jochem, Paul and Richard to be members of the
subgroup and they have agreed.
b) from the discussion at the meeting, I think that the task of the subgroup
is two-fold:
1) to ensure that a suitable hierarchy of models is available for
use within RAPID (this particularly related to objective 5 of the
science plan)
2) to ensure that the various modelling activities in RAPID are
integrated.
c) with regard to data / model synthesis (objective 4), the data subgroup
recommended (and the SC agreed the recommendation at the last meeting)
that this should be one focus of the 2nd AO. Therefore, it seems that the
modelling subgroup should not have a strong emphasis on this at this stage.

I guess that the SC needs to approve the subgroup membership and agree
that the proposed tasks (b above) are the correct ones for the group to
pursue on behalf of the SC and RAPID.

It would be helpful to have your response / views by  Thursday 6th Feb
(2 weeks today), so that I can press on with arranging a subgroup meeting
soon and get this aspect of RAPID underway.

Regards, Meric
--


Dr. Meric Srokosz, Room 254/43,Southampton Oceanography Centre (SOC)
Empress Dock, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK
Tel:+44-(0)23-80596414 (direct line); Fax: +44-(0)23-80596400
e-mail: mas@soc.soton.ac.uk or M.Srokosz@soc.soton.ac.uk
http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/JRD/SAT/pers/mas.html

Science Coordinator NERC Rapid Climate Change Programme
http://rapid.nerc.ac.uk/


