cc: <cvy@nerc.ac.uk>, <ppn@nerc.ac.uk>, <cg1@soc.soton.ac.uk>
date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 14:17:00 +0000
from: "Eric W Wolff" <ewwo@bas.ac.uk>
subject: Re: RAPID modelling subgroup
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>

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/

