UMD ESSIC Director and Professor Antonio Busalacchi, who also serves as chairman of the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), delivered the initial plenary lecture at the joint China-WCRP symposium Monday in Beijing.
The session, which preceded the 33rd Session of the WCRP Joint Scientific (JSC-33), focused on WCRP’s plans and projects for regional and global climate research. More specifically, the symposium was organized with the aim to explore the synergistic activities between the Chinese science community and the WCRP’s goals and objectives.
According to an article on the WCRP Website, “Better prediction of the climate is of great importance to China because of the numerous impacts of the changing climate on society and thus on economy.”
Busalacchi was joined during the welcoming and overview by academician Guanhua Xu, former minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, academician Zhongli Ding, vice president of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Guoguang Zheng, administrator of China Meteorological Administration and professor Chongyin Li, chair of WCRP-CNC.
The day-long symposium featured core project presentations on topics such as tropospheric temperature response to ozone recovery in the 21st century, seasonal climate prediction in China, progress of ecohydrological modeling studies in China, aerosols in glaciers in China and their climatic and environmental impacts and progress on Chinese Indo-Pacific Ocean observing for climate research.
The symposium closed with Busalacchi leading a panel discussion with core project chairs on major challenges and how well WCRP is positioned to address them.
A wrap-up of the day’s events can be found here and the symposium’s agenda can be found here.
