Binational Workshop on Monsoon Region Climate Applications
May 4, 2006
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratories, Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) researchers Andrea Ray and Henry Diaz are organizers of the upcoming binational workshop on Monsoon Region Climate Applications, to be held May 8-11, 2006 in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. The workshop will build on the progress of several NOAA-funded efforts in the monsoon region of northwestern Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border as a distinct cultural and socio-economic area, and monsoon-influenced areas in the western United States.
Background:
One impetus for this workshop is the emerging results of the NOAA-funded North American Monsoon Experiment (NAME), an internationally coordinated, joint CLIVAR-GEWEX process study. NAME is aimed at determining the sources and limits of predictability of warm season precipitation over North America, with emphasis on seasonal-to-interannual time scales. The workshop will help NAME to engage potential users of monsoon science across the region and to set developmental milestones for monsoon and drought products. However, this workshop will focus not only on applications of monsoon information, but also on climate knowledge in the region to reflect the reality that potential users' needs relate to a broader set of climate and contextual issues.
Significance:
This workshop is intended to forge links between the monsoon and climate science efforts in the region affected by the monsoon and social-science and applications efforts seeking to understand needs for climate forecasts and information. It will integrate climate science in the region with applications efforts in ecosystems and sustainability, water management, and drought planning. Two of the topics for discussion are a regional climate center for northwest Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border region and a regularly-issued climate outlook for the same region that would be similar to the climate outlook issued by the Southwest RISA (CLIMAS). The sessions are designed to provide information on what is needed to make these and other efforts useful to applications in the region. Participants in the workshop include U.S. and Mexican climate scientists; social scientists and applications experts who study user sensitivities and needs; and representatives from organizations who have ongoing interactions with users including water and natural resource agencies in both the U.S. and Mexico. PSL's research and participation in this workshop supports NOAA's mission goals of increasing the number and use of climate products and services to enhance public and private sector decision making, improving the ability of society to plan and respond to climate variability and climate change using NOAA climate products and information, and NOAA's cross-cutting priority of international collaboration and cooperation.
Contact: Andrea Ray