BOULDER—Leading research centers in the United States and United Kingdom are embarking on a new set of collaborations involving weather and climate research and the technologies that underpin them. The agreement will enable the two countries to increase their jointly conducted research to tackle the major challenge of climate change.

The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) is between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the U.K. Met Office. A signing ceremony was held on July 1 at NCAR’s headquarters in Boulder. The ceremony included representatives from NCAR, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the Met Office, and the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

"The research challenges that lie ahead are global and require international collaborations," says NCAR director Roger Wakiomoto. "NCAR is pleased to be working with the Met Office, since our visions are similar and there is great potential for synergistic results."

"Building strong relations with partners across the world is essential in tackling the next level of questions on how our weather and climate systems work and what the future has in store," says Julia Slingo, Met Office chief scientist. "Bringing together expert scientists from the Met Office and NCAR will allow us to deliver groundbreaking scientific outcomes in an increasingly efficient manner."

The goals of the partnership are to coordinate ongoing research and develop and implement future joint projects in new areas of science. Focus areas include:

• Fundamental atmospheric processes, particularly related to the planetary boundary layer.
• Upper ocean processes and short-term upper ocean-atmosphere interactions in weather and climate prediction.
• Next generation modeling for massively parallel computing architectures.
• Predictability of the climate system on seasonal to decadal timescales.
• Real-time attribution of hazardous weather and climate extremes to human influences.

Gathered at NCAR's Mesa Laboratory for the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement with the U.K. Met Office are (all NCAR, except as noted), top row: William Skamarock, Maura Hagan, Peter Backlund, May Akrawi (Office of the British Consulate-General, Houston), Rachel Hauser; seated: Richard Anthes (UCAR), Julia Slingo (U.K. Met Office), Roger Wakimoto. (©UCAR, Photo by Carlye Calvin) News media terms of use*

NCAR is managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. The center conducts wide-ranging research in chemistry, climate, weather, and solar-terrestrial interactions. It provides UCAR's 75 member institutions and other affiliates with state-of-the-art instrumentation, aircraft, and computer technology to advance the study of Earth's atmosphere. NCAR also supports computer models, developed jointly by scientists at the center and other organizations, that enable researchers worldwide to simulate climate and weather processes in order to better understand the atmosphere.

As the United Kingdom’s national weather service, the Met Office provides weather forecasts and climate change advice to the public, businesses, and the military; maintains a suite of models for weather prediction and climate projection; and conducts a wide range of atmospheric research.

The partnership was facilitated by the U.K. FCO’s Science & Innovation (S&I) Network in Houston, working closely with the Denver Consulate-General. The S&I team is organizing a program of workshops and exchange visits during 2010, in partnership with NCAR and the Met Office, on a range of climate and weather topics.

The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) operates NCAR under primary sponsorship by the National Science Foundation. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this release do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.