Focus on Climatic and Environmental Change in Northern Eurasia
The latest NEESPI thematic issue of the Environmental Research Letters/Journal, Volume 4, Number 4, October-December 2009, is available for free download here. Currently, there are 27 papers but 10 additional papers are now in the peer review process.

WMO Press Release on Universal Drought Index
With climate change, the frequency and magnitude of droughts are very likely to increase. In the "Lincoln Declaration on Drought Indices," 54 experts from all regions agreed on the use of a universal meteorological drought index for more effective drought monitoring and climate risk management. Experts participating in the Inter-Regional Workshop on Indices and Early Warning Systems for Drought, held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA, from 8 to 11 December 2009, made a significant step through a consensus agreement that the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) should be used to characterize meteorological droughts by all National Meteorological and Hydrological Services around the world. Read more.

COP15 Copenhagen Press Release on Extreme Weather Disasters
Out of the 245 disasters in 2009, 224 were weather related, accounting for 55 million people out of the 58 million people affected, 7000 out of  8900 of those killed, and US$15 billion out of the US$19 billion in economic damages.  “The extreme weather event figures are probably underestimated as drought impacts are not easily detected in disaster statistics” said Professor Debarati Guha Sapir, Director of CRED in a joint  UNISDR, UNDP and WMO press conference today in Copenhagen. Drought is a major hazard and a slow onset disaster in many part of the world with long term consequences on people and their assets.  It undermines livelihoods, kills slowly through malnutrition and disease. In Africa alone, drought accounted for less than 20 percent of disaster occurrences but represented 80 percent of all people affected in the continent between 1970 and 2008 (CRED). Read more.

Post announcement: Executive Director of the IRDR Program
The International Council for Science (ICSU), the International Social Science Council (ISSC), and the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) invite applications for the important post of Executive Director of the new Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) program. Click here for more information.

WMO Press Release 870 -- Geneva, 9 December 2009 (WMO)
In light of climate change, the frequency and severity of droughts are likely to increase. New developments in indices and early warning systems for droughts are key components for mitigating their impacts. More than 60 scientists from all regions are meeting this week in Lincoln, Nebraska (USA) to recommend standard drought indices for various types of droughts and to develop guidelines for countries in implementing and improving drought early warning systems. Click here to read more.

WCRP Implementation Plan 2010-2015 and WCRP Achievements Report Released

The WCRP Implementation Plan 2010-2015 and WCRP Achievements Report are available in electronic form on the WCRP website.

The WCRP Implementation Plan 2010-2015 is located at http://wcrp.wmo.int/documents/WCRP_IP_2010_2015.pdf.
The WCRP Achievements Report is located at http://wcrp.wmo.int/documents/WCRP_AR_2008_2009.pdf.

A Vision for Earth System Research: Have Your Say—
The International Council for Science (ICSU) has launched an online consultation to gather questions that will help direct the future of Earth system research.

ICSU invites the scientific community—natural and social scientists—as well as technology experts, decision-makers, and the general public, to contribute by visiting http://visioning.icsu.org, until 15 August 2009.

The online consultation marks the beginning of the Earth System Visioning Process, which aims to develop an integrated research approach to the Earth system and its coordination. The questions gathered from the consultation will be distilled into a draft research strategy by a group of experts before going back to the science community for comment.

WCRP Climate Extremes Research
WCRP is addressing global climate change and the frequency and intensity of extreme events, and how to forecast extremes in a changing climate as part of climate scenarios for the 21st Century. WCRP research on extreme events includes prolonged drought (GEWEX) and cold periods (CliC) and the intensity of monsoons (MAIRS), the probability of occurrence of short time scale extreme events dependent on mean climate characteristics: tropical cyclones, mid- and high-latitude storms, severe frosts (CliC), air pollution extremes (SPARC) and heavy precipitation. For more information, see http://www.clivar.org/organization/extremes/extremes.php.

The CEOS Land Surface Imaging Constellation Portal for Mid-Resolution Optical LSI Satellite System Information and Enhanced Data Access provides a single web destination for obtaining information about currently and previously operating mid-resolution (10m to 100m) LSI satellite systems and their data, and it provides active links to the data search and order tools for all CEOS agency mid-resolution LSI systems that offer user access to data. The Portal also provides links to a variety of free sample data collected by mid-resolution optical LSI systems operated by CEOS member agencies. Users of mid-resolution, optical LSI satellite data are invited to use, and review, the Portal.

Earth's Global Energy Budget (Trenberth, K. E., J. T. Fasullo, and J. Kiehl, 2009)
An update of the Earth’s global annual mean energy budget is given in the light of
new observations and analyses.

The Centre for Environmental Data Archival (CEDA) Repository
CEDA is based at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and hosts a range of activities associated with environmental data archives. The CEDA repository is for grey literature primarily concerning Earth observation and the atmospheric sciences. The content is publicly available, with no need to register.