During the coffee break: Jostein Bakke, Tore Furevik and Beatriz Balino. Photo: Gudrun Sylte
Exactly a year earlier, on June 9, 2010, The Royal
Norwegian Minister of Education and Research, Tora Aasland, announced the
government’s decision to build a new centre based on the grounds of BCCR.
The new centre, the SKD, will have a 12 years funding horizon, with a midterm evaluation. The SKD has promised to do research on six areas:
* Natural and anthropogenic climate change
* Process understanding and uncertainties
* Regionalizing and extremes
* Climate sensitivity and thresholds
* Past and future changes in sea level
* Carbon cycle and the marine ecosystem
UiB, UNI, IMR, NERSC
The four partners of the CoE will continue in the SKD, and the board has five members, one member from each of the partners and an external chairperson. The board members are:
* Anton Eliassen (met.no, chairman)
* Dag Rune Olsen (deputy: Gunn Mangerud), UiB
* Solfrid Sætre Hjøllo (deputy: Einar Svendsen), IMR
* Ola M Johannessen (deputy: Mette Krohn-Hanssen), NERSC
* Hege Randi Eriksen (deputy: Eystein Jansen), UNI
Now that the board has approved the budget for the next two years, the centre and its acting director Tore Furevik has a green light to start up all the seven proposed activities immediately. The official opening of the SKD will be in November 2011.
The seven research activities are:
IPCC - IPCC AR5 Task Force. CO: A. Sorteberg (UiB)
IMMUNITY - Integrated Model-data approach for understanding multi-decadal
natural climate variability. CO: O.-H.Otterå (UNI)
PRACTICE - Predictability of Arctic / North Atlantic Climate. CO: Tor Eldevik, (UiB)
REGSCEN - Regionalisation of Climate Scenarions. CO: B. Ådlandsvik (IMR)
DYNEWARM - Dynamics of past warm climate. CO. B. Risebrobakken & C. Li (UNI)
SEALEV - Ice Sheet Dynamics and Sea Level Change. CO: S. Sandven (NERSC)
BIOFEEDBACK - Biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system - from processes to large scale effects. CO: C.Heinze (UiB)
With the seven projects running, Furevik assumes the SKD will be in a good position for the midterm evaluation.
Scientific Advisors
Six researchers worldwide will participate as the Scientific Advisory Council to the SKD:
* Anny Cazenave, Centre National d´Etudes Spatiales, France (Earth science, sea level variations)
* Detlef Stammer, University of Hamburg, Germany (Physical oceanography and remote sensing)
* David Thompson, Colorado State University, USA (Atmospheric dynamics and climate variability)
* Andrew Watson, University of East Anglia, UK (Biogeochemistry)
* Michael Schulz, University of Bremen, Germany (Paleo-oceanography)
* Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, Danish Climate Centre, Denmark (Regional climate, downscaling)
Core group
The Centre will have a core group of six persons: A director on four years contract, four research leaders in permanent positions and an administrative manager. There will be an international announcement for the positions of the four research leaders, which will be on the same level as associate professors without teaching or supervising obligations. The four research leaders will represent four subjects:
* Atmospheric dynamics, theory, mechanisms for heat transports, teleconnections, numerical modeling
* Ocean dynamics / decadal variability, strong GFD, modern observations/assimilation techniques, atm-ocean coupling, decadal predictability
* Sensitivity and thresholds: GFD, paleo, modeling, glacial / interglacial, Holocene, sensitivity
* Biogeochemistry, role of ocean in global carbon cycle, PH changes, ecosystem effects
According to Tore Furevik, the announcements for the positions will be made public as soon as possible. The core group will be co-located in the GFI’s East Wing on the ground floor.