Regional workshops, that are modelled after the
Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN)
Indices and Indicators Workshops, are important activities of the ETCCDI
and its predecessors. The general goals
of the workshops include:
Derive indices from daily data, especially measures of changes in extremes
Fill in blank data areas in "global" analysis of climate indices
Increase confidence in local analyses by placing these analyses in a larger, regional
context that includes results from neighbouring stations and countries.
Increase regional research synergies by sharing insights and improve analyses between
neighbouring countries
Foster greater appreciation for data and data archeology
Specific goals for each workshop include producing a peer-reviewed
journal article on analysis of climate change for the giving region, and
making available the data and indices in the analysis.
Tom Peterson provided
detailed account of past workshops which
are making a clear contribution to our understanding of how climate extremes
are changing around the world. In addition to the indepth peer-reviewed
regional papers (e.g.
Aguilar et al 2005,
Easterling et al 2003,
Haylock et al 2006,
Klein Tank et al 2006,
New et al 2006,
Peterson et al 2002,
Vincent et al 2005,
Zhang et al 2005),
the indices analyzed at the workshops have contributed to
a
global paper and are contributing significantly to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
