Dr Friederike Otto presents to Chinese and Brazilian scientists at LOTUS workshop

Climateprediction.net‘s Dr Friederike Otto presented on climate attribution science to Chinese and Brazilian early career researchers today, as part of a week-long workshop for the LOTUS project being hosted by the Oxford e-Research Centre. The project is exploring why the climate in China is changing and what the implications could be for the country’s vulnerability to extremes such as drought.

Early career researchers from environmental research and monitoring institutions in China and Brazil have joined project participants Professor David Wallom and Dr Sarah Sparrow from the Oxford e-Research Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s Professor Simon Tett (LOTUS lead PI) and other researchers from UK institutions for the workshop.

The three-year LOTUS (Long Term Undulations versus secular change in Chinese Climate) project is funded by the Newton Fund through the Climate Science for Services Partnership (CSSP China) led in the UK by the Met Office.

CSSP China is a scientific research programme supported by the BEIS UK-China Research Innovation Partnership Fund that will help build the basis for services to support climate and weather resilient economic development and social welfare.

The three primary outcomes of CSSP China will be:

• A strong strategic partnership between UK and Chinese climate scientists;
• Accelerated and enhanced collaborative science R&D programmes;
• Climate services, developed in partnership, based on the climate science research & development programme.

As well as the presentation from Dr Otto, a series of breakout groups during the workshop will study two extreme events, one in China and one in Brazil, and attribute the occurrence of these to climate change.

The output of the workshop for early career researchers is to bring forward the next group of climate scientists who will have knowledge of this cutting edge area of research and its applications for societally relevant problems.