About us
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Regional Climate Centres (RCCs) are centres of excellence dedicated to providing regional climate products and services. Their mission is to enhance the capacity of WMO Members in each region, enabling them to deliver high quality climate services to national users.
RCCs produce mandatory regional products, including climate data sets, climate monitoring tools and seasonal prediction, which serve as critical regional inputs for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) climate operations. Additionally, RCCs undertake various recommended functions to address the needs of their respective regional domains.
RCCs constitute the middle tier in a three-tiered Climate Services Information System (CSIS), which is part of the WMO operational infrastructure. This system supports NMHSs in generating and delivering up-to-date climate products and services through a global-regional-national cascading process. RCCs and NMHSs receive support from WMO-designated Global Producing Centres for Seasonal Prediction (GPCs-SP), which provide a wide variety of global seasonal prediction products, ranging from monthly to seasonal timescales. RCCs are being implemented across all WMO regional associations.
RCCs and GPCs-SP are integral components of the WMO Integrated Processing and Prediction System (WIPPS), with functions and designation criteria defined in the Manual on WIPPS (WMO No. 485). By supporting NMHSs, RCCs and GPCs-SP are key operational entities within the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) and the CSIS. The GPC concept has been extended to include annual to decadal climate prediction (ADCP) and Sub-Seasonal Forecasts (SSF), which enhance the recommended functions of RCCs.
Structure and membership
The Pacific RCC-Network is a virtual centre with products and services covering the Pacific Islands region from Palau north to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, south to the southern hemisphere Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands and east to the Pitcairn Islands. The network consists of four nodes. Each node is led or co-led by a lead institution(s) together with a consortium of support members. Members include Earth Sciences New Zealand (ESNZ), Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), APCC Climate Center (APCC), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Meteo-France, University of Hawaii, and Pacific Community (SPC).
| Node Title | Lead Agency/Co-Lead | Consortium Members |
|---|---|---|
| Node on Seasonal Prediction | ESNZ & BoM | Meteo-France, NOAA, University of Hawaii, APCC, SPREP & SPC |
| Node on Climate Monitoring | NOAA & University of Hawaii | BoM, SPC, SPREP & ESNZ |
| Node on Climate Change | CSIRO | ESNZ, USGS, BoM & SPREP |
| Node on Operational Data Services | BoM | NOAA, University of Hawaii, SPC & ESNZ |
The Pacific RCC-Network has been endorsed by WMO and the Pacific Meteorological Council and is currently in a demonstration phase. Additional details on the Pacific RCC-Network can be found in the Implementation Plan.
Products and services
The Pacific RCC-Network performs the following minimum set of mandatory functions covering the domains of seasonal prediction (SP), climate monitoring, data services and training:
Interpret and assess SP products from WMO Global Producing Centres (GPCs), including the exchange of basic forecasts and hindcast data
- Generate regional tailored products, including seasonal outlooks
- Provide online access to RCC products
- Perform regional climate diagnostics
- Develop regional climate datasets
- Establish a regional historical reference climatology
- Provide climate archiving services
- Implement a regional Climate Watch
- Coordinate training for RCC users
- Provide information on RCC products and guidance on their use
In addition, the Pacific RCC-Network performs 'recommended functions' in the areas of climate predictions and projections, data services, research and development, coordination, training, and capacity-building.
It is mandated to deliver high-quality regional-scale products, by using data and products from GPCs and other global centres and incorporating regional-scale information. An additional main source of information is the national data, products, know-how and feedback received from Pacific NMHSs.
The Pacific RCC-Network provides online access to its products to NMHSs and other regional users. At the same time, the Pacific RCC-Network provides regional data, products and feedback to GPCs and associated lead centres for respective verification and product optimization of the global-scale information.
Who are the users of the Pacific RCC-Network?
The Pacific RCC-Network serves primarily the NMHSs in the region. In addition, WMO RCCs and NMHSs from neighbouring regions may be among the users. WMO RCC products and services are regional in nature and provide support to NMHSs to extend or improve their user-oriented services. Regional and international organisations might also be served by WMO RCCs.
Please contact the respective Pacific Island NMHS for country-specific climate information and guidance.
Coordination
Dr Simon McGree from the (Australian) Bureau of Meteorology is the current Pacific RCC-Network management committee chair and also the chair of the Pacific Islands Climate Services (PICS) Panel. Dr Nicolas Fauchereau from Earth Science New Zealand is the vice-chair. The committee is supported by SPREP and the Pacific Meteorological Desk Partnership (PMDP) based in Apia. The role of the chair is reviewed after 2 years and can be rotated among the Node lead institutions.