Mediterranean Climate

Mohamed Larbi Selassi Deputy Director of the National Meteorology, Morocco Welcome address (translated from French) WMO, WCRP, Medias-France and scientific institutions representatives, ladies and gentlemen, to thank WMO and MEDIAS-France, who have honoured us by I want first organizing the two workshops, climate indices in Africa and data assessment for global change research in the Mediterranean region, in Casablanca and I welcome all of you here in Morocco. It is with great pleasure that I open these two workshops on behalf of myself and on behalf of the Direction of the Meteorologie N ationale of Morocco. Climate change is becoming the focus of the international community because of its global scale and unpredictable effects, the numerous impacts it causes, its global feature and the complexity of the solutions that can mitigate its impacts. Global warming and the greenhouse effect became a subject of study at the international level since the United Nations Conference on the human environment that was held in Stockholm in 1972. The research and coordination efforts that have been made in this area have led to an "International Scientific consensus". High level meetings like those held in Toronto in 1988, in Lahaye in 1989 and in Geneva in 1990, did confirm the greenhouse threat and the emergency to treat it.

For the first time results inferred by a number of experts from empirical data with various methods face each other and are collated to a large overview of the climate variability in the Mediterranean area at time scales from years to milleniums

Contenu
1 Introduction.- 2 Climate, Climate Variability, and Impacts in the Mediterranean Area: An Overview.- 3 Challenges for Climate Data Analysis.- Indicators and Information Requirements for Combatting Desertification.- Climate Changes in the Mediterranean Region: Physical Aspects and Effects on Agriculture.- 4 Large Scale Aspects.- Development of Priority Climate Indices for Africa: A Ccl/CLIVAR Workshop of the World Meteorological Organization.- Analysis of Mediterranean Climate Data: Measured and Modelled.- 500-year Winter Temperature and Precipitation Variability over the Mediterranean Area and its Connection to the Large-scale Atmospheric Circulation.- Long Term Variability of Sea Level and Atmospheric Pressure in the Mediterranean Region.- Annual and Seasonal Century Scale Trends of the Precipitation in the Mediterranean Area During the Twentieth Century.- 12 Years Mediterranean Satellite Data Set and Analysis Dirk.- 5 Regional Aspects.- Spatial and Temporal Variations in Precipitation and Aridity Index Series of Turkey.- Circulation Types and Their Influence on the Interannual Variability and Precipitation Changes in Greece.- Investigations on Global Climate Change in Bulgaria.- Precipitation Scenarios in the Central-western Mediterranean Basin.- Temperature and Precipitation Variability and Trends in Northern Spain in the Context of the Iberian Peninsula Climate.- Thermal Land-surface Variables From METEOSAT-IR Data.- 6 Variability of the Mediterranean Sea.- Recent and Expected Future Changes in the Hydrography, Ecology, and Circulation of the Eastern Mediterranean.- Long Term Data Series on Mediterranean Sea Temperature, Nutrients and Hydrology Changes.- 7 Cooperative Research Into Global Change Themes.- Desert Aerosol in the Mediterranean.- ROSELT/OSSNetwork in the African arid regions.- Desertification Information System to support National Action Programmes in the Mediterranean (DIS/MED).- Research in Global Change in the Mediterranean: A Regional Network.- A Vision From the Rudjer Bokovi? Institute Regarding Cooperation with the Mediterranean Research and Application Network (MERAN).- Data Accessibility Organised by CTM ERS/RAC in the Mediterranean Area.- Towards a Mediterranean GEWEX.