Science for Action: Research

A snowy mountainous landscape with the Schneefernerhaus Environmental Research Station and a cable car in the foreground.

All weather, climate and environmental services are powered by scientific research. WMO has three programmes focused on promoting scientific research:

  • The World Weather Research Programme seeks to improve seamless prediction from minutes to months. This includes nowcasting – forecasting the next six hours- as well as one-to-two-week high impact weather forecasts, and predictions on weekly, monthly and longer timescales.  
     
  • The World Climate Research Programme promotes research into fundamental scientific understanding of the physical climate system and climate process on global to regional scales and time horizons ranging from weeks to centuries.   
     
  • The Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) programme provides reliable scientific data and information on aerosols, greenhouse gases, selected reactive gases, ozone, ultraviolet radiation and precipitation chemistry (or atmospheric deposition).  
     

Together, the three programmes have driven research in weather and climate science that has improved weather prediction and climate service and brought science into applications that benefit society. They have also informed policy and long-term decision-making, for example, through publications and reports on greenhouse gases, the ozone and many other areas.