Climate Research at KNMI

Climate Research

Climate research at KNMI is aimed at observing, understanding and predicting changes in the climate system. It is carried out as part of the international research effort in this field and attempts to answer questions raised by society:

How is our climate changing?
What is causing this?
How will our climate look in the future?

To help answer these questions climate research has the following objectives

To acquire the neccessary observational data (monitoring)
A better understanding of the climate system, the causes of climate variations and the predictability of climate
Better predictions, in particular of natural variations (in as far as predictable) and of anthropogenic variations of the regional (West-European) climate and its extremes

Our KNMI Research Programme 2003 - 2007.

Research is carried out in different departments:

Oceanography (OO): The role of the oceans and the impact of air-sea interaction on the climate system (e.g. El Niño)
Atmospheric Research (AO): Boundary layer processes, clouds and radiative processes (e.g. automatic cloud observing systems using satellites)
Climate Variability Research (VO): Variability and predictability of weather and climate
Atmospheric Composition (AS): Study of chemical composition of the atmosphere and its effects on climate (e.g. ozone)
Climate Analysis (KA): Analysis of climate, climate variability and climatic change.
Climatological Services (KD): Climate data and applied climatological research.

In addition, KNMI hosts the CKO model support group and provides advisory and information services on climate change issues.

Research progress is summarized in Biennial Reports.

For further information please contact
M.C. Laagland
May 17, 2005