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The JWCRP has established a jointly-owned supercomputer, MONSooN (Met Office and NERC Supercomputing Node), to enable the  Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Met Office scientists to share data and develop models on the same platform. Work is underway to broaden the scope of the programme to encompass all areas of strategic joint interest. Examples of these activities are the jointly owned research aircraft the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) and the  Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES).

The JWCRP is an accredited programme of Living with Environmental Change (LWEC).

Key Aims

• To ensure that the UK has access to internationally competitive tools and infrastructure for maintaining its world-leading national capability in observing, understanding, modelling and predicting weather and climate, and their impacts;
• To enable closer collaboration between NERC and the Met Office by working to eliminate existing barriers, to align more closely their respective research activities, and to ensure effective participation in relevant new research programmes from both organisations;
• To propose new activities to address critical gaps in the existing national portfolio of weather and climate research and to be actively involved in promoting and developing those activities;
• To develop mechanisms to promote the more effective pull through of research and development into improved weather and climate forecasts.

Current Activities

• Development of the  United Kingdom Chemistry Aerosol (UKCA) model;
• Creation of long term datasets of satellite based infrared radiances;
• Building a high-resolution global coupled model to improve seasonal to decadal variability and predictability;
• Improved understanding of the simulation of monsoons;
• Provision of a predictive capability for rapid changes in ice sheets and their contribution to sea level change.