Jose Santos and Jing Li from ICPO, were invited to participate in the TPOS2020 Western Pacific Workshop, which took place from Sep 4 to 6, 2017 in Qingdao China. Jose Santos provided a brief presentation highlighting many links between the TPOS 2020 community and CLIVAR. The Pacific Regional Panel of CLIVAR provides a coordination mechanism for Pacific research that complements the Western Pacific and Eastern Pacific Task Teams. While, the parallel efforts in other CLIVAR basin panels (Atlantic Region Panel and Indian Ocean Region Panel) on tropical ocean observation could also benefit to TPOS 2020 in general. The workshop and TPOS 2020 more generally appreciate the many links and TPOS will continue to coordinate/communicate with CLIVAR as it progresses. Moreover, the TPOS 2020 Distributed Project Office in Qingdao is co-located with the ICPO, which will facilitate the close coordination between the two programmes.

During the discussions in the workshop, special highlights were mentioned on the areas where modeling could improve understanding, improve design, and enhance the impact of observations (improved models), which includes: 1) to build modeling as an integral part of the “pilot” implementation in the Western Pacific, 2) to model sensitivity studies for surface variables (e.g. satellite); and 3) to include modeling as an integral part of the Low Latitude Western (Pacific) Boundary Current (LLWBC) Pilot project. Those areas could be potentially explored for cooperation between TPOS 2020 and CLIVAR.

Moreover, the workshop confirmed the support of TPOS 2020 for the process studies (e.g. Eastern and Northern Edge of Pacific Warm Pool) and discussed several opportunities for additional supportive/complementary studies, including modelling. The workshop also proposed that the TPOS 2020 Steering Committee continue to provide guidance and a broadly-based experimental framework to support and coordinate process studies. It is important to maintain links with R&D coordination, e.g. through CLIVAR.