Jose Santos, Executive Director of the International CLIVAR Project Office, attended online the 4th Open Science Symposium on Western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate which took place in Xiamen, China on the 24-27 of October, and provided some remarks on behalf of CLIVAR during the opening session.

The symposium provided a forum for the ocean community to exchange recent progress in the study of western Pacific Ocean (WPO) circulation and climate, marine biogeochemistry, and ecosystem, including their inter-connection and the connection with other oceans, to address environmental challenges and promote multi- and cross-disciplinary collaborations with a view towards the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Close to 200 scientists from around the world participated online, and around 50 onsite in Xiamen.

Dr. Santos highlighted that the “Northwestern Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment (NPOCE)” is an international joint program which was endorsed by CLIVAR in 2010, and that the objectives of NPOCE are closely aligned with CLIVAR’s focus on the role of ocean in climate, extreme weather, integrated observing systems, capacity building, and international collaboration. He also invited NPOCE to participate in the 2023 WCRP Open Science Conference with the title: “Advancing Climate Science for a Sustainable Future”, which will be held in Kigali Rwanda during 23-27 October, 2023.

Several other current/past members of the CLIVAR community made presentations on their research during the NPOCE meeting, including: Dake Chen, Wenju Cai, Sabrina Speich, Shayne McGregor, Antonietta Capotondi, Shoshiro Minobe, Xiaopei Lin, Dongxiao Wang, Chunzai Wang, Arnold Gordon, Agus Santoso, Dongliang Yuan, Ming Feng, Shang-Ping Xie, and Billy Kessler among others.