The APEC Climate Center (APCC) held “the Pacific Initiative for Climate Application & Prediction Services (PICAPS) Sub-Regional Training Workshop“ in Tarawa, Kiribati from June 5th to 8th , 2018. 18 trainees from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme [SPREP] and 6 Pacific Island countries participated in this training workshop.

Small island developing states in the tropical pacific are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate variability, extremes, and change. Seasonal climate prediction services play a critical role in utilizing advanced climate prediction to understand the causes, impacts, and necessary provisions to prepare for anticipated extreme climate events.

In this context, the Republic of Korea-Pacific Islands Climate Prediction Services project (ROK-PI CliPS) launched PICASO v1.0 during its final training workshop.

PICASO v1.2 ( http://clikp.sprep.org)

The ROK-Pi CliPS was a project that sought to provide nationally-tailored seasonal climate prediction information and build the prediction capacity of the Pacific Islands region. APCC conducted this project between 2014 and 2017. The project is supported with funding from the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

APCC thereupon conducted the project entitled “the Pacific Initiative for Climate Application & Prediction Services (PICAPS)”. PICAPS aims to build seasonal prediction capacity in the Pacific region through a tailored climate prediction system (PICASO) and a sub-regional training workshop.

Upon the successful implementation of PICASO, there were requests to increase the number of stations, add Nauru, and add a regional function to the system. Therefore, PICAPS served to address those needs and launched PICASO v1.2 at the Sub-Regional Training Workshop and provide opportunities to the Pacific Island Countries to share the state-of-the-art seasonal prediction system.

PICAPS aims to build seasonal prediction capacity in the Pacific region through a tailored climate prediction system (PICASO) and a sub-regional training workshop.

The PICAPS Sub-Regional Training Workshop was also held to increase the usage of APCCs climate services including PICASO in generating forecasts in the Pacific region.

* 6 pacific islands : Marshall Islands (1), Nauru (2), Tuvalu (2), Palau (1), Federated States of Micronesia (2), Kiribati (8),SPREP (2)