User:Ddwit~enwiki/TOSCA (network)

TOSCA stands for "Towards a more complete assessment of the impact of solar variability on the Earth's climate" and is a European COST action (officially Action ES1005) for scientists working together on the influence of the Sun on the Earth’s climate. Based on present understanding, solar variability has a role in the observed climate change. This is a topic of considerable scientific and societal importance. However, the mechanisms that link solar activity and climate change are not yet fully understood. TOSCA’s aim is to shed more light on the mechanisms involved.

Only an international network of scientists from multiple disciplines can address such complex and hotly debated issue. TOSCA precisely aims at assessing the contributions of solar variability to the Earth’s climate by bringing together solar physicists, space scientists, atmospheric scientists, climate modellers, paleoclimatologists, and more. The network will run from June 2011 until May 2015; it offers expertise in solar radiative forcing, interplanetary perturbations sur as coronal mass ejections, impact of energetic particles and the interfacing between upper and lower atmospheric layers and the corresponding models.

TOSCA is funded by COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology), which is an intergovernmental framework allowing the coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. 17 countries are presently participating in the action: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom.