I. Introduction

The Regional climate Center for the southern South American region (RCC-SSA) is a virtual organization, constituted in network form, according to defined principles by WMO. It is in an operational phase and offers climate services in support of the National Meteorological and Hydrometeorological Services (NMHS) and other users from the countries located in the southern South American region.

II. Objectives

1. To provide the NMHS of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay -- and possibly Bolivia and Chile, as well – with climate information that may enhance their current possibilities of monitoring, analysis, forecasts and generation of application products for their own areas.

2. To provide final users, from the region or outside, with information and products covering uniformly the entire Southern South American Region in the areas of climate monitoring and prediction and possibly, in the future, with application products intended to support decision making in areas such agriculture, hydrology, energy and public health.

3. To organize training and capacity building activities directed to::
   a) The NMHS personnel, in order to strengthen and update their knowledge, particularly on aspects concerning the specificities of the climate in the region and on techniques and methods that may contribute to enhance the services provided by the RCC or the NHHS;
    b) The user community, in order to enhance their capacity to be able to take full advantage of the information provided by the RCC-SSA.

4. To facilitate and support development and applied research activities that may result in new or improved products to be offered by the RCC-SSA to its public.

III. Members

	Responsible Countries
Argentina		Brasil
Servicio Meteorológico Nacional		Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia
	Partner Countries
Paraguay		Uruguay
Dirección de Meteorología e Hidrología		Dirección Nacional de Meteorología
Bolívia		Chile
Servicio Nacional de Meteorología e Hidrología		Dirección Meteorológica de Chile
	Collaborating Institutions
Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos - UBA	Centro Nacional Patagónico - CONICET/CENPAT	Centro de Previsão do Tempo e Estudos Climáticos - CPTEC
Centro de Investigación del Mar y la Atmósfera - CONICET/CIMA	Sistema Meteorológico do Paraná - SIMEPAR	Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria - INTA
Facultad de Agronomía (UBA)	Instituto Nacional del Agua - INA	Autoridad Interjurisdiccional de Cuencas de ríos Limay, Neuquén, y Negro (AIC)

IV. Permanent working groups

• PWG-1: on “Products development and production”
• PWG-2: on “WEB design and maintenance”
• PWG-3: on “Data management”
• PWG-4: on “TI infrastructure”
• PWG-5: on “Training and capacity building”
• PWG-6: on “Associated research activities”
• PGW-7 on “Communication with the User Community”

V. Reference documents

• Basic principles for the organization and operationalization of the regional climate center for the southern south American region (RCC-SSA))
• Permanent working group members
• How to Establish and Run a WMO Regional Climate Centre (RCC)