At the kind invitation of the government of Poland, the Third JCOMM Workshop on Advances in Marine Climatology (CLIMAR-III) was held 6-9 May 2008, at the University of Gdańsk, Institute of Oceanography in Gdynia, Poland. This workshop built on outcomes both from two previous CLIMAR workshops in 1999 (Vancouver, Canada) and 2003 (Brussels, Belgium); and from two workshops in the alternating and closely related Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data (MARCDAT) series, 2002 (Boulder, USA) and in 2005 (Exeter, UK).

CLIMAR-III, like all the earlier workshops, brought together the community of scientists who strive to produce climate-quality datasets of surface meteorology, air-sea interaction, and increasingly scientists developing datasets of the subsurface ocean: 69 participants from 19 countries (representing all but one WMO Regional Association) involved in the fields of applications of marine climatology, climatological data archival and retrieval, and climate research including modeling.

In addition to wide-ranging presentations and discussions of the latest scientific and technical developments, the CLIMAR workshops have formed the mechanism for updating Advances in the Applications of Marine Climatology (WMO/TD–No. 1081/JCOMM TR No. 13, 2003 and 2005). This widely cited JCOMM publication, which is a dynamic extension of the Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology (WMO–No. 781, 1994), allows a rapid and wide dissemination of the latest information and techniques relevant to marine climatology.

CLIMAR-III was organized jointly by JCOMM, and by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), Poland, and sponsored by the WMO and IOC, the IMGW, the University of Gdańsk, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK). The International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS) project, and the City Hall of Gdynia also provided some support. The organizing committee of CLIMAR-III was composed of Mr Scott Woodruff (Chairperson, USA), Mr Etienne Charpentier (WMO Secretariat), Dr D.E. Harrison (USA), Mr Robert Keeley (Canada), Dr Elizabeth Kent (UK), Dr Miroslaw Mietus (Poland), Dr Nick Rayner (UK), Mr Martin Rutherford (Australia), and Mr Val Swail (Canada).

This JCOMM Technical Report, the proceedings of CLIMAR-III, contains abstracts submitted and available (oral and poster) electronic presentations given at the workshop, a summary from four focused Plenary Discussion sessions, as well as an overall workshop report submitted to the WMO Bulletin. Apart from these proceedings, a special issue of the International Journal of Climatology (Royal Meteorological Society, UK) containing a selection of peer-reviewed papers from CLIMAR-III will be published. This special issue, representing the latest update of Advances in the Applications of Marine Climatology, will become freely available on the WMO website two years after publication to a wider readership. Alternatively, participants were alerted to opportunities available for publication by any interested authors in a new Polish scientific journal, Air & Water.