Palaeoclimatology is presently experiencing a period of rapid growth of techniques and concepts. Studies of earth's past climates ryrovide excellent opportunities to examine the interactions between the atmosrhere, oceans, cryosphere and the land surfaces. Thus, there is a growing recognition of the need of close collaboration between palaeoclimatologists and the climate mode 11 ers. The workshop "Palaeoclimatic Research and Models (PRaM)" was organized by the Directorate General for Science, Research and Development within the framework of the Climatology Research Programme of the Commission of the European Communities (CEC). The aim of the workshop was to give to the members of the Contact Group "Climate Models" and "Reconstitution of Past Climates" of the CEC Climatology Research Program~e and to some invited scientists the opportunity to discuss problems of mutual interest. About 35 experts fr.om 10 countries took nart in the workshop. In general, palaeoclimatologists were asked to identify and discuss the data corresponding to the three topics as defined by the programme committee: 1) Abrupt Climate Changes 2) Initiation of Glaciation 3) Glaciated polar regions and their impact on global climate. Climate modellers were asked to give their views as to how these specific problems could be modelled, what use could be ~ade of the available palaeoclimatic data and which complementary data are needed for modelling.

Workshop Report:.- Session A: Abrupt Climate Changes.- Session B: Initiation of Glaciation.- Session C: Glaciated Polar Regions and their Impact on Global Climate.- Aopendix to Session Reports.- Workshop Proceedings Reviews.- Actual palaeoclimatic problems from a climatologist's viewpoint.- The physical basis of climate modelling.- Application of inverse modelling techniques to palaeoclimatic data.- Accuracy of palaeoinsolation and stability in the frequency domain.- Session A: Abrupt Climate Changes.- Ice core indications of abrupt climatic changes.- Abrupt climate changes: The terrestrial record.- Evolution climatique de la méditerranée orientale au cours des derniere deglaciation.- Late-glacial climate history from ice cores.- Pollenanalyses and characters of climatic changes at the end of the Eemian an at the beginning of the late Wurm in Western Europe.- Les crises climatiques de courte durée (quelques années a quelques siècles) et leur enregistrement dans la sedimentation continentale.- Do 15N variations in peat bogs allow statements of climatic changes in the past.- Climatic indexes on the basis of sedimentation parameters in geological and archaeological section.- Rather long duration of the transient climatic events in the Grande Pile.- Session B: Initiation of Glaciation.- The ocean surface during the last interglacial to glacial transition: A review of the available data.- Abrupt climatic events during the last glacial to interglacial transition.- Ice-sheet modelling for climate studies.- A G.C.M. simulation of the importance of insolation forcing for the initiation of Laurentide ice-sheet.- Planetary wave climatology experiments.- The evolution of Pleistocene climatic variability.- Session C: Glaciated polar regions and their impact on globalclimate.- History of the North Polar seas during the past 5 million years.- Sensitivity of General Circulation Models to changes in sea-ice cover.- Numerical modelling of Arctic sea ice: Review and preliminary results.- List of Participants.- Appendix: Workshop Committee.