Polar regions have experienced the most rapid rates of warming in recent years and its expected impacts will exceed those forecasted for many other regions in the planet resulting in local, regional and globally significant consequences affecting natural ecosystems and human activities.
Improving our observation capacity and enhancing the basic understanding of the different drivers and processes governing those changes and translate that knowledge into actionable solutions for society is a major challenge for the future.
Earth observation from space and Earth system science will represent an essential element in this process. However, addressing the major challenge in Polar research will require a significant collaborative effort and an integrated approach to science where the synergistic use of EO satellite data, in-situ and citizen observations, advanced modelling capabilities, interdisciplinary research and new technologies will be essential elements.
EC and ESA are working together to define a common scientific agenda identifying the set of grand science challenges in Polar research that may drive joint EC-ESA scientific activities in the coming few years.
Therefore, this workshop aims at assessing the latest advancement in the use of EO technology for Polar science, exploring the main challenges and opportunities for the coming decade and consulting with the community to contribute to define a common scientific agenda for the future.
The meeting is open to EO scientists, polar researchers and students, modellers, Earth system and climate scientists, industry, operational agencies, policy makers, representatives of local communities and other stakeholders interested in sharing their knowledge and experience and contributing to drive the European polar scientific agenda.
You are invited to submit an abstract for the morning plenary sessions and/or a proposal for the science challenges afternoon breakout discussion sessions.
The morning sessions of the first two days will consist of state-of-the-art scientific talks within these categories:
1) Advances in EO polar geophysical (e.g., novel satellite products and observations over ice-sheets, glaciers, permafrost areas, terrestrial snow, sea-ice and snow on sea-ice, sea state, ocean biology, atmosphere chemistry and dynamics, etc.)
2) Advances in Polar sciences, process understanding, predictions and modelling modelling (e.g., ice sheet mass balance, Ice sheet hydrology, surface mass balance and melting processes, carbon and radiation budget, methane emissions and permafrost degradation, sea-ice-atmosphere-ocean interactions, Arctic ocean spin-up, Arctic amplification, Arctic and Antarctic ocean circulation, atmosphere circulation and polar changes, Polar ecosystems and biodiversity, etc.)
3) Integrating citizen observations and local knowledge in science (e.g., exploitation of local knowledge, local observations and crowd sourcing)
4) Observation system and data management (e.g., land, sea and atmosphere in-situ and airborne observations, data networks and infrastructures, data management etc.) and
5) Novel technologies. (e.g., AI and polar research, big data and cloud computing platforms, data intensive science, virtual Labs...)
The objective of the workshop is to define a scientific agenda identifying a set of major scientific challenges to be faced in the coming years that may drive future ESA and DG-RTD coordinated investments in Polar research. To this end, the community is invited to propose discussion sessions focused on major Polar science challenges to define a number of major community initiatives and experiments that will require an integrated and multi-disciplinary approach to science involving advances in Earth Observation satellite data, in-situ observations, modelling, interdisciplinary research and the use of novel technologies in a coordinated manner. The structure of the proposal should be:
The output of the discussion sessions should be a report in the form of a white paper providing a well-structured description of the problem, the scientific and observations needs and recommendation for the way forward.
The workshop will be structured as a combination of state-of-the-art scientific talks in plenary and break-out working sessions. The afternoon working sessions will be dedicated to discussing and drafting the candidate Grand Challenges.
No participation fees will be charged. Participants are expected to finance their own travel and accommodation expenses and no student grants are foreseen for this workshop.
The official language of the workshop is English.
| Abstract submission opening | 17 December 2019 |
| Abstract submission closure | 17 March 2020 |
| Notification of acceptance | 17 April 2020 |
| Issue of Preliminary Programme | 17 April 2020 |
| Registration Opening | 17 April 2020 |
| Issue of Final Programme | at the Workshop |
| Workshop | 17 / 19 June 2020 |
The event will be held at the Tivoli Congress Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 17-19 June 2020.
Arni Magnussons Gade 2
1577 Copenhagen, Denmark
ESA
ESA
DTU
EC-RTD
ESA
EC-RTD
EC-EASME
Serco/ESA-ESRIN
Serco/ESA-ESRIN
NIKAL
EC-EASME
University of Bristol
INRS-ETE
ESA
DMI
UiT & AWI
ESA
University of Waterloo Canada
ESA
British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey
CSIC
Norwegian Polar Institute
University of Edinburg
University of Leeds
AWI
Niels Bohr Institute
NERSC
ESA
CNR
Norwegian Polar Institute
ASIAQ Greenland
University of Lancaster
Alfred-Wegener-Institut
University of Lapland
DMI
Enveo
DMI
ESA
Finish Meteorological Institute
UC Irvine / NASA JPL
DTU
NERSC
University of Leeds
Norwegian Computing Center
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
UCL
FMI
Columbia University
DTU
ESA
University of Lisboa