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Dear CliC Community,
The CliC newsletter is officially back!
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After more than a year of hard work planning the CliC Open Science Conference and a busy first half of 2026, we're pleased to return to our regular twice-yearly newsletter schedule. Keep reading to see all of the incredible work that's been done across the CliC community since our last issue.
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CliC Open Science Conference 2026
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CliC SSG and guests gather at the CliC OSC 2026.
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CliC held its first ever Open Science Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, 9-12 February, 2026 (clic2026.com) on the 30th anniversary of its founding. The meeting brought together 423 participants from 34 countries studying the interaction between climatic change and the ongoing rapid deterioration of the global cryosphere. The meeting also included high-profile representation from Southern and Northern Hemisphere indigenous communities impacted by cryospheric loss. Interdisciplinary interaction between researchers, both scientists and social scientists, studying diverse aspects of the cryosphere, from the Arctic, to high mountains and the Antarctic, on land and at sea were among the most remarked benefits of the conference. CliC thanks the many members of our community that helped to organize and chair sessions and in particular Tim Naish and Lauren Vargo at Victoria University of Wellington for their dedication and hard work hosting this major conference.
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CliC Strategic Plan 2025–2034: The Rapidly Changing Cryosphere
- Ice sheets and sea-level rise
- Sea ice and polar oceans
- Mountains, glaciers, lakes and rivers, and snow
- Permafrost
- Feedbacks and potential tipping points
- Observations and modelling
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OPEN CALL: CliC Special Issue of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences
CliC is pleased to share an open call for contributions to the Climate and Cryosphere Special Issue of Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS).
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Questions about the Special Issue? Please feel free to contact CliC IPO Director Keith Alverson at kalverson@umass.edu.
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CliC Working Group Updates
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NEW RESOURCES | Sea Ice Cards and Scrolling Story
ASPeCt is proud to present 2 new community resources:
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- Sea Ice Cards: An essential tool for conducting shipboard observations in the Southern Ocean, providing comprehensive guidelines for classifying sea ice and recording essential data.
- Sea Ice Scrolling Story: A visual narrative meticulously crafted to deepen your understanding of sea ice and its critical role in our climate system
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NEW | SCAR Antarctica InSync Action Group Supported by ASPeCt
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Closely aligned with global scientific frameworks and supported by collaboration with the SCAR community, Antarctica InSync represents a major step toward addressing critical knowledge gaps in a rapidly changing polar environment. The SCAR Antarctica InSync Action Group plays a central role in strengthening these collaborations, especially across SCAR groups and programmes, ensuring that scientific efforts are harmonized, inclusive, and impactful at both regional and global scales.
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GET INVOLVED | Join ASPeCt and Subscribe to the Antarctica InSync Sea Ice Listserv
- Interested in joining CliC/SCAR Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) Working Group? Get in touch with ASPeCt co-chairs via email: Dr. Petra Heil (petra.heil@utas.edu.au) and Prof. Marilyn Raphael (raphael@geog.ucla.edu)
- Interested in receiving updates from Antarctica InSync on rapid sea ice decline and its causes and consequences? Subscribe to the listserv here!
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SAVE THE DATE | BEPSII Annual Meeting 2027
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AVAILABLE NOW | GlacierMIP4 Experimental Protocol
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The GlacierMIP4 protocol—available now via Github—defines the experimental design for GlacierMIP4 and aims to standardize the experimental setups for glacier model simulation, using standardized time periods and datasets to initialize and force the glacier models. Learn more about GlacierMIP here.
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NEW STUDY: Glacier preservation doubled by limiting warming to 1.5°C versus 2.7°C
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An international study, published in Science, has found that only 24% of present-day glacier mass will remain if the world were to warm to 2.7°C, the trajectory set by current climate policies. In contrast, limiting warming to 1.5°C — the target of the Paris Agreement — would preserve 54% of glacier mass. A team of 21 scientists from ten countries …
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The climate scientist who wants to give you hope
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The idea behind this, really, is to show there is no lower limit to meaningful climate mitigation. Anything you can do is helpful, there is nothing that is too small to be relevant.
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New ISMIP Resources Available Now
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Upcoming ISMIP7 Events
- Wednesday, 12 Aug 2026 from 4:00–5:30 PM
DECEMBER 2026 | Session C037 (Understanding and projecting ice sheet evolution and tipping dynamics for future sea level rise) and Annual ISMIP7 Meeting @ AGU26 in San Francisco, California, USA
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Photo of workshop participants gathered in Innsbruck, Austria
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IC-MontC Workshop Report Published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS)
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Ban, N., Collier, E., Li, L., Rasmunssen, K. L., & Taylor, M. (2026). Advances in High-Resolution Climate Modeling and Cryosphere Systems over Mountainous Regions. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 107(6), E1315-E1322. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-26-0088.1
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ABOUT: Researchers engaged in the application and development of high-resolution (kilometer scale) climate models came together to discuss recent progress in climate modeling over complex mountainous terrain. In particular, they discussed remaining gaps in process understanding, identified recent progress and ongoing challenges in model development, and highlighted observational gaps where additional data are needed for model validation.
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NEW RESEARCH | A stretched Polar Vortex and North American and Eastern Asian Cold-Air Events during January/February 2025
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Overland J, Chandra V, Kim BM, Wang M, Ku H, et al. (2025) A stretched Polar Vortex and North American and Eastern Asian Cold-Air Events during January/February 2025. PLOS Climate 4(8): e0000679. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000679
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WORKSHOP & FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES | Polar Heat: Transports, Mechanisms and Global Linkages
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REGISTER NOW | Polar CORDEX Annual Meeting 2026
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Presentations are very welcome on all aspects of Antarctic and Arctic CORDEX related research (e.g., processes, recent and future climate change, keep drivers, coupled modelling, model evaluation, multi-model intercomparisons). Time allotted is typically 10-15 minutes per presentation.
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DEADLINE TO REGISTER: 31 August 2026
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NEW STUDY | The PolarRES dataset: a state-of-the-art regional climate model ensemble for understanding Antarctic climate
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Gilbert, E., Torres-Alavez, J. A., Hofsteenge, M. G., van de Berg, W. J., Boberg, F., Christensen, O. B., van Dalum, C. T., Fettweis, X., Gumber, S., Hansen, N., Kittel, C., Lambin, C., Maure, D., Mottram, R., Olesen, M., Orr, A., Phillips, T., van Tiggelen, M., Verro, K., and Mooney, P. A.: The PolarRES dataset: a state-of-the-art regional climate model ensemble for understanding Antarctic climate, The Cryosphere, 20, 2629–2658, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2629-2026, 2026.
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This study shows that the new Antarctic CORDEX ensemble largely out-performs ERA5, especially with regard to variables like coastal winds and precipitation. Each RCM has strengths and limitations, but overall the ensemble captures the observed weather and climate of Antarctica well. The ensemble offers a novel and exciting way of evaluating climate processes and features, and we encourage researchers to use the data, which are freely available, to explore pertinent climate questions of local, regional and global significance.
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AVAILABLE NOW | SIMIP Vision, Strategy and Roadmap for CMIP7
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Prepared by the Endorsed CMIP6 diagnostic Sea Ice Model Intercomparison Project (SIMIP) Scientific Steering Group
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v0. 29 April 2025 | v1. 24 July 2025
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ON THE HORIZON | Next Annual SIMIP Meeting
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Learn more about the meeting here and register your interest in attending here.
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PROS4SORP Webinar by Dr. Kaitlin Naughten (BAS) | How will ice shelf melting respond to a warming climate?
- July 1st at 13.00 UTC
- Online via Zoom
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Please register here. The recording will be available for registrants who can’t attend.
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REPORT | 16th Business Meeting of the Southern Ocean Region Panel
The 16th business meeting of the Southern Ocean Region Panel (SORP) was held on September 23rd and 25th 2025 in hybrid mode, with part of the participants attending from Bali at the pan-CLIVAR meeting.
Read the full meeting report here.
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Recent SORP Publications
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Martin, T., Dufour, C. O., Meijers, A. J. S., and Hancock, A. M.: Opinion: status, plans and needs of Southern Ocean modelling, Ocean Sci., 22, 1429–1437, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1429-2026, 2026
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Muilwijk, M., Hattermann, T., Beadling, R. L., Swart, N. C., Nummelin, A., Guo, C., Chandler, D. M., Langebroek, P. M., Zhou, S., Dutrieux, P., Chen, J.-J., Danek, C., England, M. H., Griffies, S. M., Haumann, F. A., Jüling, A., Jouet, O., Li, Q., Martin, T., Marshall, J., Pauling, A. G., Purich, A., Song, Z., Smith, I. J., Thomas, M., Trombini, I., van der Linden, E. C., and Xu, X.: Large regional differences in Antarctic ice shelf mass loss from Southern Ocean warming and meltwater feedbacks, The Cryosphere, 20, 1087–1117, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1087-2026, 2026.
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Xu, X., Martin, T., Beadling, R. L., Liu, J., Bischof, S., Hattermann, T., et al. (2025). Robustness and mechanisms of the atmospheric response over the Southern Ocean to idealized freshwater input around Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2024GL113734. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL113734
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UPCOMING | AGU Union Session & Town Hall: A Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences and Preparing for the Fifth International Polar Year
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Join us at AGU this December for a CliC-hosted union session and town hall on DACS and IPY-5! Session U008 will bring together researchers, stakeholders, and representatives from international organizations to discuss emerging priorities and implementation strategies for these initiatives, with a focus on five overarching themes: (1) global cryosphere monitoring, (2) actionable cryosphere projections, (3) cryosphere risk management solutions, (4) adaptation to cryosphere loss, and (5) amplifying the impact of cryosphere science. Learn more here.
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New Research Published on Antarctic Ice Shelf and Ocean Interactions
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Quantifying melt and freeze beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves is vital to understanding present-day ice-sheet behavior and its potential to contribute to future sea-level rise. In this research article, scientists compare 10 ice-shelf/ocean computer simulations with satellite data, providing the first multi-model estimate of melting and refreezing driven by the ocean. This new estimate offers a valuable tool for assessing ice-shelf roles in current and future ice-sheet changes, informing coastal adaptation strategies.
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WCRP Releases First Status Brief with CliC on Global Sea-Level Rise
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The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) released its first Status Brief on the subject of sea-level rise. Prepared in collaboration with CliC leadership, this Status Brief explores the current state of global sea-level rise science and provides a list key of policy-relevant headline messages. It also outlines urgent science priorities that the global scientific community is addressing to better understand processes and reduce uncertainties; thus, improving actionable sea-level risk information for society.
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Spotlight on CliC Researchers
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With each newsletter, CliC will introduce members to the wider community through a brief profile in their own words and recommended readings.
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Emilia Kyung Jin: CliC SSG Member
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"The cryosphere does not change in isolation. Understanding how polar regions are connected with the rest of the Earth system is essential for predicting our climate future."
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I am the Director of the Department of Policy & Partnership and a Principal Research Scientist at the Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Republic of Korea. I also serve as a Professor at the University of Science and Technology (UST). My research focuses on climate variability and predictability, with particular emphasis on interactions between the polar regions and the broader Earth system. My work spans atmosphere – ocean – cryosphere processes, Antarctic sea ice and ice-sheet variability, and their implications for future sea-level rise.
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I currently lead two national flagship research programmes through 2030: one developing next-generation Antarctic sea-ice prediction capabilities in response to rapid Southern Ocean warming, and another advancing integrated observation-based prediction systems to support future Arctic shipping routes. I also contribute to several international initiatives, including SCAR, IASC, and the IPCC.
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Recommended Reading
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Limiting global warming to 1.5°C is about more than avoiding higher temperatures—it is also about preserving key processes that help stabilize the Earth's climate system. This study shows that one of Antarctica's natural buffering mechanisms may be lost in a warmer world. Today, strong El Niño events enhance snowfall over West Antarctica, temporarily offsetting part of the ongoing ice-mass loss and slowing sea-level rise. However, our results suggest that this buffering effect weakens as global warming reshapes atmospheric teleconnections, increasing the risk that it will disappear in a world exceeding 1.5°C.
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I chose this paper because it illustrates how climate change can fundamentally alter climate processes that have long moderated Antarctic ice loss.
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Lee, HJ., Jin, E.K., Kim, BH. et al. Disappearance of the El Niño-driven surface mass gain in West Antarctica under future climate change. npj Clim Atmos Sci 8, 357 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-025-01174-x
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Antarctic fast ice is one of the least studied components of the cryosphere, despite its critical role in ice-shelf stability, coastal ecosystems, and Antarctic Bottom Water formation. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the seasonal predictability of Antarctic fast ice at the circum-Antarctic scale, revealing that the Southern Annular Mode in spring provides predictive information for fast-ice conditions several months later through distinct regional mechanisms.
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I selected this paper because improving the predictability of Antarctic fast ice is an important step toward more reliable cryosphere forecasting and a better understanding of future Antarctic change.
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Upcoming Events
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- ASPeCt Business Meeting: Sunday, 9 August from 16:00 – 21:00
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ISMIP7 Community Workshop: Wednesday, 12 August from 16:00 – 17:30
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Where: Obergurgl, Austria
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- GlacierMIP will host a dedicated GlacierMIP4 session focusing on the next phase of the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project.
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Where: Reykjavík, Iceland
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- CliC will host a Town Hall and Session U008, both on the topic of the UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Sciences and Preparing for the Fifth International Polar Year
- ISMIP7 will host Session C037 and the Annual ISMIP Community Workshop
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- CliC is planning a workshop for EGU27—keep an eye on our website for more information in the coming months.
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- SIMIP will hold its next Annual Meeting during the Symposium (details TBA).
- BEPSII will hold its next Annual Meeting immediately following the Symposium (18–20 or 21 June 2027) at the Tvärminne Zoological Station, Finland.
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Acknowledgments
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