The yearly Arctic Subarctic Ocean Flux (ASOF) study meeting on 24 -26 April 2019, co-sponsored by CliC, was hosted at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) in Copenhagen, jointly with the H2020 project ‘Blue-Action’ which is coordinated at DMI. The focus topics for this year’s meeting were:
1. Representativeness of ocean observations: A recurring issue in the analysis and interpretation of observational data, as well in the use of these data for model validation and data assimilation, is how their representativeness in space and time are dealt with. This issue is of particular relevance for in-situ data such as oceanic measurements from profiling devices or time series data from mooring locations. We particularly welcomed submissions dealing with questions related to representativeness and uncertainties in observations, what these mean for the observational analysis as well as the usefulness of the data in modelling, and ways forward in resolving those issues in particular in regions of sparse data coverage.
2. Flux calculations: We had fostered a discussion the problems related to the usefulness/ambiguity of heat- and freshwaterflux calculations across single gateways. Can we agree on a way forward?
We had 45 participants joining the meeting, with 34 presentations. In addition to presentations and discussion on the two focus topics we had numerous contributions on core ASOF topics, such as reports on the current status of the gateway moorings, new insights into the dynamics of ocean circulation and exchange between the basins, as well as Ocean-Sea Ice interaction. We gratefully acknowledge the travel support for three early career scientists by CliC, Stefanie Semper from the University of Bergen, Norway, Myriel Horn from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar Research, Germany, and Marylou Athanase from L’OCEAN at the Université Sorbonne, France. In addition, thanks to the ‘Blue Action’ project, two experts on data representativeness in the context of data assimilation and ocean climatologies could be invited, An Nguyen from the University of Texas Austin, USA, and Viktor Gouretsky from the Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Beijing, China.
The agenda and the presentations can be found online here: https://asof.awi.de/outputs/asof-issg-meetings-workshops/copenhagen-april-2019/