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Six priorities for Antarctic science

1- Rob Massom and Jenny Baeseman represented the CliC Community through this process

The official outcomes of the 1st SCAR Antarctic and Southern Ocean Science Horizon Scan were published online today as a COMMENT in Nature (512, 23–25; 2014 http://www.nature.com/news/1.15658) entitled “Six priorities for Antarctic science”.

In April 2014, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) convened 75 scientists and policy-makers from 22 countries to agree on the priorities for Antarctic research for the next two decades and beyond. This is the first time the international Antarctic community has formulated a collective vision through discussions, debate and voting. The Horizon Scan narrowed a list of hundreds of scientific questions to the 80 most pressing ones.

The questions fall broadly into six scientific priorities: 
1) define the global reach of the Antarctic atmosphere and Southern Ocean;
2) understand how, where and why ice sheets lose mass;
3) reveal Antarctica’s history;
4) learn how Antarctic life evolved and Survived;
5) observe space and the Universe; and
6) recognize and mitigate human influences.

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CliC at the 35th Session of the WCRP Joint Science Committee

1The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) had their 35th annual Joint Science Committee meeting from 30 June to 4 July in Heidelberg, Germany. The CliC community was well represented (see photo). The meeting created a relaxed atmosphere where the new WCRP Director David Carlson was introduced to the group and was able to hear about the great things that are happening within CliC and WCRP. The meeting also provided a unique opportunity for several of the CliC leaders to meet with other WCRP activity leads to discuss ways to better collaborate and increase our understanding of the cryosphere’s interactions with climate.

Greg Flato, CliC’s co-chair, and Ted Shepherd (PCPI co-lead) gave great presentations on our activities. The presentations are available at the links below and the summaries follow:

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