The New Arctic in the Global Context, session at Arctic Frontiers 2018, is these days exploring and discussing how to better understand polar climate and ecosystem processes, to understand and forecast weather and environmental changes in the Arctic, how these affect global ocean and atmospheric circulation, ecosystems, and what are future societal impacts and requirements both in the Arctic and mid-latitudes.
This session brings together not only people from the Nansen Legacy but several projects and initiatives – such as the APPLICATE, MOSAiC, Nansen Legacy, N-ICE2015, GreenEdge and BAYSYS projects, as well as the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP).
“I look very much forward to the presentations and posters in this session; in sub-sessions on three days (Tuesday to Thursday), overviews will be given on several international Arctic projects, along with presentations and posters about crucial climate and ecosystem processes. It will be great to see new findings of inter- and multisciplinary Arctic research, and plans for work to come. For Nansen Legacy-involved scientists, work in other initiatives in the Arctic is of high interest, both for intercomparison and linkage of research and results.”
Sebastian Gerland, Norwegian Polar Institute and co-lead of the Nansen Legacy.
Here topics will highlight:
- Overviews: overview on projects and initiatives that aim to improve knowledge on the polar weather and climate system and ecosystem processes in order to enhance predictability of environmental parameters.
- Observations: sea-ice changes and decline, snow changes, ocean warming and circulation, atmospheric circulation and weather, ecosystem changes, observing system design.
- Modelling: assessment and development of weather and climate models, interdisciplinary model approaches.
- Prediction: from weather forecast to seasonal and subseasonal prediction and climate projections.
- Linkages to mid-latitudes: how Arctic climate change influences weather and climate across the Northern Hemisphere.
- Ecosystem processes: how the Arctic ecosystem functions from the interactions of its component species (humans included), habitats, and physical features as they affect one another, directly and indirectly.
- User engagement: bringing together the forecast community and end users of polar prediction products.
- Governance of the New Arctic: how policies and management procedures will change due to changing Arctic environment, e.g., regulations for new shipping routes, fisheries, communities in the Arctic that might be influenced by weather and environmental changes.
“In the Nansen Legacy we are working in an area that is less well investigated than the southern Barents Sea and changing greatly at the same time. Similarly, the Arctic has been changing in other areas with the consequence that we now talk about the ‘new Arctic’. It is critical for scientists (and stakeholders!) to exchange information on what this new Arctic looks like in different parts of this large ecosystem. Findings from other areas and projects in that regard can help guide the Nansen Legacy work that we are about to launch.”
Bodil Bluhm, the Arctic University of Norway and RF3 Co-lead.
We looking forward to some inspirational days
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