13 October, 2014

British Antarctic Survey hosts Chemical Air-Snow-Sea Ice Interaction workshop in Cambridge

More than 60 scientists from over 15 countries are attending a workshop in Cambridge this week (13-15 October) to discuss chemical processes that occur in the polar regions between the air, snow and sea ice. Understanding this complex linked system is an important piece of the climate change puzzle and this meeting, hosted and organised by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), aims to bring together scientists to stimulate ideas and future plans for research and collaborations.

A particular objective of the workshop is to gather experimental and theoretical scientists who work on the physics, chemistry and biology of the atmosphere-snow-sea ice system in order to discuss current challenges and gaps in process understanding from the micro to the global scale. Examples of still poorly understood processes in the sea ice zone (SIZ) include dramatic depletion events of ozone, a greenhouse gas, or particle production with possible impact on cloud formation.  An important outcome of the three day event will be a report outlining future research priorities and pathways how to address them through collaborative grant applications.

BAS organiser Dr Markus Frey says, “I am delighted we are hosting this workshop in Cambridge. By bringing together modellers, lab and field scientists plus a number of early career scientists, we hope to get new ideas of how we as a community can integrate better our research to answer the big questions about how atmospheric composition and climate will respond to future change of the snow and ice covered regions.”

The workshop has support from the European Geophysical Union (EGU) and the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project (IGAC).