The 2024 ICTP NORP/SORP summer school and workshop was an international collaboration to educate early career scientists on how polar regions interact with the rest of the world through the ocean, atmosphere, the cryosphere and ecological systems. The meeting was organized as a 7-day summer school with a 3-day workshop afterwards. The summer school and workshop were held at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, a wonderful organization that is devoted to advancing scientific expertise in the developing world and has expertise on hosting meetings with excellent facilities. The 3-day workshop included the summer school students and 40 additional experts to share knowledge on the topic, “The role of sea ice and its variability in the climate system”. The workshop had a keynote speaker in the morning and afternoon (one from the Southern Ocean and one from the northern oceans) and panels of experts to discuss open issues with the larger group. The focus of the workshop was on comparing and contrasting processes and feedbacks in the two polar oceans. A poster session was held each day for the participants. In addition, summer school students presented their projects to the larger audience for feedback on their work.
The summer school was a forum to educate early career scientists on three topics:
- Ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere interactions in the Polar regions. This topic involved new theoretical, observational and modelling studies dealing with the interactions among different components of the climate systems at all spatial and temporal scales, including their regional and global impacts.
- Ice sheets-ocean interactions. This topic focused on observational estimates, new coupled Arctic system modelling frameworks, and impacts on global climate and sea level rise.
- Sources, sinks, and impacts of freshwater in Polar oceans. Polar regions are a major source of freshwater to the global ocean system including river runoff and land-ice melt. The atmospheric and ocean variability that determine these sources are currently changing under the influence of global warming. This topic focused on the modelling and assessment of these processes in the Polar oceans.
The summer school was organized around six themes, with 2 lecturers for each theme, one with expertise on the Southern Ocean and one with expertise on the Arctic, in order to compare and contrast the variability in the Arctic with the Southern Ocean. The six themes and the lecturers, who were from Europe, North America, South America, and New Zealand, were:
THEME 1 – Coupled processes impacting polar ocean hydrography, Atmospheric and sea ice processes impacting ocean stratification, ocean mixing; high-frequency variability; water mass transformation; open ocean convection. Lecturers: Stephanie Waterman (University of British Columbia, Canada) – Arctic, Maria Paz Chidichimo (CONICET, Argentina)-Southern Ocean
THEME 2 - Atmospheric processes and interactions with ocean and cryosphere Atmospheric teleconnections (specifically high to low latitude, impact of sea ice retreat), ocean connections (freshwater export, deep convection); polar amplification Lecturers: Paul Kushner (University of Toronto, Canada) – Arctic, Thomas Bracegirdle (CAS, UK) – Southern Ocean
THEME 3 - Coupled processes impacting melting ice Atmosphere and ocean processes impacting water mass properties approaching ice shelves and marine terminating glaciers, outflow of meltwater and icebergs Lecturers: Paul Myers (U. Alberta, Canada)-Arctic, Florence Colleoni (NIOEG, Italy)-Southern Ocean
THEME 4 - Role of sea ice and its changes under global warming Salt and freshwater fluxes due to sea ice-ocean processes; wave-sea ice interaction Lecturers: Cecilia Bitz (University of Washington, USA)-Arctic, Inga Smith (University of Otago, NZ)-Southern Ocean
THEME 5 - Biogeochemical processes and their physical drivers Air-sea fluxes (e.g carbon uptake), acidification, primary production, deoxygenation. Lecturers: Letizia Tedesco (FMI, Finland)-Arctic, Ivy Frenger (GEOMAR, Germany)-Southern Ocean
THEME 6 - Observational techniques and numerical modelling Interpretation of multiple sources; combining in-situ and remote sensing; accessibility of data, global climate and the representation of polar processes. Lecturers: Cecilia Bitz (University of Washington, USA)-Modeling, Stephanie Waterman (University of British Columbia, Canada)-Observations
The lecturers and post-doctoral scholars organized the students into groups of 2-3 to focus on research projects during the week. In total, the school and workshop attracted 123 participants (with 90 being on site) including more than 80 students and postdocs from five continents and more than 20 countries.
Lecturers and mentors organized 12 research projects. Students did an excellent job working on projects that many times were outside their experience and presented results from these projects during the workshop.
Highlights
- This event succeeded in bridging the gap between the two polar research communities as well as participants from the northern and southern hemisphere and to foster scientific collaborations around models and observations.
- Lectures by Arctic and Southern Ocean experts reviewed recent scientific advances on understanding Polar climate and its variability, in particular the observed regime shift in Antarctic sea ice. Lectures are available online and can be used as course material on Polar climate.
- This summer school and workshop provided an opportunity to educate early career scientists on Polar climate variability, with 123 participants (with 90 being on site) including more than 80 students and postdocs from five continents and more than 20 countries.
Photo: Summer school students organized physically by regional affiliation
More info: https://indico.ictp.it/event/10498/overview
Date and Location
22 – 31 July 2024 | Trieste, Italy
IASC Working Groups funding the project
- Atmosphere WG
- Cryosphere WG
- Marine WG
Project Lead
Amy Somolon, University of Colorado and NOAA/PSL, USA
Year funded by IASC
2024