Project Report
The steering group of the IASC Atmosphere Working Group, consisting of the chair, the two vice chairs, the past chair, and the secretary, met in Stockholm, Sweden on 5 and 6 February. The primary goals of this meeting included:
- Development of a formal implementation plan for the AWG, with a goal of having a draft plan in place shortly after this meeting to distribute to the broader AWG.
- Establishing methods to enhance participation and AWG group meeting attendance, with a goal of implementing these methods for the ASSW meeting and 2024 quarterly meetings.
- Discussion of AWG coordination in connection with ICARP-IV, with a goal of developing an engagement plan that can ensure that atmospheric scientific interests are considered within the ICARP-IV process.
- Development of AWG priorities for the coming year, with a goal of reviewing these priorities with the AWG during the ASSW meeting.
- Development of a comprehensive agenda for the AWG meeting at the 2024 ASSW in Edinburgh.
Participants first met on the afternoon of 5 February, taking time to participate in the IASC webinar to allow the coordinators of interdisciplinary projects to share information on their proposed efforts. During and following these presentations, the group spent some time discussing the current state of IASC proposals received by the AWG, and discussed different strategies for funding. After this webinar, the group spent around one hour to set the expectations for the next day’s meeting and met for dinner to continue conversations.
Most of the work associated with this workshop was conducted in day two. The day started with discussion on enhancing participation of AWG members in group meetings and activities. During this discussion, several ideas were covered including:
- Supporting more small group discussions within the AWG meeting framework to allow groups of individuals interested in similar research topics to have in-depth discussions.
- Fostering topical meetings to connect the AWG with the broader scientific community and providing AWG members with direct access to information on current community priorities.
- Continuing to foster a collegial environment where AWG members can connect in a relaxed manner, encouraging broader participation and discussion.
- Considering the development of an “AWG Summit” to allow AWG members to speak in depth on topics of interest and to build general trust and collaboration between members.
- Requesting 3-slide updates on current national activities based on a template to offer all participating nations regular opportunities for providing updates.
- Scheduling “Round-the-world” meeting to better support the wide variety of time zones covered by AWG member nations.
After this discussion, the group spent time talking about AWG engagement with the ongoing ICARP-IV process. This included discussion on how to ensure that there is adequate engagement by the atmospheric science community in the ICARP Research Priority Teams. It additionally included discussion on the collection of information from the AWG membership on how individuals were planning to engage. It was noted that similar actions should be undertaken for other large international initiatives or activities. This led to the conclusion that ICARP-IV should be a primary topic of conversation during the ASSW in-person AWG meeting this year, and that we should provide a brief overview of the ICARP-IV process to the group to ensure broad awareness. Finally, we discussed how the AWG may be able to support the facilitation of groups to support advancement of key research themes linked to the ICARP-IV process and provide expert guidance on atmospheric topics of particular interest.
Following a short break, we reconvened and started to discuss the development of an implementation plan to help guide, and track progress on, work needed to advance topics related to the AWG strategic plan. This discussion included time spent on developing goals relating to the strategic plan, and then actionable and measurable tasks to help the group achieve progress on those goals. After one and a half hours of initial brainstorming, the group stopped for lunch. Following lunch, we transitioned to the development of an outline to frame the overall content of the implementation plan. After a late afternoon break, we discussed the need to have wide buy in to ensure that AWG members would support the work related to the tasks in the implementation plan.
Following this discussion, we transitioned to discussing the agendas for the open and closed meetings of the AWG at this year’s ASSW. During this discussion, we developed a framework for the meetings, including talking about how much time to dedicate to individual topics, ideas for presenters and topics for short 10-minute group updates, and the budgeting process. We additionally reviewed the current state of the IASC AWG budget and discussed the merits of dedicating all funding to activities developed by the broader research community versus keeping some money to fund and accelerate activities within the AWG. Following this discussion, we had a wrap-up session that assigned tasks and set next steps before closing the meeting and continuing the discussions over dinner with institutional hosts.
Highlights:
- Strategic planning by the leadership of the IASC Atmosphere Working Group to set a course for WG activities over the next several years.
- Development of an implementation plan that will guide the focus of the Atmosphere Working Group
- Development of a detailed agenda for the upcoming AWG meetings taking place as part of the Arctic Science Summit Week
Date and Location:
6-7 February I Stockholm, Sweden
IASC Working Groups funding the Project:
- Atmosphere WG
Project Lead
Gijs De Boer (University of Colorado)
Year funded by IASC
2023
Project Status
Completed