In the rapidly warming Arctic, reliable weather and climate forecasts are becoming increasingly important. Moreover, the weather and climate of the mid-latitudes are significantly affected by what happens at the poles. Yet, the Arctic is among the least-observed places of our planet, and models are facing particular challenges to represent the extraordinary physics governing the polar climate system. In order to enhance our models’ predictive skills, more and better observations of the Arctic atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean are needed.
In this townhall meeting, we are going to discuss how we can best capitalise on existing and additional Arctic observations to improve forecast initial states, verification, and model physics, and to optimise the future polar observing system. A panel of four international experts on Arctic weather and climate will open the meeting by short introduction talks (ca. 30 min) followed by a mediated question & answer session with the audience (ca. 30 min).
The meeting is aligned with ongoing activities within the APPLICATE project and the WMO Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), which are hosting the townhall meeting, and an opportunity for all interested Arctic climate scientists to engage and provide valuable feedback.