With the rapidly changing conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, reliable weather and climate forecasts are becoming increasingly important in the polar regions due to new challenges and opportunities in the economic, touristic, transportation, and scientific sectors. Likewise, the weather and climate of the mid-latitudes are significantly affected by what happens at the poles. While the impacts of severe weather phenomena on business and infrastructure can be significant, the polar regions are yet among the least-observed areas of our planet, and model predictions are challenged by the complexity of the polar climate systems.
To enhance our models’ predictive skills, more and better use of observation systems of the polar atmosphere, sea ice, and ocean are needed. It is on these premises that the World Meteorological Organization’s project Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) and the European Horizon2020 APPLICATE project are carrying out their activities, initiating and promoting collaboration among international institutes, operational forecasting centers and stakeholders in an effort to bring together scientific expertise and know-how to work on better polar predictive skill.
In this session, we welcome presentations on activities and results from the YOPP and APPLICATE projects as well as contributions from other projects and institutes that focus on how to best capitalise on existing and additional Arctic and Antarctic observations such as Copernicus to improve forecast initial states, verification, and model physics, and to optimise the future polar observing system.
We welcome abstracts on topics including, but not limited to: Arctic and Antarctic observations, modelling, prediction, data assimilation, verification, linkages to mid-latitudes, user engagement, and governance. New results, contributions from international projects with a focus in the polar regions, and cross-disciplinary approaches that involve natural and social sciences are particularly appreciated.