Ny-Ålesund Atmosphere Research Symposium

Atmosphere research is a major component of the Science Plan for Ny-Ålesund. An Atmosphere Flagship Program, building on several ongoing national and bilateral scientific cooperations and a previous atmosphere flagship initiative, is under development to plan joint research activities. Additionally, contributions from other research locations on Svalbard (Hornsund, Barentsburg) and Greenland (station Nord) will contribute to answer questions, which cannot be solved from a single, local perspective alone. In detail, the program address topics like atmosphere- snow/-sea ice/glaciers interactions, surface and boundary layer properties, aerosol-clouds-radiation interactions, meteorological observations in a pan Svalbard network on campaign and long term scales. Of particular interest will be the combination of on site observations and local, regional, and global modelling work, addressing for example the representativity of local observations. Provision of various calibration and validation data sets for modelling and satellite data is another focus. To follow up the new Flagship Program initiative it is suggested to arrange an Atmosphere Research Symposium, involving a larger group of atmosphere researchers working in and around Ny-Ålesund, including the rest of Svalbard, giving them the chance to familiarize themselves with the ongoing research in more detail, and giving the new prioritized topics and activities of the Flagship Program an opportunity to present and develop the collaborations further. Next year the NySMAC biannual fall meeting will take place in Tromsø, in conjunction with the every second year NySMAC seminar. We propose to arrange a dedicated two days Atmospheric Symposium back-to-back with the next NySMAC seminar in Tromsø fall 2015.