News
Earth Observation for Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions Science 2014
28 October 2014
ESA and SOLAS are pleased to announce that the Earth Observation for Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions Science 2014, will take place 28-31 Oct 2014 at ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, Italy.
Information on the workshop can be found HERE
Background
Physical and biochemical interactions between oceans and atmosphere involve several key processes governing the Earth system dynamics and its climate. Momentum, heat/freshwater fluxes, aerosol and gas exchanges between the ocean surface and the atmosphere boundary layer influence key components of the Earth system such as the ocean circulation, the Earth radiation budget, the global carbon cycle or biodiversity, among others.
In this context, the observation, quantification and monitoring of the different ocean and atmospheric variables involved in these key processes is of major importance to better understand, characterise and predict their behaviour and their influence in climate and human activities.
The Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS) is a major international initiative to "achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and the atmosphere, and how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change." Achieving this challenging objective not only calls for interdisciplinary research (involving biogeochemistry, physics, mathematical modelling, etc.), but also requires marine and atmospheric scientists to work closely together with Earth Observation scientists and modellers.
SOLAS is approaching its 10th year anniversary. In order to define the next SOLAS scientific challenges for the future, the SOLAS community have begun an effort to define research themes of major relevance for the next decade. These themes will become part of a Science Plan for the next phase of SOLAS. To this end, the SOLAS Scientific Steering Committee has identified 8 research themes:
- Greenhouse gases and the oceans;
- The air-sea interface and fluxes of mass, energy;
- Atmospheric nutrient and particles supply to the surface ocean;
- Interconnections between aerosols, clouds and ecosystems;
- Ocean emissions and tropospheric oxidizing capacity;
- Interconnections between ocean biogeochemistry and stratospheric chemistry;
- Multiple stressors and ocean ecosystems;
- High Sensitivity Systems.
Recent advances in Earth observation (EO) technology allowed improved global observations of several key parameters governing the ocean-atmosphere interactions. In the coming years, an increasing number of EO missions will provide an unprecedented capacity to observe the sea-surface and the atmosphere, opening a new era in EO for ocean-atmosphere interactions science. The full exploitation of this capacity by scientific and institutional users, in particular to better understand the role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in climate change, requires coordinated research efforts to develop robust global geo-information products and to facilitate their integration into suitable coupled biochemical/physical models describing and predicting ocean-atmosphere processes. In this context, the exploitation of data from existing and planned satellite missions and the identification of "missing" remote sensing observations from space, will be instrumental to further the SOLAS science objectives.
The purpose of this second topical conference organised jointly by ESA and SOLAS is:
- to advance the knowledge on the use of EO technology to support ocean-atmosphere interactions science with a main focus on the 8 science themes identified by SOLAS for the next decade;
- to accelerate the development of robust global geo-information data products to better characterise and model the sea-surface, the atmosphere and the biochemical and physical processes governing their interactions; and
- to consolidate a scientific roadmap to advance in the development and exploitation of novel and robust observations in support to the international scientific efforts of the SOLAS community, in line with the new SOLAS scientific strategy.
In this context, this conference aims at bringing together the EO and SOLAS communities, as well as scientific institutions and space agencies involved in the observation, characterisation and forecasting of ocean-atmosphere interactions and their impacts. In particular, the event represents a unique opportunity to facilitate the communications and scientific exchanges among these different communities in order to enhance the coordination of specific scientific efforts and advocate for a common view of major scientific needs and priority areas for the future.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the conference are:
- To increase the scientific understanding of the main processes governing ocean-atmosphere interactions and their impacts on the Earth system and climate with special attention to the 8 SOLAS strategic science themes;
- To review the current advances in EO technology and its capacity to contribute to the SOLAS next decade science challenges;
- To accelerate the development of novel and reliable multi-mission data products capable of exploiting the synergies of the increasing number of complementary EO missions to better address the major scientific gaps in ocean-atmosphere interactions;
- To foster the integration of EO data into advanced coupled models describing and forecasting main ocean-atmosphere processes;
- To consolidate a scientific roadmap outlining priorities and scientific requirements to further advance in the development and exploitation of global observations and consistent data records capable of supporting the international scientific efforts of the SOLAS community.
Themes
Contributions are invited for presentations on novel research activities and developments exploiting EO data in support of atmosphere-ocean interaction studies.
Areas of interest and related topics of major concern are listed in the following:
- EO geo-information products and related uncertainties for ocean-atmosphere science;
- Novel EO missions and future observations for ocean-atmosphere interactions;
- EO as a tool to characterize air-sea interface and fluxes of mass and energy;
- Ocean-atmosphere greenhouse gas fluxes and air-sea gas transfer;
- EO of climatic active gases (including Halogen emissions and Iodine chemistry) in the marine boundary layer;
- EO of sea spray and aerosols and its interactions with clouds and ecosystems;
- EO for sea-ice-atmosphere interactions;
- Atmospheric control of nutrient cycling and supply to surface ocean;
- EO in biogeochemical modelling, stressors and ocean ecosystems;
- EO techniques relevant to ocean acidification;
- EO of atmosphere-ocean interactions on regional scales, such as air-sea gas fluxes at Eastern boundary upwelling and Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ) systems;
- EO data of anthropogenic sources (such as ship plumes) and their impacts on atmospheric chemistry, climate and nutrient supply to the oceans;
- EO of ocean emissions and tropospheric oxidizing capacity;
- EO for ocean biogeochemistry and its connections to stratospheric chemistry.
- Other ocean-atmosphere interaction science topics
Organisation
Oral and poster sessions will be organized around the above dedicated Themes.
Papers can be submitted both for oral and poster presentations.
Conference proceedings will be published by ESA.
A summary reporting main findings and recommendations from each session will be provided and discussed in a final plenary session.
The official language of the Symposium is English.
No participation/registration fee will be charged.
Participants are expected to finance their own travel and accommodation expenses.
A Special Issue dedicated to the conference is under consideration
Abstract Submission
On-line abstract submission is available HERE (plain text, max 5000 characters.
The abstract submission deadline is 16 May 2014.
Registration
The online registration form is available HERE.
Deadlines:
|
Deadline
for Abstract Submission |
16 May 2014 |
|
Notification of acceptance |
June 2014 |
|
Preliminary program and registration |
September 2014 |
|
Paper submission and Symposium |
28-31 October 2014 |
Organizing Committee
Diego Fernández-Prieto, European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
Roberto Sabia, Telespazio-Vega UK for European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Emilie Breviere, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany
Eric Saltzman, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
Craig Donlon, European Space Agency (ESA-ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
Simon Pinnock, European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
Christoph Garbe, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
Brian Ward, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
Scientific Committee
Tom Bell, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
Jerome Benveniste, European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
Jacqueline Boutin, LOCEAN, Paris, France
Astrid Bracher, IUP, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Pierre Brasseur, LGGE/CNRS, Grenoble, France
John P. Burrows, IUP/IFE, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Bertrand Chapron, IFREMER, Plouzané, France
Gerrit de Leeuw, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
Anja Engel, GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany
Chris Fairall, NOAA/ESRL, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
Jordi Font, Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Huiwang Gao, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China
Veronique Garçon, LEGOS/CNES, Toulouse, France
Michelle Graco, IMARPE, Callao, Peru
Cécile Guieu, LOV, Villefranche-sur-mer, France
Christoph Heinze, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Ilan Koren, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
Peter Liss, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Christa Marandino, GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany
Peter Minnett, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami, FL, USA
Colin O'Dowd, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway, Ireland
Marcos Portabella, Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Trish Quinn, NOAA PMEL, Seattle, WA, US
Peter Regner, European Space Agency (ESA-ESRIN), Frascati, Italy
Nicolas Reul, IFREMER, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France
Ian Robinson, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK
Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Instituto de QuÃmica FÃsica Rocasolano, CSIC, Madrid, Spain
Jamie Shutler, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
Rafel Simo, Institut de Ciències del Mar, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Andrew Watson, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
David Woolf, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland
Mingxi Yang, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK
Christopher Zappa, LDEO, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA
Contact Points
ESA Conference Bureau
Via Galileo Galilei
00044 Frascati (RM)
Italy
Phone: +39 06 94180 912
Fax: +39 06 94180 902
Email:
esa.conference.bureau@esa.int
