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Dear ECRA fellows,
This edition of the ECRA Science Briefs informs you about latest news from Brussels!
This includes highlights of climate research, provides news from the European stage as well as internal information from ECRA and its Collaborative Programmes and upcoming events organized or joined by ECRA.
Also, we would like to thank all participants for a successful General Assembly 2015! The documentation, including all presentations, is now available on the website at this link.
Best wishes from Brussels,
Tina Swierczynski and Uta Klönne
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| Newsletter 02 | 2015 |
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arctic
Special issue of Arctic multidisciplinary research
This Elsevier publication is a collection of papers on Arctic research which seeks to reflect the growing body of research and to link the broad range of topics. It is divided into the four categories people, politics, resources and environment. Each section has an introduction to the current debates.
Read the issue
Arctic warming influences mid-latitude circulation
The rapid warming of the Arctic could weaken circulation in the Northern Hemisphere as the poleward temperature gradient is reduced. Researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Germany found changes in three key dynamical quantities (zonal wind, eddy kinetic energy, amplitude of Rossby waves), which signify a considerable weakening of summer circulation.
Read the report
high impact events
Severe drought due to climate change
Many regions of the world may experience unprecedented levels of drought before 2050. This study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria used five different global climate models and two different scenarios (RCPs) to project drought severity and frequency for 26 regions. The results call for an increasing need for water management systems.
Read the study
sea level
Effects of long-term internal variability on sea level projections
Sea level does not rise uniformly across the globe, but varies from coast to coast. Researchers at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Germany investigated the effects of long-term internal variability on projections of dynamic sea level (DSL) in the 21st century. They ran an ensemble of integrations with different initial atmospheric and oceanic conditions. The resulting ensemble spread shows that sea level projections strongly depend on ocean initial conditions.
Read the article
Including level of consensus in sea level projections
Expert opinions on the contribution of ice sheets to future sea level rise can be highly divergent. Yet, the level of consensus is not reflected in the data analysis. Hence, a study from KNMI and IMAU, The Netherlands makes a case for taking into account the consensus level. When they applied their method to a recent study they obtained a considerably lower estimate of future sea level rise.
Read the article
hydrological cycles
NASA’s soil moisture mission begins science operations
The agency launched its Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission in January this year. It generated its first global soil moisture maps and will be able to detect whether soils are frozen or thawed. The mission is expected to help understand the links between water, energy and carbon cycles, improve weather and climate forecasting and predict droughts and floods.
Further information
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community research and development information service (cordis)
Documentation of Arctic ECRA
The European Commission’s CORDIS reported about Arctic ECRA’s session at the General Assembly in March. The article introduces the science of Arctic climate change and reports on some of the key issues debated at the session.
Read the documentation
european environment agency (eea)
Report published: The European Environment – state and outlook 2015
The SOER is an assessment of the European environment’s state and prospects, published every five years. Its key message is that EU environment and climate policies have delivered benefits but that Europe is still a long way from achieving its 2050 objectives. The report includes global, regional and national assessments and data as well as cross-country comparisons.
Read the report
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Launch of EU-PolarNet
The new HORIZON 2020 initiative brings together 22 European research institutions from 17 countries to coordinate polar research expertise and infrastructure. The €2 million five-year project will work closely with policymakers especially from the European Commission as well as business and industry in order to create research projects that deliver benefits for society.
Further information
dg environment & dg climate action
Second round of calls for proposal for LIFE Grants
The European Commission has launched new calls for the two LIFE sub-programmes, Environment and Climate Action. They have a budget of ca. €184 million and nearly €57 million, respectively, and cover action grants for “traditional” projects (e.g. biodiversity, climate change mitigation) as well as preparatory, integrated, technical assistance, and capacity building projects. The deadlines for the calls are in autumn 2015.
Further information
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Conference “Our common future under climate change” | 07-10 July 2015 | Paris, France
This four-day conference will be the largest forum for the scientific community to come together ahead of the 21st UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP21), which will be hosted by France in December 2015 (“Paris Climat 2015”). The Conference will address key issues concerning climate change in the broader context of global change. It will offer an opportunity to discuss solutions for both mitigation and adaptation issues. Considered topics: State of Knowledge on Climate Change, Scenarios Exploring Our Common Future, Responding to Climate Change Challenges, Collective Action and Transformative Solutions.
Further information
Earth Observation for Water Cycle Science 2015 I 20-23 October 2015 I ESA-ESRIN, Italy
This conference is co-organized by ESA, GEWEX. The purpose of this conference is to review our knowledge on the water cycle science at different scales in space and time; to advocate for the development of robust satellite geo-information data products to characterise and model the water cycle from global to basin scales; and to foster the improvement of models and data assimilation systems to support local, regional and global water cycle predictions, climate change impacts and development of mitigation strategies in water resources management. Registration is open until September 2015 (abstract submission has been closed).
Further information
Joint regional climate system modelling for the European sea regions I 5-6 November 2015 I Rome, Italy
This workshop is co-organized by the ECRA partners ENEA, Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht and SMHI, and aims to contribute to the understanding of regional energy, momentum, water, and matter fluxes and their effects on the regional climate using observations and Regional Climate System Models (RCSMs) encompassing processes in the atmosphere, land, sea, and anthroposphere.
Further information
International Conference on Regional Climate: CORDEX 2016 (ICRC:CORDEX 2016) I 17-20 May 2016 I Stockholm, Sweden
The conference will bring together the international community involved in regional climate research and its applications, with particular emphasis on CORDEX and related WCRP regional climate activities. It will further promote the CORDEX vision to advance and coordinate the science and application of regional climate downscaling through global partnerships.
First conference announcement and more information
JPI Climate workshops I Brussels, Belgium
JPI Climate organizes workshops for scientists who are involved in the field of Climate Services e.g. Workshop Demand driven climate services in Europe e.g. JPI Climate Knowledge Usability WORK-Shop (17 June 2015, Brussels), etc.
More information
Climate Adaptation for Futures – practices and solutions I 10-13 May 2016 I Rotterdam, Netherlands
Adaptation Futures is the biennial conference of the Global Programme of Research on Climate Change Vulnerability, Impacts and Adaptation (PROVIA). In 2016 the European Commission and the Government of the Netherlands will co-host the fourth edition. It is addressed to all sectors and all parts of the world and will highlight adaptation practices and solutions for people, governments and businesses.
Further information
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ECRA General Assembly March 2015 – Conference documentation
The ECRA General Assembly counted 170 participants from Academia/Research, European Commission, as well as NGO’s and other representations. Future challenges posed by climate change were discussed in the context of research priorities, providing a comprehensive and robust knowledge base for future mitigation and adaptation measures. The conference saw a discussion on participation and collaboration in climate research between scientists and policymakers, and scientific presentations from the four Collaborative Programmes.
See the documentation
ECRA Collaborative Programme Sea Level change and coastal impacts
An ECRA meeting of the CP Sea level Change took place on 9 June 2015, ahead of the workshop “Global and regional seal level variability and change” (10-12 June 2015, Palma, Mallorca) to further develop collaboration for the scientific community working in Sea level change. ECRA gave a presentation at the workshop by ECRA Co-chairs Gianmaria Sannino/Jan Even Nilsen. Together with the workshop organization, ECRA awarded five students with conference grants: Leonor Mendoza (TU Darmstadt/Germany), Marcello Passaro (University of Southampton Waterfronts Campus, UK), Guillaume Sérazin (CNRS-CERFACS, Toulouse/France), Hilkka Pelikka (Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki/Finland), Christopher G. Piecuch (Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Lexington, US).
More information |
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