Workshop Announcement
Short-lived Pollutants and Arctic Climate (SPAC) Workshop
5-7 November 2007
Kjeller, Norway
Registration Deadline: 10 September 2007
For further information, please go to:
http://niflheim.nilu.no/spac
or contact:
John Burkhart
Norwegian Institute for Air Research
E-mail: jfb [at] nilu.no
The 2nd Short-lived Pollutants and Arctic Climate (SPAC) Workshop will
be held on 5-7 November 2007 at the Norwegian Institute for Air
Research (NILU) in Kjeller, Norway. The workshop is one of a series
planned for the International Polar Year following an initial SPAC
workshop held in January 2007 at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space
Sciences (GISS) in New York.
The goal of the 2nd SPAC workshop will be to assess the current
understanding of the impact of short-lived pollutants on arctic climate
and outline research that is needed to further that understanding. The
workshop is to be held before the bulk of the IPY measurement season in
order to inform, coordinate, and improve measurement and modeling
activities during IPY. Maximizing the scientific knowledge gained from
IPY activities will depend on integrating measurement and modeling
activities, so a primary objective of these workshops will be to promote
focused discussion between those doing field measurements and those
following up with modeling.
Subsequent workshops will be planned to synthesize progress based on
numerous IPY activities. Specific topics to be addressed at the 2nd SPAC
workshop include, but are not limited to:
- Aerosol-cloud interactions: Forcing and temperature change at the
surface is expected to vary based on seasonality of solar radiation,
pollution, and cloud types. What measurements and models are required to
assess net forcing and how can these be achieved and coordinated during
planned IPY missions?
- Impacts of black carbon (BC): What is the net forcing due to BC when
the direct, indirect, and deposition forcings of BC are all taken into
account? How can this best be resolved with measurements and modeling
activities planned for the IPY missions?
- Interplay between NOx, ozone, and methane: What should be targeted for
emission reductions in source regions to the Arctic and within the
Arctic? This may be a particularly timely discussion in the event of
increased shipping activities over the next decades.
In connection with the scientific workshop, a follow-up policy
conference is in the planning stages to overlap the close of the
workshop with a subsequent full day of discussions on 8 November 2007.
The policy discussions will explore the potential implications of these
research findings for the international climate regime, including the
possibility for an Arctic-specific initiative given the urgent need to
slow current melting, international support for intensified research
efforts, and potential early mitigation efforts.
For further information and to register for the workshop, please go to:
http://niflheim.nilu.no/spac