SAON News
Due to the increasing concerns with regard to the weather and climate of the Polar Regions, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has established a ten-year Polar Prediction Project (PPP) under the auspices of the WMO World Weather Research Programme (WWRP).
One of the main PPP activities will be the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) in order to enable a significant improvement in the environmental prediction capabilities for the polar regions, and beyond. The core period of YOPP will entail intensive observation and modelling campaigns in both the Arctic and Antarctic scheduled from mid-2017 to mid-2019.
Three Special Observing Periods (SOPs) are planned:
· 1 Feb – 31 Mar 2018 in the Arctic,
· 1 Jul – 30 Sep 2018 in the Arctic and
· 16 Nov 2018 to 15 Feb 2019 in the Antarctic.
For further details please visit the website of the International Coordination Office for Polar Prediction: http://polarprediction.net.
The draft Report of the GEO-XIII Plenary that was held from 9-10 November 2016 in St Petersburg, Russian Federation, and the 2016 Report of the GEO Executive Committee are now available: http://www.earthobservations.org/geo13.php
SAON is a Participating Organisation to GEO as the “Arctic Extension” / liason for GEOSS/GEO.’
INTERACT Transnational Access Call is open for s/s 2017 and a/w 2017/2018
The EU H2020 funded INTERACT (International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic) project opens a call for research groups to apply for Transnational Access to 43 research stations across the Arctic and northern alpine and forest areas in Europe, Russia and North-America. The sites represent a variety of glacier, mountain, tundra, boreal forest, peatland and freshwater ecosystems, providing opportunities for researchers from natural sciences to human dimension.
Transnational Access includes:
- Free access (either physical or remote) for user groups/users to research facilities and field sites, including support for travel and logistic costs
- Free access to information and data in the public domain held at the infrastructures
Eligibility of the applicants:
- The user group leader and the majority of the users must work in a country other than the country(ies) where the installation is located. In other words, a user cannot get access to an infrastructure/installation that is located in the same country where he/she works.
- There should not be a corresponding infrastructure in the country hosting the institution employing the user group’s leader. If such an infrastructure exists, the applicant should show how the specific conditions of the requested visit cannot be met by this national infrastructure.
The call for applications is open on 4th November - 18th December 2016 for transnational access taking place between March 2017 and April 2018. You can find the TA call information, stations available in the call, descriptions of stations and their facilities, and registration to the INTERACCESS on-line application system from the INTERACT website http://www.eu-interact.org/.
SAON is mentioned in the Arctic Herald: https://issuu.com/arctic-herald/docs/ah_03_2016_web
