The 2019 Cryosphere and Atmospheric chemistry (CATCH) Open Science Workshop was held in UC Berkeley, California, USA on 7-8 December 2019.
CATCH activity is an multidisciplinary community of scientists investigating the chemistry, biology, and physics in cold regions of the Earth, including a specific focus on the Arctic region. Members of the CATCH community, representing a wide range of scientific disciplines and 14 countries, recently convened at an open science workshop. The goal of the workshop was to build upon their recent publication Fostering multidisciplinary research on interactions between chemistry, biology, and physics within the coupled cryosphere-atmosphere system by discussing research challenges and identify the most urgent scientific needs. An important part of the workshop was participation from early career scientists in order for them to have direct input into future research coordinated by CATCH, including actions focused on understanding specific Arctic ocean-ice-snow-atmosphere processes. Highlights form the workshop included:
• Demonstrating the multidisciplinary aspect of CATCH, the workshop had five sessions on the following scientifically diverse topics that are relevant to Arctic science: (1) Aerosols and clouds, (2) Atmosphere-cryosphere chemical interaction, (3) Knowledge from ice core record, (4) Microscale and process knowledge, and (5) The role of snow and ice in air pollution within cold/mountain regions.
• Using a new format for each session in order to allow for more discussion time, participants were challenged to give 5-minute flash presentations on current research results highlighting scientific challenges for the wider CATCH community. The discussions following each session resulted in CATCH identifying the research challenges and most urgent scientific needs for each session topic.
• To overcome the research challenges and address the most urgent scientific needs, workshop participants identified four areas that will become working groups in order to advance the CATCH research. These four areas are: (1) Field campaigns and long-term observations, (2) Models, (3) Data, and (4) Outreach.
More information on the workshop is available CATCH website.
More detailed workshop summaries are available from the CATCH activity sponsors:
• International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project, IGACnews Issue 66.
• Surface Ocean Lower Atmosphere Study (SOLAS), Event Report 17.
CATCH, as well as its sponsors IGAC and SOLAS, are grateful for the support provided by IASC for this workshop.