Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences invite to scientific workshop on “Ocean influence on climate and cryosphere in the Arctic” to be held in Sopot on 28-30 November 2011.

The meeting is sponsored by the project AWAKE financed by Polish-Norwegian Fund and co-sponsored by the Committee on Polar Research, Polish Academy of Sciences within a series o biannual conferences “Progress in Polar Research”.

Processes of exchange of energy and moisture between ocean, atmosphere and ice in cryosphere are driving factors of climatic and environmental changes in the global scale. The Arctic plays specific important role in the Earth’s environmental system. The workshop intend to summarize progress in understanding of processes related to interaction between ocean, atmosphere and ice in the Atlantic Arctic. The main objective of the meeting is to clarify the role of ocean and atmospheric circulation in the climate and environmental changes in the high latitudes. It will be a forum for presentation of scientific results of the research project AWAKE (Arctic Climate and Environment of the Nordic Seas and the Svalbard – Greenland Area) and other projects carried within the framework of Committee of Polish Polar Research.

Main topics:

• ocean processes in the Northern Atlantic and Spitsbergen fjords (ocean circulation with special attention to heat transport, heat exchange and balance)
• climate changes in regional and local scale in different time spans (atmospheric circulation, energy balance, sea-land heat and moisture transfer);
• changes of cryosphere on land and on sea (glacier processes driven by climatic and oceanic factors, related feedbacks)
• coupling of climatic, ocean and glacial processes and consequential changes of environment in the Arctic.

The workshop intend to be a cross disciplinary meeting with oral (plenary only) and poster sessions as a leaven for discussion on interactions between sea, atmosphere and ice.