The Year of Polar Prediction aims to improve environmental prediction capabilities for the polar regions and beyond. (Photo: DC Productions/Photodisc/Thinkstock)
June 2019 marks the official start of the Year of Polar Prediction’s three-year Consolidation Phase. On 24 and 25 June, three webinars will highlight the achievements of the WMO’s Year of Polar Prediction to date and the challenges that lie ahead.
The Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) aims to deliver enhanced prediction capabilities in the polar regions. In the Consolidation Phase, the data collected during the YOPP Core Phase will be made available to improve predictive models and to create reliable forecast products for people living and working in the polar regions.
Revised YOPP Implementation Plan
While cutting-edge science will also underpin the upcoming phase, the challenge for the Polar Prediction Project is to translate the scientific insights gained during the Core Phase into more reliable weather and sea ice forecast services. In addition to consolidating and synthesising YOPP research and science, it will be necessary to prepare the ground for a post-YOPP structure of coordination and communication so that the work initiated by the Year of Polar Prediction can continue.
To provide guidelines and structures on how to realise these goals, the third version of the YOPP Implementation Plan will be published in late June. This document updates the previous two versions of the plan, giving detailed descriptions of actions during the YOPP Consolidation Phase, including strategies and objectives in light of the results achieved until now.
Three webinars
To launch the new exciting period that lies ahead, the Polar Prediction Project (PPP) invites everyone to join three webinars. Participants will be given an overview of the work carried out as part of YOPP so far, and they will have a chance to ask questions about the concluding elements of the Polar Prediction Project.
The first webinar, hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), will take place on Monday, 24 June 2019 from 09:00 to 10:30 UTC. The chair of the PPP Steering Group, Thomas Jung, will provide an overview of the YOPP Core Phase and the plans for the Consolidation Phase. If you have any questions, please send an email to: office@polarprediction.net.
A second webinar, hosted by ECMWF, will take place later that day, from 15:00 to 15:45 UTC. PPP Steering Group member Irina Sandu will talk about how YOPP helps to address challenges in modelling, observations and data assimilation – all key ingredients of numerical weather prediction.
A third webinar will be run by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on 25 June 2019. At 15:00 UTC, PPP Steering Group member Greg Smith will talk about YOPP activities at ECCC and efforts towards improved sea-ice forecasting.
Webinar recording
Update on 25 June 2019: recordings of the first and second webinars, hosted by AWI and ECMWF respectively, are now available and can be viewed below.