The 27th Session of the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group was Organized Successfully Online
The 27th Session of the CLIVAR Scientific Steering Group (SSG) took place on April 1, 4 & 5. Given the situation of the COVID pandemic, and to reduce our carbon footprint, the SSG-27 was held in a completely online format. This year, it focused more on internal WCRP and CLIVAR business, bringing together over 40 scientists from all over the world, including the CLIVAR SSG members, co-chairs of CLIVAR panels, Research Foci (RF) and WCRP Sea Level Grand Challenge (GC), as well as the invited representatives from the UN Ocean Decade, US CLIVAR, WCRP Secretariat, and from the five WCRP Lighthouse Activities (LHA) and the two new WCRP Core Projects.
To accommodate the online mode and different time zones, the session was split into 3 days, with participants gathering for approximately 4 hours each day. On the first day, representatives from the WCRP LHAs, new Core Projects and from the UN Ocean Decade and US CLIVAR outlined their activities and brought up with ideas for possible future collaboration with CLIVAR. Participants were also updated with the status of the multi-panel workshop on ocean observation, which is to be organized in Italy this year, and constructive comments were received for including blue carbon as a topic and involving representatives from WCRP LHAs and new core projects
Activities and plans of CLIVAR panels were reported by panel co-chairs on Day 2, and those of RFs and the SL GC on Day 3. During the plenary discussion on Day 2, the SSG put emphasis on the capability building for Early Career Scientists, and discussed the experience and lessons learned of new meeting formats (hybrid, online), the knowledge exchange between panels, as well as the WCRP Open Science Conference. Jose Santos, Executive Director of ICPO, also reported the secretarial updates on Day 3. The CLIVAR leadership then had great discussions on future RFs, CLIVAR summer schools, cross-panel activities, and the 3rd CLIVAR Open Science Conference.
Comments and suggestions to panel/RF/GC business were given during the reports and will be sorted out and distributed to each panel/RF/GC soon by the ICPO, covering suggestions on future work, interaction with other groups or projects, financial guidelines, etc.
The full report of this meeting is available online.
