Activities

Thursday, 18 December at AGU, 13:30 to 14:30, Hall EFG (Poster Hall) Pod 3 (MCCNO) 

The QuIESCENT and CATCH international scientific groups invite you to drop by and share your ideas and plans with us and your colleagues for Arctic aerosol-cloud interaction research for the upcoming International Polar Year (IPY-5). Our goal is to take stock of ongoing initiatives in IPY planning and to improve community coordination on related field and model work activities. Information from the informal discussions will be shared afterwards with the IPY and Arctic research communities.

Vienna, Austria & Online | 3–8 May 2026

The Arctic region is warming at a rate four times faster than the global average, yet aerosol-cloud interactions remain poorly constrained and represent one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate models — particularly in this rapidly changing environment. Mixed-phase clouds, ubiquitous in the Arctic, contribute significantly to this uncertainty due to their complex and poorly understood dynamics. This session, organized under the QuiESCENT (Quantifying the Indirect Effect: from Sources to Climate Effects of Natural and Transported aerosol in the Arctic) program, aims to discuss by bridging disciplinary gaps by bringing together scientists specializing in aerosols and clouds, physics and chemistry, and observations and modeling. We invite contributions that advance our understanding of Arctic cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice-nucleating particles (INPs), their impact on clouds and climate, and strategies to improve their parametrization in models.

Key topics include:

- The contrasting effects of anthropogenic pollution and natural aerosols on arctic cloud microphysics and climate

- The role of aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in determining Arctic boundary layer mixing and the processing of local pollution

- The influence of boundary layer structure and dynamics on the formation, development, and spatial distribution of Arctic clouds, as well as their interactions with aerosol particles

This session welcomes studies utilizing field campaigns, ground- and satellite-based observations, modeling, and long-term measurements to characterize the evolving Arctic aerosol population. Special emphasis will be placed on efforts to better parametrize cloud processes, including phase partitioning and microphysics, to reduce uncertainties in climate projections.