The Future of Earth’s Polar Regions

Coordinators: Qinghua Ding, Helene Seroussi, Gunilla Svensson, Patrick Taylor, and Andrew Thompson

The Conference will be devoted to discussions about how the polar climate system will evolve in a warming world. It will focus on understanding key physical processes and interactions between different components of the polar climate with a view towards improving projections of future polar climate. We will recruit a diverse group of participants across research fields, career stage, gender, geographical origin, under-represented groups, from around the world. Sessions will cover topics such as: 1) physical processes, their representation in observations and models, and their importance in a warmer world, 2) feedbacks and interactions between components of the polar climate system, 3) how to learn from the past to improve future predictions, 4) the role of polar regions in an evolving global climate system, and 5) how to leverage technological advances to enable a sustained polar observing system.

This conference is allowing submissions of the following types:

  • Posters
  • Contributed talks

The priority submission deadline is May 25th, 2025. Visit your conference registration site.

2025

Monday, Jun 23, 2025

  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 08:50AM State of polar systems and variability Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Mark Bowick (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Patrick Taylor (NASA Langley) The Great Unfreezing: A brief history of the rapidly changing Arctic
    • 09:45AM Michael Previdi (LDEO) Effective Heat Capacity and Its Role in Arctic Amplification
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 11:00AM State of polar systems and variability Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Helen Fricker (UCSD) TBD
    • 11:45AM Marika Holland (NCAR) TBD
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Andrew Thompson (Caltech) 02:00PM Physical Processes in the Polar Climate System and their representation in models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Claudia Czimczik (UCI) Permafrost Carbon: Lessons from Long-Term Climate Change Experiments
    • 02:45PM Lilian Dove (Brown) Ocean ventilation in an increasingly stratified Southern Ocean
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Andrew Thompson (Caltech) 04:00PM Physical Processes in the Polar Climate System and their representation in models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Lily Hahn (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography) Large uncertainty in Arctic warming driven by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
    • 04:45PM François Massonnet (UC Louvain) Towards a decade of rapid sea ice loss?
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2025

Monday, Jun 23, 2025

  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 08:50AM State of polar systems and variability Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 08:50AM Mark Bowick (KITP) Welcome
    • 09:00AM Patrick Taylor (NASA Langley) The Great Unfreezing: A brief history of the rapidly changing Arctic
    • 09:45AM Michael Previdi (LDEO) Effective Heat Capacity and Its Role in Arctic Amplification
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 11:00AM State of polar systems and variability Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Helen Fricker (UCSD) TBD
    • 11:45AM Marika Holland (NCAR) TBD
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Andrew Thompson (Caltech) 02:00PM Physical Processes in the Polar Climate System and their representation in models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Claudia Czimczik (UCI) Permafrost Carbon: Lessons from Long-Term Climate Change Experiments
    • 02:45PM Lilian Dove (Brown) Ocean ventilation in an increasingly stratified Southern Ocean
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Andrew Thompson (Caltech) 04:00PM Physical Processes in the Polar Climate System and their representation in models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Lily Hahn (Scripps Inst. of Oceanography) Large uncertainty in Arctic warming driven by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
    • 04:45PM François Massonnet (UC Louvain) Towards a decade of rapid sea ice loss?
  • 05:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2025

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

  • Chair: Mathieu Morlighem (Dartmouth) 09:00AM Ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Qiang Wang (Alfred Wegener Inst.) Changes in Arctic Ocean eddy activity and eddy-sea ice interaction under climate warming
    • 09:45AM Ethan Campbell (Washington) Lagrangian reconstruction of snow evolution on Antarctic sea ice
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Mathieu Morlighem (Dartmouth) 11:00AM Ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Earle Wilson (Stanford) From record expansion to unprecedented retreat: constraining the upper ocean’s contributions to two decades of Antarctic sea ice extremes
    • 11:45AM Wilbert Weijer (LANL) Interactions between the Arctic and lower-latitude oceans
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 02:00PM Ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Till Wagner (UW-Madison) Differences in calving styles at tidewater glaciers explained by horizontal stress balance
    • 02:22PM Yoshihiro Nakayama (Hokkaido Univ.) Development of ECCO downscaled regional simulations of the Antarctic continental shelves
    • 02:44PM Alexandra Jahn (CU Boulder) Projections of the first sea ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean
    • 03:06PM Lars Aue (Alfred Wegener Inst.) Serial clustering of Arctic cyclones: A new perspective on Arctic weather extremes and their impact on sea ice
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Helene Seroussi (Dartmouth) 04:00PM Poster Session Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2025

Wednesday, Jun 25, 2025

  • Chair: Qinghua Ding (UCSB) 09:00AM Beyond the Poles and the Present: Teleconnections and Paleoclimate Perspectives Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Sarah Kang (MPI-M) The Far-Reaching Impacts of Extratropical Climate Perturbations
    • 09:45AM Xiyue Zhang (Nevada) Robust Yet Diverse Southern Ocean Teleconnection from Antarctic
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Qinghua Ding (UCSB) 11:00AM Beyond the Poles and the Present: Teleconnections and Paleoclimate Perspectives Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Eric Steig (Washington) Ice-core constraints on recent climate forcing of ice-sheet change
    • 11:45AM Sarah Shackleton (Woods Hole) Extending ice core records into the Pliocene using Antarctic blue ice areas
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Patrick Taylor (NASA Langley) 02:00PM Technological Advances for Observations Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 02:00PM Catherine Walker (Woods Hole) Observations at the physical process scale: Increasing necessity, emerging capabilities, and ongoing progress
    • 02:45PM Ellen Buckley (UIUC) Signals of Sea Ice Change: Insights from Remote Sensing in the Polar Regions
  • 03:30PM AFTERNOON BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Patrick Taylor (NASA Langley) 04:00PM Technological Advances for Observations Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 04:00PM Craig Lee (Washington) Sustained Autonomous Observing in Ice-Covered Environments
    • 04:45PM Rebecca Jackson (Tufts Univ.) Where glaciers meet the ocean: testing theories for submarine melt with observations from autonomous vessels
  • 05:30PM RECEPTION Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 06:00PM SPECIAL EVENTS DINNER Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 07:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI Gurley Courtyard

     

2025

Thursday, Jun 26, 2025

  • Chair: Alexander Robel (Georgia Tech) 09:00AM Improving Predictions with the next generation of models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 09:00AM Gavin Schmidt (GSFC) Characterization and impacts of anomalous freshwater from melting ice sheets and shelves
    • 09:45AM Alice Du Vivier (NCAR) Opportunities and challenges with state-of-the-art modeling of sea ice processes
  • 10:30AM MORNING BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • Chair: Alexander Robel (Georgia Tech) 11:00AM Improving Predictions with the next generation of models Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
    • 11:00AM Paul Summers (Rutgers) GLACIOME: The Coupled Glacier/Ocean/Mélange Model
    • 11:23AM Gong Cheng (Dartmouth) A Python library for solving ice sheet modeling problems using Physics Informed Neural Networks, PINNICLE
    • 11:45AM Ching Yao Lai (Stanford) Inferring Constitutive Models of Antarctic Glacial Ice via Physics-Informed Deep Learning
  • 12:30PM LUNCH BREAK Gurley Courtyard

     
  • 02:00PM Panel Discussion Fred Kavli Auditorium (Main)

     
  • 03:30PM SHUTTLE TO BWSCI *Also available to SB Airport and SB Airbus, Goleta location. (See Registration Desk BEFORE THURSDAY to sign up.) Gurley Courtyard

     

2025

Friday, Jun 27, 2025

No talks scheduled.

2025

Saturday, Jun 28, 2025

No talks scheduled.

2025

Sunday, Jun 29, 2025

No talks scheduled.