Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Surface Temperatures at EGU 2014 - now in PICO format

A guest post by Stephan Matthiesen of the Earthtemp Initiative

Following last year's success, the EarthTemp Network is again organising a session at the EGU 2014 and are looking for abstract submissions. The deadline is 16 Jan., and the EGU Assembly is 27 April - 2 May 2014.

The session "Taking the temperature of the Earth: Temperature Variability and Change across all Domains of Earth's Surface" is motivated by the need for better understanding of in-situ measurements and satellite observations to quantify surface temperatures and invites contributions that emphasize sharing knowledge and make connections across different domains and sub-disciplines. They can include, but are not limited to, topics such as:
  • How to improve remote sensing of ST in different environments
  • Challenges from changes of in-situ observing networks over time
  • Current understanding of how different types of ST inter-­relate
  • Nature of errors and uncertainties in ST observations
  • Mutual/integrated quality control between satellite and in-situ observing systems.
  • What do users of surface temperature data require for practical applications (e.g. in environmental or health sciences)?
We are also excited to try out the new interactive PICO format. PICO (Presenting Interactive COntent) is a new session format developed by EGU designed to be more interactive and specifically to encourage more interaction between presenters and audience.

In practice, this means that there will not be the traditional split between oral presentations and poster session. Each author will get her/his 2 minutes of oral presentation in front of the whole audience. Once this general presentation is over, each author gets their "own" screen and can show the complete presentation, with plenty of time for discussions.

We are thrilled to try out this new format, as it supports the vision of the EarthTemp Network to experiment with new ways of encouraging dialogue and collaborations.

We hope you will help us making this session again a big success with your submissions. The convener is happy to answer all questions about the new PICO format and help with technical issues,
so that your contribution will have an impact.

Abstracts can be submitted (deadline 16 January 2014) through the session website.

Some more information on the EarthTemp Network can be found on the EarthTemp Network Website. We have also just published the final version of the EarthTemp position paper, arising from the first workshop in Edinburgh, in the EGU open access journal Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems:

Merchant, C. J., Matthiesen, S., Rayner, N. A., Remedios, J. J., Jones, P. D., Olesen, F., Trewin, B., Thorne, P. W., Auchmann, R., Corlett, G. K., Guillevic, P. C., and Hulley, G. C.: The surface temperatures of Earth: steps towards integrated understanding of variability and change, Geosci. Instrum. Method. Data Syst., 2, 305-321, doi:10.5194/gi-2-305-2013, 2013.