We are pleased to inform you that the organization of the 44^th Scientific Assembly of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) has entered its final year of preparation. COSPAR Athens 2022 will be held in Athens, Greece, on July 16-24, 2022, at the  Megaron Athens International Conference Center.

The objectives of COSPAR Assemblies are invariably “to promote on an international level scientific research in space, with emphasis on the exchange of results, information and opinions and to provide a forum, open to all scientists, for the discussion of problems that may affect scientific space research”. The Science Program Committee (SPC) and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for COSPAR Athens 2022 remain committed to fulfilling these objectives and invite the world’s scientific community to participate in this truly global biennial event, alternating between continents from one to the next. 

We are planning on the physical participation of global attendees and accompanying persons, aiming to organize one of the first in-person, large-scale and top-level scientific meetings in the post-Covid era. One can hardly miss the symbolism of this happening in Greece, the cradle of astronomy and scientific reasoning.

As per the above, we are excited to forward to you the attached COSPAR Athens 2022 Sponsorship Booklet that includes all sponsorship opportunities available for the event. Through these, you have an opportunity to

• Interact face to face with top professionals in space research
• Deliver product and service demonstrations, expanding your prospect base and generating new sales leads
• Build visibility for your company in a competitive, steadily expanding marketplace
• Maximize your exposure within the scientific and space technology communities
• Target new customers and rebuild existing relationships
• Increase awareness and recognition of your brand
• Target and interact with highly influential decision makers and opinion leaders

For additional information and/or clarifications, you may contact directly the COSPAR 2022 LOC/Assembly On-site Secretariat and Professional Congress Organizer (AFEA) at

We profoundly value your support and presence as a Sponsor, as we firmly believe that the success of this event relies significantly on a vibrant group of motivated and creative sponsors accompanying the scientific and technological state-of-the-art to be presented in the Assembly’s framework.

The Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) Project of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is launching an open call for nominations to its Scientific Steering Group (SSG) for the period 2022-2025.

The SSG is the governing body of CliC and has the overall responsibility for planning, and implementing the CliC strategy plan and monitoring its activities. The SSG helps shape the international research agenda and functions as an integrator of activities to avoid duplication of efforts. CliC´s vision for the coming decade is to ” facilitate collaborative, international research, and its communication, targeting the global and regional cryosphere (bridging across climate, ecosystems, human society) and their change, from local to regional to global scales, to address societal needs”. 

SSG membership is initially for four years with possibility for two extensions of two years each. The CliC SSG meets once a year.

 SSG Terms of Reference:

•  Provide scientific guidance and oversight to CliC community and its activities
• Oversee specific CliC existing activities and launch new ones
• Liaise with other activities within WCRP and with the international cryospheric research community at large, partners, agencies and organisations. 
• Engage with Early Career Researchers (ECR) networks (e.g., APECS, YESS, etc)
• Represent the CliC community in academic meetings and events

We seek nominations and self-nominations from scientists active in cryosphere-related research, both in the natural and social sciences, including those studying the interaction of e.g., ecosystems, fisheries and communities with the one or more cryosphere components. Candidates from South America, Africa and Asia are particularly encouraged to apply.  

To apply, please fill in the application form. Deadline 31st October 2021

For inquiries about the position please contact CliC co-chairs Fiammetta Straneo or James Renwick

For questions about the application form, please contact

Visit the CliC homepage at https://www.climate-cryosphere.org/

We are currently inviting nominations from highly enthusiastic and dedicated experts to  become a member of the SPARC Scientific Steering Group (SSG) – you can either nominate a candidate or nominate yourself. The SSG and co-chairs guide SPARC’s priorities and research activities and work together with, and are supported by, the SPARC project office. The SSG provides leadership for SPARC and represents a broad spectrum of disciplines and nationalities, including both junior and senior scientists. The duties and responsibilities of SSG members are outlined in the Terms of Reference. SSG members are expected to provide scientific guidance and oversight to the SPARC community and its activities and participate in developing and reviewing the scientific strategy for the SPARC community.

More information and the online form for your (self-)nomination can be found here.

The four-year membership term will be from January 2023 – December 2026, with a possible two year extension. Among all applications received, the current SSG and co-chairs will propose new members for final approval by the Joint Scientific Committee (JSC). 

The deadline for submitting your nomination is 21 November 2021. (Self-)Nominations can be submitted through an online form on the SPARC website or via email to the SPARC project office.

Following the IGAC2021 Virtual Conference, there are several side meetings scheduled to discuss IGAC-related scientific collaborations happening NEXT WEEK. These are open to the general IGAC Community, not just those registered to attend the conference.  Keep up to date with the schedule here and see below for more information on the side meetings happening the week of September 20, 2021.  Sept 20, 2021 11:00-13:00 UTC Southern Hemispheres Working Group Side Meeting Short Description of Meeting: Learn more about the Southern Hemispheres Working Group and how to connect and collaborate.  Join at the meeting time via zoom link here Sept 22, 2021 14:00-16:00 UTC Time to reignite an IGAC activity on biomass burning? – open discussion Short Description of Meeting: Is there a need for an IGAC-sponsored activity surrounding biomass burning? What other international collaborative structures exist that the IGAC community can tap into?  Join at the meeting time via zoom link here Sep 24, 2021 13:00-15:00 UTC NUNATAK Laboratories Discussion, Click to register here Short Description of Meeting: The Centre for Environmental Technologies (CETAM-USM) has two Refuge Laboratories in the Chilean Central Andes mountain (CCA), namely, NUNATAK-1 on 3,000 masl (-32.844, -70.129), and NUNATAK-2 on 2,500 masl (-33.665, -70.086), in which the impact of environmental pollution is studied through the atmosphere-cryosphere interaction on this mountain. For this purpose, we have installed these NUNATAKS that are mobile, autonomous, and collaborative for the study of pollution in the glaciers of the CCA. The NUNATAKS is also a secure platform for Chilean and international researchers to place their equipment to measure and study the atmosphere and cryosphere of the CCA. NUNATAKS is equipped with several equipment for continuous monitoring of air quality (BC, PM1, PM2.5, PM10, Radon, CO, NO, NO2, O3, H2S, SO2, NH3, VOCs, NMHC, etc.), broadband albedo, solar radiation, and meteorology. In addition, the NUNATAKS work as platforms to support snow samples collection, and they have space to accommodate several people during scientific campaigns. Therefore, through this meeting, we hope to publicize its existence, discuss possible collaboration, and installation of measurement equipment for international atmospheric chemistry teams.

Starting with October 2021, we are happy to restart our series of open, online short courses on data discovery for weather, oceanography, air quality and climate.

We would once again appreciate your support in advertising the series via your accounts and communications channels.

The events are open to all and address a wide range of attendees, from service providers to young (and less young) scientists and forecasters. Each event includes a webinar on Zoom, a demonstration of data discovery and application. We believe they are a great opportunity to both explore the data and engage in discussion with EUMETSAT experts and colleagues.

The schedule, information about registration and the course pages are available on the EUMETSAT training platform.

Please let us know if you need any additional information.

We would like to inform you about our upcoming series of webinars, the Climate Coffees.

The European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA), and Blue-Action have started a collaboration to host the Climate Coffees, a series of regular informal discussion events around climate science. The speakers provide a short talk, followed by discussion, questions and comments.

Sign up for updates by sending a message to this address:  or by checking in on updates on the event website on http://ecra-climate.eu/ClimateCoffee.

See below for the upcoming events and topics:

Thursday, 16. September 2021: Rasmus Benestad, Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Norway

on the Norwegian approach to Downscaling (TBC) join on Zoom

Thursday, 30. September 2021: Ralf Ludwig, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich; Department of Geography (homepage)

Impact and attribution of extreme events using large, hydro-meteorological model ensembles join on Zoom

Thursday, 14. October 2021: Magdalena Mittermeier, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich; Department of Geography (homepage)

Studying Climate Change Effects on Extreme Weather Patterns using Neural Networks join on Zoom

Thursday, 28. October 2021: Len Shaffrey, National Centre for Atmospheric Science,Department of Meteorology,  University of Reading, Reading (homepage)

How will climate change affect North Atlantic storms? join on Zoom

emtpy slots – let us know if you want to contribute!

Thursday, 11. November 2021 
Thursday, 25. November 2021

Andrew Charlton-Perez has recently taken up an exciting new position at the University of Reading. As such, he has had to step down as Co-chair of the WCRP Academy Lighthouse Activity – although we are delighted that he will stay on for a year as part of the Academy team. We also thank Andrew for the tremendous job he has done since last October in advancing the Academy from a couple of pages of draft ideas to a well-structured and focused activity.
To identify a new co-chair for the Academy, we have opened a call for self-nominations for the role. The appointed co-chair will work with Angela Maharaj to take the activity forward. Please see the details of the role and how to apply on the WCRP website.

The deadline for self-nominations is 1 October 2021.
Please share this call with anyone who you think might be interested and/or let us know if you know of anyone who would have the experience and energy to take on this role.

The 102^nd American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting will be held on 23–27 January 2022 in Houston, Texas.

The meeting will be in person with some virtual components. More information can be found on the AMS 2022 website. Information on registration rates are available here .

The abstract submission deadline is 8 September 2021.

A number of conferences of interest to the SPARC community have been organised for this meeting. The following is a non-exhaustive list:

21st Conference on Middle Atmosphere

35th Conference on Climate Variability and Change

24th Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry

10th Symposium on the Madden-Julian Oscillation and Sub-Seasonal Monsoon Variability