HiMAC2020 Online Forum for Sino-Finnish Cryosphere Collaboration Held

A special HiMAC2020 online forum was held on 21 December 2020 to review the cryosphere scientific collaboration between China and Finland in snow, ice modeling and observations, which was attended by 76 scientists from both countries.

The forum was organized by the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR) of Helsinki University (HU), Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX), National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center (NMEFC), Polar Research Institute of China (PRIC) and Dalian University of Technology (DUT).

Dr. Prof. CHENG Bin, an overseas expert to Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and senior scientist of the FMI, opened the forum. Prof. Matti J. Lepparanta reviewed the cryosphere scientific collaboration between China and Finland since 1988. Prof. WU Huiding from NMEFC, Dr. ZHANG Zhanhai from the Ministry of Natural Resources, and Prof. LI from DUT shared their research experiences and cooperation with Finland.

More than 10 scientists from China and Finland presented their cooperation in the fields of Earth observations for forecast, including remote sensing of snow and ice, sea ice forecast, polar observations, meteorology/climatology. Dr. Juha Lemmetyinen from FMI introduced the joint center between AIR and FMI from the aspects of data sharing, remote sensing of snow and ice. Dr. Hanna K Lappalainen, Secretary General of PEEX, introduced cooperation experience between China and Finland within the framework of PEEX.

Dr. QIU Yubao from AIR, the co-chair of HiMAC working group, chaired the discussion session on possible extensive disciplinary and perspectives for future collaboration, and planning scientific workshop on Earth observations, modeling of snow and ice, atmosphere in support of Earth system science in 2021. Scientists from both sides called for more chances on multi-level cooperation in the fields of snow and ice, polar observation, and climate change in the future, especially in the hardships of Convid-19 pandemic.