Reflections from the second annual PCAPS Steering Group Meeting in Cambridge, UK – 14 to 17 April 2025

The second annual PCAPS Steering Group (SG) meeting was held at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Headquarters in Cambridge, UK from 14 to 17 April 2025. This meeting provided the SG the opportunity to hold extended discussions on PCAPS’ progress since the previous annual meeting in Hobart, Australia in March 2024. Furthermore, the PCAPS SG used the meeting as an opportunity to further develop and refine plans for PCAPS for the rest of 2025 and for 2026. In addition, an important component of the annual PCAPS SG meetings is the Open Session, which is held with users of polar environmental services from across the host country and region.

Group photo from the PCAPS SG Annual Meeting 2025 in Cambridge, UK. Photo credit: Nico Caltabiano.

Open Session

The 2025 PCAPS Open Session was held on Tuesday afternoon and consisted of two parts: keynote presentations and breakout group discussions. The four keynote speakers were: James Wake from BAS logistics, Aidan Hunter from BAS ecosystem science, Ed Blockley from the UK Met Office and Daniela Liggett from the PCAPS SG. More information on the Open Session is forthcoming in a separate blog post soon.

PCAPS Task Teams

One of the primary focus areas for this meeting was around the PCAPS Task Teams. In particular, the PCAPS SG discussed the results of the recent Open Call for Task Team members and noted with pleasure the strong response to the call, particularly from Early Career Professionals. The meeting in Cambridge allowed each of the Task Teams to review and update their Terms of Reference, develop and/or refine their work programs for the next one to two years, indicate which of the PCAPS Outputs they are expecting to help address as well as begin inter-Task Team coordination and liaison.

PCAPS Project Plan review

A second focus area for this meeting was the review and update of the PCAPS Project Plan, particularly the content of the Outcomes and Outputs Chapter. As per the Task Team discussions, good progress was made and an updated draft of the PCAPS Project Plan is expected in the coming months. In reviewing the project timeline, the PCAPS SG was pleased to note that most of the actions indicated for 2024 and early 2025 are either completed or are well underway, implying that PCAPS is meeting the milestones set out in its Project Plan.

Photo from the PCAPS SG Annual Meeting 2025 in Cambridge, UK. Photo courtesy of the PCAPS SG.

Investigating options to improve surface wind and visibility prediction

A key action item from this meeting is the development of a workshop in Stockholm in October 2025 where the Processes Task Team will investigate what options there are to address some of the user concerns about forecasting surface wind speed and direction as well as visibility. This workshop will be informed by work undertaken by the Services and Actionability Task Team and the Sustainability Task Team. The outcomes from this workshop are expected to feed into recommendations from PCAPS to WMO for IPY-5.

Education and Training material for Early Career Professionals (ECP)

The Sustainability Task Team is planning to look into options for developing educational and training materials for a group of post-graduate students participating in the Joint Canada-Sweden Summer School on the Swedish ice breaker Oden in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Field Campaign Data

In addition, as noted in the brief report above on this year’s Open Session, the PCAPS SG also expressed concerns about the difficulty in finding out about and accessing data from polar focussed field campaigns and how to get more field campaign data into the WMO GTS/WIS system so it could be used operationally. A group will be formed within the PCAPS SG to further investigate what PCAPS can do to assist other groups in WMO and the wider community to address this issue. The issue is particularly important with IPY-5 coming up in 2032/2033.

Concluding comments

The PCAPS SG was pleased with the number of WWRP-PCAPS Endorsed Projects who joined this session online, noting that this signals an opportunity for further engagement and cooperation. Given the volunteer nature of WWRP projects, the WWRP-PCAPS Endorsed Projects are critical for PCAPS to fulfill its ambitious goals.

The PCAPS Co-Chairs also are happy to report on the very positive and enthusiastic manner in which the meeting had been conducted, with open discussion and consideration of others views in reaching consensus and decisions. This aspect of PCAPS’ work is important to report on, as it helps encourage and engage not only the PCAPS SG, but others who work with PCAPS.

The next annual PCAPS-SG meeting is tentatively scheduled for August 2026 in Oslo around the SCAR Open Science Conference.