Long-term and large-scale monitoring is necessary to establish past glacier distributions and their changes over time. Such observations – ranging from seasonal mass balances of single glaciers to decadal volume changes of entire regions – are vital to understanding underlying processes and projecting future changes. We thus invite contributions on all aspects of glacier monitoring (e.g., of area, length, volume, temperature, velocity, mass), as well as method comparisons and uncertainty assessments.

Glaciers and ice caps are major contributors to sea-level rise and have large impacts on runoff from glacierized basins. Major mass losses of glaciers and ice caps have been reported around the globe for the recent decades. This is a general session on glaciers outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, emphasizing their past, present and future responses to climate change, and the impacts of glacier change. Although much progress in understanding the link between glaciers and climate and the impacts of their wastage on various systems has recently been achieved, many substantial unknowns remain. It is necessary to acquire more direct observations, both applying novel measurement technologies and releasing unpublished data from previous years, as well as combining in situ observations with new remote sensing products and modelling. In order to improve our understanding of the processes behind the observed glacier changes, the application of models of different complexity in combination with new data sets is crucial. We welcome contributions on all aspects of glacier changes and their impacts – current, past and future – based on field observations, remote sensing and modelling. Studies on the physical processes controlling all components of glacier mass balance are encouraged, as well as assessments of the impact of retreating glaciers and ice caps on sea-level rise, runoff, hazards, and downstream environments and populations.

The evolution of glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets can have a profound impact on the Earth system. Ice mass growth and decay results in the fluctuation of sea levels, alteration of global air and ocean circulation patterns, sculpting of the landscape, and reorganisation of continental drainage. Landforms and sediments provide important information about the dimensions, distribution, and dynamics of former ice masses. This record can be used to understand ice dynamics, reconstruct climate, and refine our understanding of the future response of ice masses to variations in climate. The glacial geological record is also often compared with observations of the modern-day processes at work on Earth. The aim of this session is to bring together researchers focused on reconstructing past glaciations and understanding glacial processes at all spatial scales and from all parts of the world. We welcome studies of all relevant aspects, for example (i) glacial landforms and sediments, (ii) glacial reconstructions and chronologies, (iii) glaciologic and climatic interpretations, and (iv) numerical modelling. While the focus of the session will be Quaternary glaciations, studies from any geological period are encouraged to fully address the diversity of the topic.

The increasing availability of remotely sensed observations, combined with advances in computational capacity, is driving modelling and observational glacier studies towards increasingly large spatial scales. Such large-scale perspectives are of particular relevance, as they impact cross-country policy decisions and shape public discourse. Glaciers play a key role in present-day sea-level rise, seasonal water availability, natural hazards susceptibility and in touristic attractiveness. To tackle the spatial challenge, AI-informed techniques have become of particular interest in terms of computational feasibility, both for data processing and modelling.

This session focuses on advances in observing and modelling mountain glaciers and ice caps at the regional to global scale. We invite both observation- and modelling-based contributions, which may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
• Observation and modelling results that reveal previously underappreciated regional differences in glacier changes or in their dynamics.
• Large-scale impact studies, including glacier contribution to sea level change, susceptibility to natural hazards or changes in water availability from glacierised regions.
• Advances in large-scale modelling (reconciling machine learning (ML) with classical approaches, including physical processes, improving/extending strategies for data assimilation/inverse approaches, refining climatic downscaling, increasing representativeness, etc.)
• Advances in large-scale monitoring (ML-boosted monitoring and interpretation, multi-sensor homogenisation, meta-analysis of ground-based data, process inferences, etc.)
• Development and dissemination of regional to global glacier datasets.

Seasonal snow constitutes a freshwater resource for over a billion people worldwide. Climate warming poses a significant risk to snow water storage, potentially leading to a drastic reduction in water supply and causing adverse effects on the ecosystems. Therefore, understanding seasonal snow dynamics, possible changes, and their implications has become crucial for effective water resources management.

Remote sensing of seasonal snow is a key tool in this regard, as it provides a wide range of techniques and data across various spatial and temporal scales. This technology is essential for monitoring snow properties and their hydrological impacts, enabling a better understanding of the interaction between snow and its environment at a small scale, rapid snow changes, rain-on-snow events, and snow-vegetation interactions.

This session focuses on studies linking remote sensing of seasonal snow to hydrological applications to: (i) quantify snow characteristics (e.g., SWE, snow grain size, albedo, pollution load, snow cover area, snow depth and snow density), (ii) understand and model snow-related processes and dynamics (snowfall, melting, evaporation, wind redistribution and sublimation), (iii) assess the snow hydrological impacts and snow environmental effects.
We welcome contributions that integrate methods and data from diverse technologies, including time-lapse imagery, laser scanning, radar, optical photography, thermal and hyperspectral sensing, as well as emerging applications, across a range of spatial scales (from plot-level to global) and temporal scales (from instantaneous observations to multi-year time series).

Imaging the Earth’s surface and reconstructing its topography to study the landscape and (sub-)surface processes has advanced rapidly over the past two decades, sometimes separately within different geoscience disciplines. New generations of satellites, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), LiDAR systems, Structure-from-Motion (SfM) methods, ground-based systems, and deep learning approaches have made 2D, 3D, and 4D (time series) data acquisition easier, cheaper, and more precise. The spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions of the measurements cover wide ranges of scales, offering the opportunity to study the evolution of the ground surface from local to regional scale with unprecedented detail. Equipped with optimized workflows ranging from digitizing analogue data – such as historical aerial photographs – to processing near-continuous records of topographic change, geoscientists now have a variety of tools to better understand our rapidly changing environments and disentangle anthropogenic from natural drivers.

However, challenges still exist at both methodological and application levels. How to properly acquire images and 3D data in harsh, remote or non-ideal environments? How to process unknown, damaged and/or poorly overlapping digitized analogue photographs? How to assess measurement precision and incorporate this uncertainty in the results and interpretation? How to model complex camera distortions and/or the resulting systematic error? How to deal with large, heterogeneous time series and multi-modal data sets? These questions exemplify situations commonly faced by geoscientists.

In the present session, we invite contributions from a broad range of geoscience disciplines (geomorphology, glaciology, volcanology, hydrology, soil sciences, etc.) to share perspectives about the opportunities, limitations, and challenges that modern 2-4D surface imaging offers across diverse processes and environments. Contributions can cover any aspect of surface imaging and mapping, from new methods, tools, and processing workflows to precision assessments, time series constructions, and specific applications in geosciences. We especially welcome contributions that cover 1) novel data acquisition and processing approaches (including image matching, camera distortion correction, complex signal/image and point cloud processing, and time series construction), 2) data acquisition in complex and fast-changing environments, and 3) innovative applications in geosciences.

Mountain glaciers record climate change over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. They are providing valuable and high-resolution archives of Quaternary and Holocene environmental variability while also serving as sentinels of modern and future climate dynamics. As mountain regions respond rapidly to the current Climate Change, there is an increasing need for research that not only reconstructs past glacier extent and dynamics but also integrates these insights with models, remote sensing, and emerging analytical techniques to understand the processes shaping high-altitude environments today and in the future.
This session invites contributions that advance understanding of mountain glaciations through various methodological approaches, including the integration of geomorphological mapping, geochronology, numerical modelling, and palaeoclimate analysis. Studies addressing cross-regional comparisons, hemispheric linkages, and interdisciplinary frameworks are particularly encouraged, as are those that connect Quaternary glaciations with contemporary glacier change, hazards, and water resource management. By bringing together researchers from a range of disciplines and regions, this session aims to provide a platform for both consolidating established knowledge and introducing innovative perspectives, fostering collaboration across temporal, spatial, and disciplinary boundaries.

Accurately capturing the glacial surface mass balance (SMB) and surface energy budget (SEB) is essential to reconstruct the past and reliably project the future mass change of glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves, and their contribution to global sea level and freshwater supply. Changes in accumulation and surface melt affect glacier mass balance through fluctuations in equilibrium line altitude, snow/ice albedo and extent, surface elevation, rain and meltwater retention in firn. However, adequately accounting for all glacial surface processes and for their associated feedbacks over various spatiotemporal scales remains challenging. Combining observations and simulations across scales is thus crucial to better understand the SMB of glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves.

We invite observational and model-based presentations on past reconstructions and future projections of the SMB and SEB over glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves. We promote research that identifies drivers and further explores changes in rain/snow accumulation and redistribution, meltwater production, retention and refreezing in firn, and subsequent surface runoff, sublimation and blowing snow erosion. We welcome studies using global/regional climate models, SMB-SEB and positive degree day (PDD) models, or machine learning techniques that enhance our understanding of glacial surface processes from local to regional scales. Works combining SMB models with in-situ or remote sensing observations to quantify glacial mass change are also encouraged.

Ice sheets play an active role in the climate system by amplifying, pacing, and potentially driving global climate change over a wide range of time scales. The impact of interactions between ice sheets and climate include changes in atmospheric and ocean temperatures and circulation, global biogeochemical cycles, the global hydrological cycle, vegetation, sea level, and land-surface albedo, which in turn cause additional feedbacks in the climate system. This session will present data from climate proxies and direct measurements and modelling results that examine ice sheet interactions with other components of the climate system over several time scales, ranging from millennial to centennial and even decadal timescales to investigate climate variability. Among other topics, issues to be addressed in this session include ice sheet-climate interactions from glacial-interglacial cycles, the role of ice sheets in Cenozoic global cooling and the mid-Pleistocene transition, reconstructions of past ice sheets and sea level during warmer and colder periods than pre-industrial times, the current and future evolution of the ice sheets, and the role of ice sheets in abrupt climate change.

Dynamic subglacial, supraglacial and englacial water networks play a key role in the flow and stability of glaciers and ice sheets. The accumulation of meltwater on the surface of ice shelves has been hypothesized as a potential mechanism controlling ice-shelf stability, with ice-shelf collapse triggering substantial increases in discharge of grounded ice. Observations and modelling also suggest that complex hydrological networks occur at the base of glaciers and ice sheets and these systems play a prominent role in controlling the flow of grounded ice. This session tackles the urgent need to better understand the fundamental processes involved in glacial hydrology that need to be addressed in order to accurately predict future ice-sheet evolution and mass loss, and ultimately the contribution to sea-level rise.

We seek contributions from both the observational and modelling communities relating to any area of ice-sheet, ice-shelf, or glacier hydrology. This includes but is not limited to: surface hydrology, melt lake and river formation; meltwater processes within the ice and firn; basal hydrology; subglacial lakes; impacts of meltwater on ice-sheet stability and flow; incorporation of any of these processes into large-scale climate and ice-sheet models.

This session is intended to attract a broad range of ice-sheet and glacier modelling contributions, welcoming applied and theoretical contributions. Theoretical topics that are encouraged are higher-order mechanical models, data inversion and assimilation, representation of other earth sub-systems in ice-sheet models, and the incorporation of basal processes, calving dynamics and novel constitutive relationships in these models.

Applications of newer modelling themes to ice-sheets and glaciers past and present are particularly encouraged, in particular those considering ice streams, rapid change, grounding line motion and ice-sheet model intercomparisons.

Oceans are an important interface between the cryosphere and the global climate system, both due to the ocean’s ability to impact ice sheet mass balance and the cryosphere’s influence on global ocean circulation. Processes at the ice-ocean interface play a crucial role in the dynamics of tidewater glaciers and ice shelves, and associated fjord and cavity circulation. However, a complete understanding and accurate representation of these processes in models remains a major challenge and a source of uncertainty for projections of ice mass loss and sea-level rise. Recent work to understand ice-ocean interactions has led to significant progress in theory, idealised models, and coupled ice-ocean models. New observations of processes such as seawater intrusion at grounding lines and channelised ice-shelf melting can provide further insights into our understanding of this important climate interface. These continued efforts are essential for improving projections of future sea-level rise contributions and freshwater fluxes from the Earth’s cryosphere under climate change.
In this session we aim to bring together the most up to date work on ice-ocean interactions across all latitudes, covering in-situ observations, remote-sensing, modelling and theory. We seek a bi-directional perspective, investigating both the impact of the ocean on the cryosphere and vice-versa, from small scale physical processes to global impacts. Topics for submission include, but are not limited to: coupled ice-ocean models, ice shelf cavity and fjord circulation, ice melange, subglacial meltwater plumes, basal and submarine melting and freshwater fluxes into the ocean. New observational datasets and methodologies are encouraged.
We welcome and encourage submissions from groups who are underrepresented in the cryosphere community and will endeavour to provide reasonable adjustments to any presenter who requires them.

Ice sheets and the surrounding polar oceans and atmosphere form a tightly coupled system whose evolution is central to global sea level, ocean circulation, and the overall climate. This session focuses on the interactions of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers with the ocean, atmosphere, and sea ice on the continental shelves around Greenland, Antarctica, and the Arctic. We welcome contributions addressing any scale and aspect of this physical system or of any of its approximations, simplifications, or analogs. This session aims to bridge observational, laboratory, theoretical, modeling, and data-science perspectives to improve understanding of ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions and their relevance in the climate system. We welcome work from both polar regions or any other planets and across disciplines, including fluid and solid mechanics, glaciology, oceanography, or atmospheric and climate sciences.

We propose an interactive PICO session format to encourage in-person dialog and random human interactions with the hope of fostering in-depth discussions and future scientific collaborations.

Glaciers cover roughly 10 percent of the Earth’s surface and help shape landscapes and relief in high latitude regions and many mountain ranges. Subglacial processes, such as sliding, create material that shapes the landscape. Paraglacial processes also have a strong impact on the glacial landscape evolution. Debris that falls upon the ice, or is entrained in it, is advected down the glacier to where it melts out, creating moraines. Existing sediment beneath the glacier can be mobilized by pressurized subglacial water and transported in proglacial rivers or deposited in lakes or fjords. In Arctic and Subarctic regions, interactions between sediment and ice dynamics are actively reforming the geomorphology and hydrological regime of river deltas, impacting their sediment supply. The role and importance of these processes will evolve as glacier dynamics change and hydrology in glacierized catchments responds to climate change.
This session aims at gathering contributions that use modeling, laboratory, field observations, archives, or remote sensing methods, or a combination thereof, to evaluate these evolving processes in Alpine and Arctic regions. We welcome submissions that address these processes across a wide range of timescales, from sub-daily to multi-millennial, including those focused on these dynamics during past climate variations. Additionally, we are interested in research contributions focused on diverse glaciated environments from small alpine glaciers to large Arctic deltas. Research that addresses the changes that occur as climate warms and how these processes interact with other aspects of the Earth system, including glacier dynamics, sea ice, and river deltas, is of particular interest for this session.

Significant reductions in Arctic sea ice extent, concentration and thickness have been consistently witnessed during the last decades. Whilst Antarctic sea ice extent was remarkably stable until 2016/2017, this has changed over recent years with 2022 to 2025 producing the lowest four minimum Antarctic sea ice extents on record. 2023 and 2024 were particularly stark due to the lack of recovery of the sea ice cover, raising concerns for the future of Antarctic sea ice. Climate projections suggest a continued reduction of the sea ice cover for both poles, with the Arctic becoming seasonally ice free in the latter half of this century.

The scientific community is investing considerable effort in organising our current knowledge of the physical and biogeochemical properties of sea ice, exploring poorly understood sea ice processes, and forecasting future changes of the sea ice cover, such as in CMIP6.

In this session, we invite contributions regarding all aspects of sea ice science and sea ice-climate interactions in both the Arctic and Southern Ocean, including snow and sea ice thermodynamics and dynamics, sea ice-atmosphere and sea ice-ocean interactions, sea ice biological and chemical processes, sea ice observational and field studies and models. A focus on emerging processes and implications is particularly welcome.

In recent years, sea ice has displayed behaviour previously unseen in the satellite record. This fast-changing sea-ice cover calls for adapting and improving our modelling approaches and mathematical techniques to simulate its behaviour and its interaction with the atmosphere and the ocean, both in terms of dynamics and thermodynamics.

Sea ice is governed by a variety of small-scale processes that affect its large-scale evolution. Modelling this nonlinear coupled multidimensional system remains a major challenge, because (1) we still lack the understanding of the physics governing sea-ice dynamics and thermodynamics, (2) observations to conduct model evaluation are scarce and (3) the numerical approximation and the simulation become more difficult and computationally expensive at higher resolution.

Recently, several new modelling approaches have been developed and refined to address these issues. These include but are not limited to new rheologies, discrete element models, advanced subgrid parameterizations, the representation of wave-ice interactions, sophisticated data assimilation schemes, often with the integration of machine learning techniques. Moreover, novel in-situ observations and the growing availability and quality of sea-ice remote-sensing data bring new opportunities for improving sea-ice models.

This session aims to bring together researchers working on the development of sea-ice models, from small to large scales and for a wide range of applications such as idealised experiments, operational predictions, or climate simulations, to discuss current advances and challenges ahead.

The Arctic region has undergone drastic changes over the last decades, with sea ice decline and changes in freshwater content being the most prominent examples. The ice cover has become thinner and more fragile, drifting faster and more freely. Extreme temperatures are now more common, with 2023 recording the warmest summer temperatures ever. The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, accelerating ice sheet melting, sea ice loss in the Kara and Laptev Seas, permafrost thawing, glacier retreat, and forest fires. The resulting changes in the Arctic Ocean include an increased freshwater volume, heightened coastal runoff from Siberia and Greenland, and greater exchanges with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, all of which have significant consequences for the fragile Arctic ecosystems.

As global temperatures continue to rise, model projections suggest that the Arctic Ocean could become seasonally ice-free by mid-century, raising critical questions for the Arctic research community: What could the Arctic Ocean look like in the future? How will the present changes in the Arctic affect and be affected by the lower latitudes? Which oceanic processes drive this sea-ice loss and how will they change in a sea ice-free Arctic? What aspects of the changing Arctic should observational, remote sensing and modeling programs prioritize?

In this session, we invite contributions from a variety of studies on the recent past, present and future Arctic. We welcome submissions that explore interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and sea ice; Arctic processes and feedbacks; small-scale processes, internal waves, and mixing; sources of freshwater change and their impacts; and the interactions between the Arctic and global oceans. We especially welcome submissions that take a cross-disciplinary approach, focusing on new oceanic, cryospheric, and biogeochemical processes as well as their connections to land.

We want to spark discussions on future plans for Arctic Ocean measurement, remote sensing, and modeling strategies, including the upcoming CMIP7 cycle and ways to validate and improve models using observations. We encourage submissions on CMIP modeling approaches and recent observational programs like MOSAiC, the Nansen Legacy Project and the Synoptic Arctic Survey. We also welcome anyone involved in planning the upcoming International Polar Year 2032-33 to participate in our session and contribute to the discussions.

The polar oceans play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate by storing vast amounts of carbon, driving global ocean circulation and influencing heat exchange with the atmosphere. Arctic and Antarctic oceans are particularly prone to environmental alterations due to polar amplification of changes in climate and other anthropogenic stressors. Such alterations include marine or continental ice retreat, changes in ocean salinity, circulation patterns, (bio)geochemical cycling, primary productivity and input of environmental toxins. Understanding these processes is vital for predicting their respective future impacts on regional or global climate. Particularly, the study of various elemental and/or isotope systems can advance our ability to track multiple processes, such as continental runoff, water mass sourcing and primary productivity in modern waters as well as during palaeo-oceanographic evolution. The implementation of chemical oceanographic data into Earth System Models further helps to identify key variables in polar environments.
This session focuses on physical, microbiological and chemical oceanographic trends in polar regions in response to past and present climatic changes and other anthropogenic impacts. We particularly encourage submissions focusing on elemental isotope budgets but also welcome contributions that explore elemental concentrations, (bio)geochemical models, plankton assemblages and physical oceanography including, but not limited to, water mass movements and meltwater input, advancing predictions of polar ocean development.

About 10% of the land surface are underlain by permafrost, with important implications for the local carbon-, water- and energy-cycles. The permafrost extent is highly sensitive to shifts in temperature, thus, it has and will continue to change in the future. With most ecosystem processes being affected by the presence of permafrost, these changes entail feedback effects not only on local- but also on the large-scale climate. Here, the focus has chiefly been on the biochemical feedbacks, such as the permafrost-carbon feedback, but there is also a potential for (bio-) physical feedback mechanisms. The degradation of permafrost may affect the land-atmosphere moisture exchange through its impact on the surface hydrology, which in turn shapes the local and regional cloud cover. Vegetation shifts affect surface -albedo, -roughness and resistance to evaporation, with a similar potential to modify land atmosphere interactions. They may also modify fire frequency and -intensity, affecting cloud formation rates through the release of aerosols, which act as cloud condensation nuclei.

The above examples do not constitute a complete list and we welcome all abstracts focusing on any physical, biophysical and biochemical permafrost-climate feedback, explicitly including submissions proposing novel mechanisms. We encourage contributions that aim at a quantification of the feedback strengths, at the regional to global scale, and those which improve our understanding of mechanisms, at the process-level. Likewise, we welcome abstracts targeting feedback mechanisms under scenario-based future projections as well during the historical period and in the deeper past. Contributions relying on modelling tools and observational data are equally welcome and so are submissions conceptually describing feedback-chains that have been overlooked by the scientific community.

Climate change significantly affects high mountain regions by strongly altering the cryosphere. It influences landscapes, water resources, slope stability, ecosystem balances, and human/touristic activities, all closely interconnected and interdependent. Permafrost degradation remains often hidden but has the potential (1) to destabilize mountain slopes, leading to large-scale landslides or rock-ice avalanches, (2) to mobilize large amounts of loose materials, generating sudden and destructive debris flows, and (3) to cause ground subsidence, with adverse effects on infrastructure. These and other mixed cascading effects illustrate the sensitivity of mountain permafrost systems and the importance of closely monitoring and understanding them.

This session welcomes all contributions from mountain permafrost research in all periglacial environments: from high Arctic climates through any continental regions (e.g. Alpine, Andean, Tibetan) to arid unglaciated areas of Antarctica. We welcome a broad spectrum of ice-rich and ice-poor landforms, including rock glaciers, talus slopes, plateaus, ice-cored moraines, steep rock slopes, and thermokarst. We particularly encourage contributions that enhance understanding thermo-hydro-mechanical-chemical processes at slope and regional scales. The combination of multiple methods and newly developed approaches is of particular interest, as well as long-term studies or characterization of new permafrost sites with state-of-the-art methods. Geophysical measurements and analysis (e.g., ERT, SRT, DAS, EM, IP, GPR, TLS), in-situ measurements (e.g., temperatures, discharge, kinematics, GNSS), remote sensing surveys (e.g., optical, thermal, InSAR, UAV), modeling from past to future processes and scenarios, early warning systems, and data analysis improvements thanks to machine learning and artificial intelligence tools can be submitted.

We aim to improve the understanding of the response of mountain permafrost to climate change. This session aims to create a new opportunity for meeting and exchange within the mountain permafrost community and its fellows to promote joint research developments and improve understanding of processes.

ECS are encouraged to submit their work to this session. The presentation will be preferentially in presence (PICO).

Recent studies show widespread warming of permafrost and indicate that the Arctic has warmed up to four times faster than the global average. Increasing temperatures initiate a wide range of land-scape and environmental changes, including gradual and abrupt permafrost thaw, vegetation chang-es, and changes in hydrological and fire regimes. Interdisciplinary efforts are needed to further inves-tigate developments in Arctic, boreal, and high-latitude permafrost regions and to better understand the processes and impacts of ongoing changes.
This session is intended as a forum for scientists involved in state-of-the-art research on permafrost disturbance dynamics, associated processes, and impacts. We welcome contributions concerning studies on different scales, from local studies including field observations, near-surface geophysics, and drone measurements, to regional and circumpolar analyses supported by remote sensing tech-niques and modelling approaches. We encourage submissions targeted at dynamic permafrost dis-turbance processes, including thermokarst, coastal erosion, anthropogenic impacts, hydrology, mass movements, sediment fluxes, biogeochemical cycling and associated fluxes.
This session seeks abstracts on (1) novel observations of permafrost disturbance-related phenome-na; (2) the impact of permafrost changes on the natural and human environment; and (3) advances and new developments in measurement, modelling, parametrization, and understanding of perma-frost-related processes.
We particularly encourage contributions that (a) identify processes related to disturbances and envi-ronmental changes in permafrost regions; (b) present novel measurement and monitoring ap-proaches; (c) outline new strategies to improve process understanding; (d) come from or interface with neighbouring fields of science or apply innovative technologies and methods; and (e) investigate model validation, model uncertainty, and scaling issues of diverse processes.

Present-day glacial and periglacial processes in cold regions, i.e. arctic and alpine environments, provide modern analogues to processes and climatic changes that took place during the Pleistocene, including gradual retreat or collapse of ice sheets and mountain glaciers, and thawing and shrinking of low-land permafrost. Current geomorphological and glaciological changes in mid-latitude mountain ranges could also serve as a proxy for future changes in high-latitude regions within a context of climate change. Examples are speed-up or disintegration of creeping permafrost features or the relictification of rock glaciers.

For our session we invite contributions that either:
1. investigate present-day glacial and/or periglacial landforms, sediments and processes to describe the current state, to reconstruct past environmental conditions and to predict future scenarios in cold regions; or
2. have a Quaternary focus and aim at enhancing our understanding of past glacial, periglacial and paraglacial processes, also through the application of dating techniques.

Case studies that use a multi-disciplinary approach (e.g. field, laboratory and modelling techniques) and/or that highlight the interaction between the glacial, periglacial and paraglacial cryospheric components in cold regions are particularly welcome.

Snow cover characteristics (e.g., spatial distribution, surface and internal physical properties) are continuously evolving over a wide range of scales due to meteorological conditions, such as precipitation, wind, and radiation.
Most processes occurring in the snow cover depend on the vertical and horizontal distribution of its physical properties, which are primarily controlled by the microstructure of snow (e.g., density and specific surface area). In turn, snow metamorphism changes the microstructure, leading to feedback loops that affect the snow cover on coarser scales. This can have far-reaching implications for a wide range of applications, including snow hydrology and rapid runoff and flooding, weather forecasting, climate modelling, avalanche hazard forecasting, and the remote sensing of snow. The characterization of snow thus demands synergistic investigations of the hierarchy of processes across the scales, ranging from explicit microstructure-based studies to sub-grid parameterizations for unresolved processes in large-scale phenomena (e.g., albedo and drifting snow).
This session is therefore devoted to modelling and measuring snow processes across scales. The aim is to gather researchers from various disciplines to share their expertise on snow processes in seasonal and perennial snowpacks. We invite contributions ranging from “small” scales, as encountered in microstructure studies, over “intermediate” scales typically relevant for 1D snowpack models, up to “coarse” scales, that typically emerge for spatially distributed modelling over mountainous or polar snow- and ice-covered regions. Specifically, we welcome contributions reporting results from field, laboratory, and numerical studies of the physical and chemical evolution of snowpacks as well as of rain-on-snow (ROS) events rapidly altering snow properties and changing snow microstructure. We also welcome contributions reporting statistical or dynamic downscaling methods of atmospheric driving data, assimilation of in-situ and remotely sensed observations, representation of sub-grid processes in coarse-scale models, and evaluation of model performance and associated uncertainties.

Although snow may evoke pleasant childhood memories for many, it can also pose various hazards. Some common hazards associated with snowfall and accumulation include (1) disruption of traffic lines due to snow accumulations or bad visibility, (2) damage to infrastructure, such as buildings or power lines, from snow loads or snow creep, (3) flooding due to rapid snowmelt and rain-on-snow events, and (4) snow avalanches that can damage infrastructure or cause loss of life. In all these cases, the presence and accumulation of snow are key factors contributing to the hazards, and it is essential to recognize the impact these hazards can have, to better predict their occurrence and mitigate their risks.
The aim of this session is thus to improve our understanding of processes responsible for snow and avalanche hazards and share solutions to monitor and mitigate their impact. We welcome contributions from novel field, laboratory, and numerical studies as well as specific case studies. Topics relevant to snow and avalanche hazards include, but are not limited to, monitoring and predicting snowfall, drifting or blowing snow, meteorological driving factors, snow cover simulations, snow mechanics, avalanche formation and dynamics, avalanche forecasting, and risk mitigation measures such as technical protection measures or nature-based solutions like protective forests.

Water in the snowpack and in glaciers represents an important component of the hydrological budget in many regions of the world and is crucial to sustaining life during dry seasons. Predicted impacts of climate change in catchments with snow and/or glacier cover (i.e., shifts from snowfall to rainfall, modified total precipitation amounts, earlier snowmelt, and decrease in peak snow accumulation) will reflect on water resources availability for environmental and anthropogenic uses at multiple scales. This may have implications for energy, drinking water and food production, as well as for environmentally targeted water management.

Runoff generation in catchments that are impacted by snow or ice profoundly differs from rainfed catchments. Yet, our knowledge of snow/ice accumulation and melt and their contribution to runoff remains highly uncertain, because of both limited availability and inherently high spatial variability of hydrological and weather data.

Contributions addressing the following topics (but not limited to) are welcome:
- Experimental research on snowmelt & ice-melt runoff processes and potential implementation in hydrological models;
- Development of novel strategies for snowmelt runoff modelling in various (or changing) climatic and land-cover conditions;
- Evaluation of remote-sensing or in-situ snow products and application for snowmelt runoff calibration, data assimilation, streamflow forecasting or snow and ice physical properties quantification;
- Observational and modelling studies that shed new light on hydrological processes in glacier-covered catchments, e.g. impacts of glacier retreat on water resources and water storage dynamics or the application of techniques for tracing water flow paths;
- Studies addressing the impact of climate change and/or extreme events (e.g., droughts) on the water cycle of snow and ice affected catchments.
- Studies on cryosphere-influenced mountain hydrology and water balance of snow/ice-dominated mountain regions;
- Use of modelling to propose snowpack, snowmelt, icepack, ice melt or runoff time series reconstruction or reanalysis over long periods to fill data gaps

Landslides and slope instabilities induced by rainfall or snowmelt represent significant global hazards, causing substantial damage and loss of life annually. Despite this impact, the fundamental triggering mechanisms remain a key area of ongoing research. Landslide-prone areas and slope instabilities are characterized by complex, heterogeneous subsurface properties and dynamic processes operating across a wide range of timescales – from seconds to decades – and spatial scales – from grain size to slope dimensions. Effectively identifying and predicting instability processes and ultimately failure requires innovative approaches that account for these wide temporal and spatial variabilities. Furthermore, the prediction of such locations is of great importance for zonation purposes and for the design of early warning systems to prevent human casualties. Recent innovations in monitoring and modelling offer new avenues for investigating these multifaceted processes.

This session seeks contributions presenting novel methods, emerging trends, and case studies in landslide and slope instability reconnaissance, monitoring, and early warning. We particularly encourage submissions showcasing the integration of geophysical, geotechnical, geological, and remote sensing data to build a landslide model able to characterize the landslide architecture and track its evolution.

We especially invite abstracts demonstrating:

• Multi-method approaches combining geophysical, geotechnical, and remote sensing techniques.
• Applications of machine learning to landslide hazard assessment and prediction.
• Time-lapse geophysical surveys for monitoring subsurface changes.
• Determination of geomechanical parameters through integrated geological (e.g., borehole data, geotechnical surveys) and geophysical studies.
• Effects of climatic global changes and land use on the susceptibility and hazards towards shallow landslides.
• Field hydrological monitoring for the assessment of main pore-pressure build-up areas and triggering conditions of shallow landslides.

Recognizing the cross-disciplinary nature of this challenge, we welcome contributions addressing a broad range of slope instability types, including avalanches, natural and engineered slopes, and climate-induced failures.

Rockfalls, rockslides and rock avalanches as well as other alpine mass movements are among the primary drivers of landscape evolution in steep terrain and they are some of the most hazardous processes.

This session aims to bring together state-of-the-art methods for predicting, assessing, quantifying, and protecting against rock slope hazards and alpine mass movements. We seek innovative contributions from investigators dealing with all stages of rock slope hazards as well as alpine mass movements such as rock-ice avalanches, glacier-related hazards, debris flows or hazard cascades originating from the periglacial environment.

Innovative contributions dealing with alpine mass movement predisposition, triggering, transport, and deposition are welcome, including (i) insights from field observations and/or laboratory experiments; (ii) statistical methods and/or artificial intelligence to identify and map mass movements; (iii) in-situ or remote-sensing based monitoring approaches; (iv) mass movement modeling for the analysis and interpretation of the governing physical processes – from conceptual frameworks to theoretical and/or advanced numerical approaches; (v) the development of strategies applicable for hazard assessment, mitigation and protection; (vii) the impact of weather and climate on alpine mass movements, climate change attribution strategies, as well as the role of science at the interface with society; as well as (viii) preparedness and risk reduction, and studies that integrate social, structural, or natural protection measures.

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) – the sudden release of water dammed by moraines, ice, or bedrock – are among the most dynamic perturbations of Earth's surface, with geomorphic evidence persisting for hundreds to thousands of years. Several recent cases in mountainous terrain also demonstrate their potential for loss and destruction when floods descend steep elevation gradients and impact downstream communities that may are often unprepared. Despite advances in remote sensing, numerical modelling, and field reconnaissance, many fundamental questions on GLOF sources and triggers, flow behaviour, and future consequences remain unanswered:

• How can we determine the formation of paleo-dams and constrain the origin, magnitude and sediment flux of paleo-GLOFs?
• What are the long-term rates and return periods of these events, and what explains their observed regional differences?
• To what degree can the frequency, intensity, duration, and impacts of individual GLOFs be attributed to natural versus anthropogenic atmospheric warming?
• How can we better incorporate the roles of triggers and preconditioning factors in flood hazard models?
• What controls the spatial variability of outburst flood hazard at local, regional, and global scales, and how will this hazard evolve as lakes respond to changing climatic conditions?
• How can flow models and risk assessments account for a dynamically changing size distribution of glacial lakes?
• What are best-practice strategies to manage risk, prevent the initiation of GLOFs, and implement early warning systems?
• How vulnerable are downstream communities and how do they perceive, and cope with, the risk from outburst floods?

We invite contributions addressing these and related challenges, spanning paleo-lake and -flood analyses; case studies; process-based modelling; susceptibility, vulnerability, hazard, and risk assessments; and projections of changes in lake abundance, size, and GLOF hazard.

The half-century since the first deep ice core drilling at Camp Century, Greenland, has seen increased spatial coverage of polar ice cores, as well as extensive development in methods of ice sample extraction, analysis and interpretation. Growth and innovation continue as we address pressing scientific questions surrounding past climate dynamics, environmental variability and glaciological phenomena. New challenges include the retrieval of old, highly thinned ice, interpretation of altered chemical signals, and the integration of chemical proxies into earth system models. We invite contributions reporting the state-of-the-art in ice coring science, including drilling and processing, dating, analytical techniques, results and interpretations of ice core records from polar ice sheets and mid- and low-latitude glaciers, remote and autonomous methods of surveying ice stratigraphy, proxy system modelling and related earth system modelling. We encourage submissions from early career researchers from across the broad international ice core science community.

Over the last 1.5 Myr, the rhythm of Earth's glaciations changed from a 40 kyr to a 100 kyr periodicity, crossing the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). The Beyond EPICA Project has recently collected a new ice core that reaches at least 1.2 million years, and analysis of trace gases, water isotopes and impurities will be carried out during winter 25/26. This session therefore acts as a showcase for the emerging results, which should shed new light on the causes and features of the MPT. Other international projects are also chasing old ice in Antarctica, either by deep coring or from cores in blue ice areas, and this session also offers the opportunity to present their progress and findings. More broadly we would welcome presentations using other proxies that address the MPT, as well as model studies providing insight into the dynamics and drivers of the Earth climate system across the MPT.

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming the way we study the cryosphere. These data-driven tools are rapidly increasing in popularity and offer potential impact throughout the scientific workflow, from the way we design studies, observe processes, collect data, model phenomena, and analyse systems to the way we construct and test hypotheses. While ML and AI methods applied across the cryosphere may be originally intended to answer a particular cryospheric question, the solutions developed to solve these specific problems may offer generalisable approaches and transferable insights to issues in other domains of the cryosphere. As such, this session invites contributions using ML and AI from all branches of cryospheric science, including snow and avalanches; permafrost; glaciology; ice caps, ice sheets, ice shelves and icebergs; sea ice; and freshwater ice. We also welcome contributions focusing on dataset development, theoretical research, and community-building initiatives. This session intends to provide a forum for cross-cutting discussions and knowledge exchange, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and ultimately promoting the efficient and effective application of ML and AI in the cryosphere.

Earth’s cryosphere demonstrates itself in many shapes and forms, but we use similar geophysical and in-situ methods to study its wide spectrum: from ice-sheets and glaciers, to firn and snow, sea ice, permafrost, and en-glacial and subglacial environments.
In this session, we welcome contributions related to all methods in cryospheric measurements, including: advances in radioglaciology, active and passive seismology, geoelectrics, acoustic sounding, fibre-optic sensing, GNSS reflectometry, signal attenuation, and time delay techniques, cosmic ray neutron sensing, ROV and drone applications, and electromagnetic methods. Contributions can include field applications, new approaches in geophysical or in-situ survey techniques, or theoretical advances in data analysis processing or inversion. Case studies from all parts of the cryosphere, including snow and firn, alpine glaciers, ice sheets, glacial and periglacial environments, alpine and arctic permafrost as well as rock glaciers, or sea ice, are highly welcome.
This session will give you an opportunity to step out of your research focus of a single cryosphere type and to share experiences in the application, processing, analysis, and interpretation of different geophysical and in-situ techniques in these highly complex environments. This session has been running for over a decade and always produces lively and informative discussion. We have a successful history of PICO and other short-style presentations - submit here if you want a guaranteed short oral!

Radar is a prominent tool for studying ice on Earth and is becoming widespread on other planetary bodies. In this session, we hope to bring together all those interested in radar data and analysis to showcase their work, take inspiration from each other and develop new (interdisciplinary) collaborations. We aim for this session to encompass various targets, instruments and applications, such as:

- Targets: snow, firn, land ice, sea ice, lake ice, river ice and permafrost on Earth as well as the surfaces and interiors of Mars, Europa, Ganymede, The Moon, Titan, Venus, Small bodies, etc.
- Instruments: airborne and spaceborne sounders, altimeters, SAR and passive microwave radiometers as well as drones, GPR, ApRES, pRES and other radars.
- Acquisition and processing: hardware, passive measurements, datasets, algorithm development, etc.
- Analysis and interpretation techniques: reflectometry, interferometry, thermometry, specularity, EM simulations, inversion, etc.
- Applications: investigations in surface-, englacial, subglacial and proglacial areas, scattering interfaces, roughness, hydrology, geothermal heat flux, material properties, fabric, modelling/supporting lab work, Earth and extraterrestrial analogues/synergies, etc.

We especially encourage the participation of Early Career Researchers and those from underrepresented groups.

Remote sensing in the ‘Big Data’ era is characterised by the availability of petabytes of satellite data, facilitating observations of the cryosphere at increasingly high temporal and spatial scales. In addition, recent advances in close-range sensing technology have resulted in the development of ground-based methods which can “sense” cryospheric environments at high spatial (millimetre to centimetre scale) and temporal (minutes to hours) resolutions. Combined, the datasets acquired from both are invaluable for understanding past and contemporary changes to the cryosphere, which is particularly crucial as climate change continues and extreme events become increasingly frequent.

In order to fully utilise the wealth of satellite and close-range sensing data available, the last decade has seen reliance on new approaches for (i) accessing, (ii) processing, (iii) interpreting, and (iv) distributing results from large-scale datasets. This includes new technologies for data access including cloud-optimised datasets; cloud geoprocessing platforms such as Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer, and community JupyterHubs; the increasing use of large-scale data pipelines and machine/deep learning methods to understand and monitor entire ice sheets, ice shelves, or glaciated regions; and a widespread philosophy of open data and code sharing to enable rapid dissemination of new approaches.

This session seeks contributions from anyone working on remote sensing and close-range sensing of any element of the cryosphere, including glaciers (both land-based or calving), ice sheets, snow and firn, glacial and periglacial environments, and sea ice. In particular, we welcome submissions from those researching the cryosphere using cloud data and processing, large-scale data pipelines, machine and deep learning, open code/data, and other contemporary approaches. In addition, contributions may include the use of close-range sensing methods, including, but not limited to, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), radar, time-lapse photography, TLS and LiDAR.

Rapid changes in inland ice, including snow cover, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost are altering the cryosphere with consequences for the climate system, hydrology, nutrient transport, ecosystems, and societies. Reducing uncertainties in projections requires a closer integration of observations and models to improve our understanding of interactions between these processes across spatial and temporal scales.
This session invites contributions that advance the coupling of observational datasets (satellite, airborne, and in situ) with numerical models (ice dynamics, permafrost, hydrological, hydrochemical, and Earth System Models). We welcome abstracts that address:
- Improved representation of snow, ice, and permafrost processes in models through assimilation of Earth observation and field data.
- Case studies linking local observations to large-scale dynamical models, including contributions to CMIP, ISMIP, CORDEX, SnowMIP, and Copernicus.
- Quantification of the impacts of land ice and permafrost change on sea level, ocean circulation, hydrology and ecosystems.
- Process understanding of ice sheet or glacier dynamics, and assessment of changes on decadal to centennial timescales.
- Process understanding by integrated observations of Atmosphere-Cryosphere-Hydrosphere coupled systems at glaciated catchment scale.
- Development of tools and approaches that bridge gaps between modelling and monitoring communities, including applications of AI and machine learning.
We particularly encourage contributions from Horizon Europe projects such as ICELINK (North Atlantic land ice and climate interactions), LIQUIDICE (impacts of inland ice, snow, and permafrost change on water resources and society), and CryoSCOPE (novel observations and process modelling of globally significant cold spots), and other related initiatives.
By bringing together observational and modelling perspectives, this session aims to advance process understanding, improve predictive capability, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration across cryosphere disciplines.

Fibre optic based techniques allow probing highly precise point and distributed sensing of the full ground motion wave-field including translation, rotation and strain, as well as environmental parameters such as temperature at a scale and to an extent previously unattainable with conventional geophysical sensors. Considerable improvements in optical and atom interferometry enable new concepts for inertial rotation, translational displacement and acceleration sensing. Laser reflectometry on commercial fibre optic cables allows for the first time spatially dense and temporally continuous sensing of the ocean’s floor, successfully detecting a variety of signals including microseism, local and teleseismic earthquakes, volcanic events, ocean dynamics, etc. Significant breakthrough in the use of fibre optic sensing techniques came from the new ability to interrogate telecommunication cables to high temporal and spatial precision across a wide range of environments. Applications based on this new type of data are numerous, including: seismic source and wave-field characterisation with single point observations in harsh environments such as active volcanoes and the seafloor, seismic ambient noise interferometry, earthquake and tsunami early warning, and infrastructure stability monitoring.

We welcome contributions on developments in instrumental and theoretical advances, applications and processing with fibre optic point and/or distributed multi-sensing techniques, light polarization and transmission analyses, using standard telecommunication and/or engineered fibre cables. We seek studies on theoretical, instrumental, observation and advanced processing across all solid earth fields, including seismology, volcanology, glaciology, geodesy, geophysics, natural hazards, oceanography, urban environment, geothermal applications, laboratory studies, large-scale field tests, planetary exploration, gravitational wave detection, fundamental physics. We encourage contributions on data analysis techniques, novel applications, machine learning, data management, instrumental performance and comparison as well as new experimental, field, laboratory, modelling studies in fibre optic sensing studies.

Thermal remote sensing is an increasingly popular technique employing passive sensors to detect Earth’s surface properties from the emitted radiation in the Thermal Infrared (TIR) domain. The main focus of TIR remote sensing is the evaluation of the thermal state of an object or surface, and its associated surface temperature and emissivity. These properties are widely relevant in several frameworks for geological, environmental, climate, agricultural, biological, and engineering purposes.

Recent technological advancements have supported the development of the TIR remote sensing, as satellite sensor and data infrastructure systems are now able to collect and manage a large amount of high-fidelity TIR data with different spatial and temporal resolutions. Further, beside the airborne- and ground-based measurement systems, the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and drones are increasingly considered as versatile platforms concerning the temporal resolution ensuring high spatial resolution.

This session aims to deal with the main emerged and still emerging research directions of TIR remote sensing, as well as discussing the next challenges for this community. Examples of welcome contributions are the new frontiers, case studies, and data integration analysis related to:

• Geosciences: volcanoes, hydrothermal systems, geothermal potential, mineral exploration, rare earths, cryosphere.

• Climate, Urban Systems, and Ecosystems: urban heat islands, global warming impacts, ecosystem stress, forest health, fire risk assessment, water management.

• Agriculture and Precision Farming: crop stress monitoring, irrigation management, soil analysis and pest/disease monitoring.

• Technological and Methodological Innovations: new sensors for satellite, airborne, UAS and in-situ platforms, multi-platform and/or multi-sensor data integration, Cal/Val activities.

• Data Processing and Infrastructure: approaches for managing and processing large TIR datasets, data fusion techniques, advanced algorithms for atmospheric correction and temperature and emissivity separation.

Multi-disciplinary studies and contributions from the Early Career Scientists are welcome.

This session invites innovative Earth system and climate studies employing geodetic observations and methods. Modern geodetic observing systems have been instrumental in studying a wide range of changes in the Earth’s solid and fluid layers at various spatiotemporal scales. These changes are related to surface processes such as glacial isostatic adjustment, the terrestrial water cycle, ocean dynamics, and ice-mass balance, which are primarily due to changes in the climate. To understand the Earth system response to natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change, different time spans of observations need to be cross-compared and combined with several other datasets and model outputs. Geodetic observables are also often compared with geophysical models, which helps in explaining observations, evaluating simulations, and finally merging measurements and numerical models via data assimilation.

We look forward to contributions that:
1. Utilize geodetic data from diverse geodetic satellites, including altimetry, gravimetry (CHAMP, GRACE, GOCE, and GRACE-FO, SWOT), navigation satellite systems (GNSS and DORIS) or remote sensing techniques that are based on both passive (i.e., optical and hyperspectral) and active (i.e., SAR, Sentinel, NISAR) instruments.
2. Cover a wide variety of applications of geodetic measurements and their combination to observe and model Earth system signals in hydrological, ocean, atmospheric, climate, and cryospheric sciences.
3. Show a new approach or method for separating and interpreting the variety of geophysical signals in our Earth system and combining various observations to improve spatio-temporal resolution of Earth observation products.
4. Work on simulations of future satellite missions (such as MAGIC and NGMM) that may advance climate sciences.
5. Work towards any of the goals of the Inter-Commission Committee on "Geodesy for Climate Research" (ICCC) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG).

We are committed to promoting gender balance and ECS in our session. With the author consent, highlights from this session will be shared on social media with a dedicated hashtag during the conference in order to increase the impact of the session.

The MacGyver session focuses on novel sensors made, or data sources unlocked, by scientists. All geoscientists are invited to present:
- new sensor systems, using technologies in novel or unintended ways,
- new data storage or transmission solutions sending data from the field with LoRa, WIFI, GSM, or any other nifty approach,
- started initiatives (e.g., Open-Sensing.org) that facilitate the creation and sharing of novel sensors, data acquisition and transmission systems.

Connected a sensor to an Arduino or Raspberri Pi? Used the new Lidar in the new iPhone to measure something relevant for hydrology? 3D printed an automated water quality sampler? Or build a Cloud Storage system from Open Source Components? Show it!

New methods in hydrology, plant physiology, seismology, remote sensing, ecology, etc. are all welcome. Bring prototypes and demonstrations to make this the most exciting Poster Only (!) session of the General Assembly.

This session is co-sponsered by MOXXI, the working group on novel observational methods of the IAHS.

Mountains cover approximately one-quarter of the total land surface on the planet, and a significant fraction of the world’s population lives within them, in their vicinity, and downstream. Orography critically affects weather and climate processes at all scales and, in connection with factors such as land-cover heterogeneity, is responsible for high spatial variability in mountain weather and climate. This session showcases research that contributes to improving our understanding of weather and climate processes in mountain and high-elevation areas around the globe, as well as their modification induced by global environmental change. This includes the interaction of mountain weather and climate with the terrestrial cryosphere.

We welcome contributions describing the influence of mountains on the atmosphere on meteorological and climate time scales, including terrain-induced airflow, orographic gravity waves, orographic precipitation, land-atmosphere exchange over mountains, forecasting, and predictability of mountain weather. We also encourage theoretical, modeling and observational studies on orographic gravity waves and their effects on the weather and the climate. Furthermore, we invite studies that investigate climate processes and climate change in mountain areas based on monitoring and modeling activities.

Particularly welcome are contributions that align with and address the interdisciplinary objectives of the Elevation-Dependent Climate Change (EDCC) working group of the Mountain Research Initiative, as well as the application and development of high-resolution (kilometer-scale) climate models over complex mountainous terrain, including advances in model design, challenges, and observational gaps needed for robust model evaluation and improvement.

Atmosphere-ice interactions are triggered by synoptic weather phenomena such as cold air outbreaks, polar lows, atmospheric rivers, Foehn winds, and heatwaves, and they impact snow, ice, and permafrost.

However, our understanding of these processes is still incomplete. Despite being a crucial milestone for reaching accurate projections of future climate change in Polar Regions, deciphering the interplay between the atmosphere, land ice and sea ice on different spatial and temporal scales, remains a major challenge.

This session aims at showcasing recent research progress and augmenting existing knowledge in polar meteorology and climate and the atmosphere-land ice-sea ice coupling in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It will provide a setting to foster discussion and help identify gaps, tools, and studies that can be designed to address these open questions. It is also the opportunity to convey newly acquired knowledge to the community.

We invite contributions on all observational and numerical modelling aspects of Arctic and Antarctic meteorology and climatology, that address atmospheric interactions with the cryosphere. This may include but is not limited to studies on past, present and future of:

- Atmospheric processes that influence sea-ice (snow on sea ice, sea ice melt, polynya formation and sea ice production and transport) and associated feedbacks,

- The variability of the polar large-scale atmospheric circulation (such as polar jets, the circumpolar trough and storm tracks) and impact on the cryosphere (sea ice and land ice),

- Atmosphere-ice interactions triggered by synoptic and meso-scale weather phenomena such as cold air outbreaks, katabatic winds, extratropical cyclones, polar cyclones, atmospheric rivers, Foehn winds, and heatwaves,

- Role of clouds in polar climate.

- Role of aerosols, such as black carbon, organic carbon, dust, volcanic ash, microplastics, pollen, sea salt, diatoms, bioaerosols, bacteria, in snow/ice melt and albedo changes.

- Teleconnections and climate indices and their role in land ice/sea ice variability.

Presentations that include new observational (ground and satellite-based) and modeling methodologies specific to polar regions are encouraged. Contributions related to results from recent field campaigns in the Arctic and in the Southern Ocean/Antarctica are also welcome.

To address societal concerns over rising sea levels, associated extreme events, and their impacts on coastal communities, ecosystems, and the global economy, it is essential to understand the drivers and contributions to these changes. This session responds to this need by inviting research from the international sea level community that advances knowledge of past, present, and future changes in global and regional sea levels, extreme events, and coastal impacts.
The session focuses on studies that explore the physical mechanisms of sea level rise and variability, as well as the underlying drivers, across timescales ranging from paleo records to high-frequency phenomena to long-term projections, using observations and/or model simulations. Research on linkages between sea level variability, heat and freshwater content, ocean dynamics, land subsidence, ice-sheet and glacier mass loss, and terrestrial water storage is welcome. We encourage studies addressing future sea level changes, including high-end projections from rapid ice-sheet mass loss, and those assessing short-, medium-, and long-term coastal impacts and their broader implications.

The redistribution of geophysical fluids across the Earth’s surface and near surface driven by water cycle dynamics and its extremes can cause measurable load-induced deformation. In the last decades, increasingly accurate and available space geodetic measurement techniques (among others GNSS, InSAR, satellite gravimetry and altimetry) have enriched our understanding of this response. Accurate observations of crustal deformation together with geophysical models can be applied to quantify the hydrological loads, and through that, they provide new insight into the related hydrological processes. With changing climate also cryospheric mass changes get increasingly important to consider, but usually hydrological models do not explicitly address them. There is still a lack of a unified global mass transport model.

This session aims to attract research that further advances our ability to accurately quantify hydrological mass loads across different temporal and spatial scales, and involving different hydrological compartments (e.g., groundwater, surface water, snow, ice). We invite studies focusing on innovative measurement and modeling approaches and reconciling observations from different geodetic measurement techniques used to study hydrological loading as well as the disentangling of cryospheric and hydrologic signals. Research that assesses the strengths and limitations of each approach and that proposes strategies for a seamless and accurate integration, particularly of cryospheric processes, is highly encouraged. Additionally, we seek studies that conduct intercomparisons of different hydrological model data (land surface, hydrological models) and geodetic measurement techniques to understand their relative strengths, weaknesses, and accuracies.

Climate modeling is pushing the frontier towards increasingly complex, high-resolution earth system models (ESMs). At the same time, nonlinearities and emergent phenomena in the climate system are often studied by means of conceptual models, which offer qualitative understanding and permit theoretical approaches. Recent advancements in statistical and physical emulators, from reduced-complexity models to machine learning techniques, are enabling rapid and computationally efficient assessments of climate trajectories, impacts and risks.

Between these approaches, a persistent “gap between simulation and understanding” (Held 2005, see also Balaji et al. 2022) challenges our ability to transfer insight from conceptual models to reality, and distill the physical mechanisms underlying the behavior of state-of-the-art ESMs. This calls for a concerted effort to learn from the entire model hierarchy — or rather, model spectrum — to understand the differences and similarities across its various levels of complexity for increased confidence in climate predictions.

A diverse and well-integrated model ecosystem is also an indispensable prerequisite for the timely assessment of climate risks and effective decision-making. This places renewed emphasis on the concept of fit-for-purpose modeling, which is intrinsically linked to the climate model spectrum through the need to understand what levels of complexity are required and sufficient for a given scientific question or application. The climate community is increasingly interested in making models useful also beyond the academic domain (Mansfield et al., 2023).

In this session, we bring together contributions from all subfields of climate science that showcase how different modeling approaches advance our understanding of the Earth system, highlight inconsistencies in the model spectrum, and/or enable applications in climate impact projections. The key goal is to foster exchange between researchers working on different rungs of the model complexity ladder, focusing on process understanding. Contributions may employ dynamical systems models, physics-based low-order models, explainable machine learning, fast climate models and Earth System Models of Intermediate Complexity (EMICs), simplified or idealized setups of ESMs, CMIP models, and km-scale models. Processes and phenomena of interest include the Earth system response to transient forcing, tipping behavior, climate variability and extremes, and predictability.

The satellites of the outer solar system show huge diversity in their chemical makeup, internal structures, surface geology, underpinning geophysics, and habitable potential. The habitability of these bodies is a property of their physical systems, and hence depends on a range of interacting geophysical, chemical, and celestial mechanical processes, including - but not limited to - climate, impacts and erosion, cryosphere,and ocean dynamics. Many of these different aspects are non-trivially coupled; understanding these worlds requires insight from multiple angles and subdisciplines, from Earth and Planetary scientists alike. This session aims to highlight the diversity of solar system moons, through a wide range of contributions covering atmospheres to the deep interior, instrumentation, laboratory work, and comparative planetology. We welcome contributions from all manner of studies focused on the scientific and technological advancements needed to further our understanding of icy and rocky outer solar system moons.

The "Planetary Geomorphology and Surface Processes" session brings together scientists studying how landscapes form, evolve, and erode on Earth and other planetary bodies in our Solar System.
Our session will provide a platform for cross-planetary discussion of the processes that generate and erode landscapes, create stratigraphy, and couple planetary surface dynamics to climatic and tectonic drivers. Considered processes could include aeolian, volcanic, tectonic, fluvial, glacial, periglacial, or as-yet "undetermined" ones.
We welcome contributions on Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, icy satellites of the outer solar system, comets, and/or asteroids, to submit to our session. We believe that an interdisciplinary approach through sharing and discussing ideas across planetary borders is key in answering current questions and for the formation of new ideas, and thus we especially encourage cross-planetary contributions. We particularly welcome contributions from early-career scientists and geomorphologists who are new to planetary science.

TEAMx (www.teamx-programme.org) is an international research programme that aims at improving our qualitative and quantitative understanding of transport and exchange processes in the atmosphere over mountainous terrain and at evaluating how well these processes are represented in numerical weather and climate prediction models. One of its main scientific goals is to provide a unique observational dataset to study the exchange processes over a broad range of spatial and temporal scales. To this purpose, several measurement campaigns were conducted in the European Alps, including the one-year long TEAMx Observational Campaign (TOC) that took place between 2024 and 2025 targeting multiple processes contributing to the total exchange within the atmosphere, the HEFEX campaigns on Hintereisferner investigating glacier-atmosphere exchange processes, and additional smaller test campaigns in preparation for the TOC.

This session welcomes all contributions related to the TEAMx research programme, including observational studies resulting from one of the measurement campaigns as well as model and climatological studies.

Clouds play an important role in the Polar climate due to their interaction with radiation and their role in the hydrological cycle linking poleward water vapour transport with precipitation. Cloud and precipitation properties depend on the atmospheric dynamics and moisture sources and transport, as well as on aerosol particles, which can act as cloud condensation and ice nuclei. These processes are complex and are not well represented in the models. While measurements of cloud and precipitation microphysical properties in the Arctic and Southern Ocean/Antarctic regions are challenging, they are highly needed to evaluate and improve cloud processes representation in the models used for polar and global climate and cryosphere projections.

This session aims at bringing together researchers using observational and/or modeling approaches (at various scales) to improve our understanding of polar tropospheric clouds, precipitation, and related mechanisms and impacts. Contributions are invited on various relevant processes including (but not limited to):
- Drivers of cloud/precipitation microphysics at high latitudes,
- Sources of cloud nuclei both at local and long range,
- Linkages of polar clouds/precipitation to the moisture sources and transport, including extreme transport events (e.g., atmospheric rivers, moisture intrusions),
- Relationship of moisture/cloud/precipitation processes to the atmospheric dynamics, ranging from synoptic and meso-scale processes to teleconnections and climate indices,
- Interactions between clouds and radiation, including impacts on the surface energy balance,
- Impacts that the clouds/precipitation in the Polar Regions have on the polar and global climate system, surface mass and energy balance, sea ice and ecosystems.

Papers including new methodologies specific to polar regions are encouraged, such as (i) improving polar cloud/precipitation parameterizations in atmospheric models, moisture transport events detection and attribution methods specifically in the high latitudes, and (ii) advancing observations of polar clouds and precipitation.

The interactions between aerosols, climate, weather, and society are among the large uncertainties of current atmospheric research. Mineral dust is an important natural source of aerosol with significant implications on radiation, cloud microphysics, atmospheric chemistry, and the carbon cycle via the fertilization of marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Dust impacts snow and ice albedo and can accelerate glacier melt. In addition, properties of dust deposited in sediments and ice cores are important (paleo-)climate indicators.

This interdivisional session -- building bridges between the EGU divisions AS, CL, CR, SSP, BG and GM -- had its first edition in 2004 and it is open to contributions dealing with:

(1) measurements and theoretical concepts of all aspects of the dust cycle (emission, transport, deposition, size distribution, particle characteristics),
(2) numerical simulations of dust on global, regional, and local scales,
(3) meteorological conditions for dust storms,
(4) interactions of dust with clouds and radiation,
(5) influence of dust on atmospheric chemistry,
(6) fertilization of ecosystems through dust deposition,
(7) interactions with the biosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere,
(8) any study using dust as a (paleo-)climate indicator, including sediment archives in loess, ice cores, lake sediments, ocean sediments and dunes,
(9) impacts of dust on climate and climate change, and associated feedbacks and uncertainties,
(10) implications of dust for health, transport, energy systems, agriculture, infrastructure, etc., and early warning systems

We especially encourage the submission of papers that integrate different disciplines and/or address the modelling of past, present, and future climates.

We are delighted to announce that in the 23rd edition of the dust session, Dr Claudia Di Biagio (LISA) and Dr. Diego Villanueva (ETHZ) will provide solicited talks about their work on dust radiative properties and dust-driven droplet freezing.

Better software leads to better research, and code is read far more often than it is written.
Writing code that is clear, maintainable, and easy to adapt not only improves long-term (re-)usability, but also reduces cognitive load and bugs, leaving more time for scientific research.

Many researchers want to write better software, but don't know where to get started learning the tools or skills to do so. This short course introduces essential software engineering practices, covering aspects like:

Code structure
- Naming
- Smaller units/functions

Environments and dependency management

Code styling and standards
- Coding standards and best practices (through Python PEPs)
- Formatting and static analysis tools
- IDE Tooling and integration

Unit testing

Documentation
- Comments
- Docstrings
- READMEs

Through real-life examples and demonstrations, we will explore how to transform code from convoluted to comprehensible.

The session will combine lecture, demonstration and discussion, giving participants the opportunity to share their own challenges and exchange insights with fellow researchers.

The session will be led by computer scientists and research software engineers experienced in software development, who work principally with and for research projects. We welcome engaged participants of all backgrounds and abilities who want to improve their software skills in research and discuss with others how to apply them in their work.

Scientists commonly need to write code but often lack formal training in software engineering.
One key element of professional software engineering is proper version control of code, allowing one to: develop and manage code effectively, backup the code online and go back to previous stages, detect introduced bugs faster, and collaborate on a shared codebase.

The undisputed standard tool of version control is git and ideally, all code should be put under version control.

So if your code is not yet managed with git, this course is for you!

This short course requires no prior knowledge of git and will introduce the fundamentals of working with git from the command line:
- clone a git repository
- make changes and check for them
- create commits
- back up our code online on Github
- switch between branches
- merge branches

We will show you how to do these steps, and then help you follow along.
Finally, you will have the possibility to put one of your own coding projects into version control.


Looking forward to seeing you at the workshop!

Konstantin, Ben, Philipp


You can find the workshop material here: https://github.com/k-gregor/git-workshop
Further reading: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1733

In April 2023, EPOS, the European Plate Observing System launched the EPOS Data Portal (https://www.ics-c.epos-eu.org/), which provides access to multidisciplinary data, data products, services and software from solid Earth science domain. Currently, ten thematic communities provide input to the EPOS Data Portal through services (APIs): Anthropogenic Hazards, Geological Information and Modelling, Geomagnetic Observations, GNSS Data and Products, Multi-Scale Laboratories, Near Fault Observatories, Satellite Data, Seismology, Tsunami and Volcano Observations.
The EPOS Data Portal enables search and discovery of assets thanks to metadata and visualisation in map, table or graph views, including download of the assets, with the objective to enable multi-, inter- transdisciplinary research by following FAIR principles.
This short course will introduce the EPOS ecosystem and demonstration of integrated virtual research environment where users can stage their data and run Jupyter Notebooks, either from existing examples or their own. We see this interactive coding and development environment as a gate towards faster scientific progress and enabling open science.
It is expected that participants have scientific background in one or more scientific domains listed above. The training especially targets young researchers and all those who need to combine multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary data in their research. The use of the EPOS Platform will simplify data search for Early Career Scientists and potentially help them in accelerating their career development. Feedback from participants will be collected and used for further improvements of the EPOS system.

Data assimilation (DA) is widely used in the study of the atmosphere, the ocean, the land surface, hydrological processes, etc. The powerful technique combines prior information from numerical model simulations with observations to provide a better estimate of the state of the system than either the data or the model alone. This short course will introduce participants to the basics of data assimilation, including the theory and its applications to various disciplines of geoscience. An interactive hands-on example of building a data assimilation system based on a simple numerical model will be given. This will prepare participants to build a data assimilation system for their own numerical models at a later stage after the course.
In summary, the short course introduces the following topics:

(1) DA theory, including basic concepts and selected methodologies.
(2) Examples of DA applications in various geoscience fields.
(3) Hands-on exercise in applying data assimilation to an example numerical model using open-source software.

This short course is aimed at people who are interested in data assimilation but do not necessarily have experience in data assimilation, in particular early career scientists (BSc, MSc, PhD students and postdocs) and people who are new to data assimilation.

The majority of multivariate statistics and machine learning algorithms expect Euclidean metrics on unconstrained data spaces. On the other hand, most variables in geosciences are strictly positive and capped by physical constraints, which leads to pointless arithmetic measures. Disobeying these constraints may obscure meaningful patterns, produce spurious correlations, or senseless measures of model quality. Within this short course, useful recipes to overcome common pitfalls in multivariate statistics and machine learning for (a) common physically constrained and (b) compositional data spaces will be presented with hands-on examples.

The course is structured into four topics:
a) Why are common metrics meaningless in constrained data spaces?
b) Challenges of modeling physical extremes
c) Basic recipes for physically constrained data spaces 
d) Meaningful transformation for compositional data (outlook only)

This course is held interactively with interdisciplinary hands-on experience. Advanced statistical/mathematical knowledge is not mandatory, but bringing your own laptop with R, Python, or Matlab environment will help to follow the presented recipes and exercises!

This short course will train you how to use robust Machine Learning methods to do statistical downscaling of coarse climate model scenarios. A sample dataset will be used: daily surface temperature from one Global Climate Model of the CMIP6 database (historical and future climate time periods), along with a high resolution reanalysis.
Introduction on climate statistical downscaling
Methodology: classical and Machine-Learning based
Steps to perform downscaling
Sample datasets
Results
All material will be made available online, and a sample Jupyter Notebook will be provided.

How do seismologists detect and locate earthquakes? Is seismology only about earthquakes? Seismology has become an essential tool across various geo-disciplines, complementing fields like tectonics, geology, geodynamics, volcanology, hydrology, glaciology, and planetology.

In Seismology 101, we will introduce the fundamental concepts and methods of seismology. This course remains tailored to those unfamiliar with the subject, particularly early career scientists. We will provide an overview of key methods and processing techniques applicable to surface processes, near-surface geological structures, and the Earth’s interior. The course will emphasise how advanced seismological techniques can enhance the interpretation of results from other disciplines.
Topics include:
- Basic principles of seismology, including earthquake detection and location
- Understanding and interpreting "beachballs" (focal mechanisms)
- The distinction between earthquake risks and hazards
- An introduction to free tutorials at seismo-live.org and other useful tools
- Applications of seismic methods for imaging the Earth’s interior (at various scales), deciphering tectonics, and monitoring volcanoes, landslides, glaciers, and more.

While we won’t turn you into the next Charles Richter in 60 minutes, we aim to increase your awareness of how seismology can support geoscience. Each topic will be discussed in a non-technical manner, highlighting both strengths and potential limitations. This course will help non-seismologists better understand seismic data and foster enriched interdisciplinary discussions.

The short course is organized by early career seismologists and geoscientists, who will present examples from their own research and high-impact reference studies for illustration. This 60-minute short course is part of a quintet of introductory 101 courses on Geodesy, Geodynamics, Geology, Seismology, and Tectonic Modelling. All courses are led by experts who aim to make complex Earth science concepts accessible to non-experts.

Writing is difficult. Like most geoscientists, you might struggle, especially if your native tongue is not English. Writing is a skill best learnt by practice, lots of it, ideally with immediate peer feedback. It can also be a lonely job. In this hands-on, participatory workshop you will work on a writing task with colleagues, sharing inspiration and getting immediate feedback. The task illustrates in vivid fashion some key elements of writing.

This Short Course will be a *workshop* including the following:
1. Quick intros [5 mins]
2. An enjoyable, small-group writing game, with immediate feedback [40 mins]
3. Small-group debrief [25 mins]
4. A Q&A session with journal editors [30 mins]
5. Wrap-up [10 mins]

As editors of the EGU journal, Geoscience Communication, we believe that this workshop will be of use to all authors, although we particularly encourage beginners and those of intermediate experience to attend.

It might be possible to use a short, and not-too-technical, paragraph of yours in the workshop and suggest improvements. If you would like to do that, please see the Additional Information below.

Please note that some workshop materials will allow up to a maximum of 20 participants, on a first-come basis. Additional people will be invited to conduct guided observation in silence during the exercises, and then to contribute actively during the debriefing and discussion.

Please bring some blank paper, a pen and an internet-enabled laptop or telephone (with QR code capability).

The job market in both industry and academia can be a very challenging environment, especially for those either just completing a course of study, or looking to change sectors. Trying to get your application to stand out is a task that comes with a lot of unknowns, even after years of experience in higher or further education. Preparing for a higher level job application or interview is a useful skill that develops as you advance in your career – with new aspects being added with each new position you aim for. Once you get invited to interview, this process in itself bring a whole new set of challenges that range from: online vs in-person interviews; interview protocol; accommodations and reasonable requests; expected time-frames; anticipating questions; gauging employer culture and more.

This short course aims to bridge this gap to employment by drawing on the experience of senior career workers in both industry and academia, as well as HR professionals, to provide specific advice for anyone who is in the process of submitting a job application or preparing for interview. This short course will address questions such as: what to include or not in a cover letter and job application; what are the different kinds of CV and when you should use them; how to prepare for an online or in-person interview; what are some of the signs you can look for to identify workplace culture; and what questions you should ask in an interview.

As a practical exercise, this short course will conclude with a mock interview; a list of questions that could be asked of applicants in a limited time environment, with feedback available from the presenters. Short course participants will leave feeling more prepared and confident in their skills for navigating the job market.

Peer-review is the heart of quality control when it comes to publishing our scientific results. It is almost exclusively based on voluntary service by the scientific community itself. Yet peer-reviewers are currently the most limited human resource in scientific publishing. Insights about the peer-review process are essential for the successful publication of your manuscript, but the prospect of reviewing scientific manuscripts can appear daunting, especially to early career scientists (ECS). Open questions regarding the role as reviewer, expectations by the journal editors, and the degree of detail, but also ethical responsibilities may lead to doubts. This short course offers the opportunity to meet editors of internationally renowned journals to get answers to those questions and to eliminate the doubts regarding one’s aptitude as a reviewer:
• How is the peer-review process organized? How do editors search for and select reviewers?
• Which forms of peer review exist and what are the main differences?
• Tips for my first review: What to focus on and how to structure?
• What are (and are not!) the duties and roles of reviewers?
• What are the ethical responsibilities of reviewers? How do I deal with conflicts of interest?
• What are the benefits of voluntary peer-reviewing?
As part of the course, the EGU peer-review model and the details specific to the EGU journals will be presented. This includes the advantages of the EGU’s interactive open access publishing with multi-stage open peer review. Participants will have the opportunity to indicate their interest in the next edition of the EGU Peer Review Training (Fall 2026), where hands-on experience will be provided through the review of preprints on EGUsphere.
In this short course, there will be plenty of opportunity to raise follow-up questions and have an open discussion about how to become comfortable in the role as reviewer. The short course might be interesting for ECS conducting their first reviews but also for advanced scientists willing to share their experiences as reviewers (and authors).

The European Research Council (ERC) is a leading funding body at European level. It aims to support excellent, frontier research across all fields of science. The ERC offers various outstanding funding opportunities for investigator-driven projects, including grant budgets for individual scientists of up to €3.5 million. ERC calls are open to researchers around the world: all nationalities of applicants are welcome for projects carried out at a host institution in European Union member states or/and associated countries. The ERC is also quickly adapting to the constantly evolving research landscape, therefore at this session, the main features of ERC funding schemes will be presented, highlighting most recent changes implemented in the work programme and their effects in the evaluation. In addition, two invited speakers, an ERC grantee and a former member of the evaluation panel, will provide their own perspectives (as applicant and as evaluator) of the ERC evaluation process.

How can you ensure your research is heard within your community and beyond? Reaching the public, policymakers, or journalists requires more than good science: it takes clear and engaging communication. This short course will provide guidance on how you can share your work through press releases, blogs, and media interviews. You will learn practical tips for writing popular science pieces, how to avoid common mistakes when speaking to the media, and how to get ready for interviews. Join us to get tips to build confidence and develop essential skills to communicate your science clearly and engage with a wider audience.

All science has uncertainty. Global challenges such as disaster risk, environmental degradation, and climate change illustrate that an effective dialogue between science and society requires clear communication of uncertainty. Responsible science communication conveys the challenges of managing uncertainty that is inherent in data, models and predictions, facilitating the society to understand the contexts where uncertainty emerges and enabling active participation in discussions. Uncertainty communication can play a major role across the risk management cycle, especially during decision-making, and should be tailored to the audience and the timing of delivery. Therefore, research on quantification and communication of uncertainties deepens our understanding of how to make scientific evidence more actionable in critical moments.

This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on communicating scientific uncertainty to non-expert audiences, addressing topics such as:

(1) Innovative and practical tools (e.g. from social or statistical research) for communicating uncertainty
(2) Pitfalls, challenges and solutions to communicating uncertainty with non-experts
(3) Communicating uncertainty in risk and crisis situations (e.g., natural hazards, climate change, public health crises)

Examples of research fitting into the categories above include a) new, creative ways to visualize different aspects of uncertainty, b) new frameworks to communicate the level of confidence associated with research, c) testing the effectiveness of existing tools and frameworks, such as the categories of “confidence” used in expert reports (e.g., IPCC), or d) research addressing the challenges of communicating high-uncertainty high-impact events.

This session encourages you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of uncertainty in earth and space science.

Science communication includes the efforts of natural, physical and social scientists, communications professionals, and teams that communicate the process and values of science and scientific findings to non-specialist audiences outside of formal educational settings. The goals of science communication can include enhanced dialogue, understanding, awareness, enthusiasm, influencing sustainable behaviour change, improving decision making, and/or community building. Channels to facilitate science communication can include in-person interaction through teaching and outreach programs, and online through social media, mass media, podcasts, video, or other methods. This session invites presentations by individuals and teams on science communication practice, research, and reflection, addressing questions like:

What kind of communication efforts are you engaging in and how are you doing it?
What are the biggest challenges or successes you’ve had in engaging the public with your work?
How are other disciplines (such as social sciences) informing understanding of audiences, strategies, or effects?
How do you spark joy and foster emotional connection through activities?
How do you allow for co-creation of ideas within a community?
How are you assessing and measuring the positive impacts on society of your endeavours?
What are lessons learned from long-term communication efforts?

This session invites you to share your work and join a community of practice to inform and advance the effective communication of earth and space science.

Global challenges, such as climate change and natural hazards, are becoming increasingly complex and interdependent, and solutions have to be global in scope and based on a firm scientific understanding of the challenges we face. At the same time, Science and technology are playing an increasingly important role in a complex geopolitical landscape. In this difficult setting, scientific collaboration can not only be used to help address global challenges but also to foster international relations and build bridges across geopolitical divisions. Science diplomacy is a broad term used both to describe the various roles that science and researchers play in bridging geopolitical gaps and finding solutions to international issues, and also the study of how science intertwines with diplomacy in pursuing these goals.

During this Short Course, science diplomacy experts will introduce key science diplomacy concepts and outline the skills that are required to effectively engage in science diplomacy. They will also provide practical insights on how researchers can actively participate in science diplomacy, explore real-life examples of science diplomacy, and highlight resources where participants can learn more about science diplomacy moving forward.

This Short Course is of interest to researchers from all disciplines and career levels.

Are you unsure about how to bring order in the extensive program of the General Assembly? Are you wondering how to tackle this week of science? Are you curious about what EGU and the General Assembly have to offer? Then this is the short course for you!

During this course, we will provide you with tips and tricks on how to handle this large conference and how to make the most out of your week at this year's General Assembly. We'll explain the EGU structure, the difference between EGU and the General Assembly, we will dive into the program groups and we will introduce some key persons that help the Union function.

This is a useful short course for first-time attendees, those who have previously only joined us online, and those who haven’t been to Vienna for a while!

Academic environments offer many opportunities for intellectual growth, development, and collaboration. However, like any community, conflict also appears. Disagreements may arise over co-authorship, mentoring expectations, department politics, or interpretations of research ethics. These situations are often complex and emotionally challenging. This Short Course helps scientists to recognize, understand, and navigate conflict in academic settings. We will also look at how conflict can lead to personal and professional growth when approached constructively.

Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are at the forefront of scientific advancement, through pioneering novel methods, generating new insights, and developing innovative solutions. Across institutions and research projects, they contribute significantly to knowledge generation, scientific outputs and project deliverables. To grow into the scientific and project leaders of the future, ECRs require support, structural opportunities, and recognition that fosters both their personal growth and professional development.

The first edition of this session, hosted at EGU 2025, highlighted the importance of supporting ECRs, especially those not affiliated with the scope of larger projects. Building on these findings, this year’s edition of the short course will examine mechanisms for empowerment beyond individual projects, extending to broader institutional support.
The course provides an interactive platform for those at any career stage to share experiences, reflect on both opportunities and challenges, along with discussing practical strategies for enhancing ECR empowerment going into the future. Participants will explore mechanisms such as leadership, collaboration, scientific communication, result dissemination, community building, and financial support.

The co-conveners will first present best-practice examples of ECR empowerment, drawing on last year’s course outcomes and the forthcoming paper on the topic (Schlumberger et al., 2025; https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.21517.1). The session will further include break-out group discussions, allowing participants to reflect on these examples and explore new approaches to strengthen engagement and empowerment within their own context. The course welcomes ECRs, senior researchers, and senior professionals interested in fostering supportive environments for early career researchers. We especially invite those involved in large research projects, as these environments are particularly well-positioned to encourage and engage ECRs.