Outreach Extends to European Geosciences Union

 
Published: 14 May 2012

Attending their first EGU General Assembly, ARM Facility staff shared facility availability and resources with mostly European scientists, students, and teachers who stopped by the booth.Making its debut at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, the ARM Climate Research Facility “crossed the pond” to attend Europe’s leading forum for Earth and space sciences during the week of April 22-27, 2012, in Vienna, Austria. Participating in the meeting for the first time, ARM Facility staff visited with a steady stream of scientists who stopped by the ARM exhibit with comments and questions along the lines of:

  • “It is great that you are doing this.”
  • “Good to see the U.S. represented.”
  • “Why is DOE here?”
  • “The data are FREE?”

With attendance numbers closing at just over 11,000—11,216, to be exact, from 95 countries— EGU Vice President Gunter Bloschel said this year’s meeting was the most successful to date. The 530 scientific sessions included 4,436 oral and 9,092 poster presentations, and ARM data were included in several of these presentations. On Wednesday, April 25, Jim Mather, ARM Technical Director, presented “New ARM Measurements of Clouds, Aerosols, and the Atmospheric State” in a packed oral session on remote sensing, and the ARM Mobile Facility deployment in Germany was part of the many sessions about the Convective and Orographically-induced Precipitation Study.

With over 11,000 scientists attending EGU’s General Assembly, the Austria Center Vienna provided modern facilities and many amenities for taking breaks during the busy week.

Throughout the busy week, a full scientific program from symposia and interdivision sessions to key note and medal lectures was complemented by debates, short courses and townhall meetings. A standing-room-only panel debate on “Open Science and the Future of Publishing” provided for a lively discussion included in the EGU webstream and covered in a blog post by ARM’s public information officer. In addition to webstreaming, General Assembly outreach covered the full spectrum of social media communications.

Next year, the EGU General Assembly in Vienna will be held April 7–12, 2013.