Meetings
Virtual Workshop Series on Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI)
6-9 October 2025
Over four intensive days, more than 200 participants from around the globe came together for the Virtual Workshop Series on Stratospheric Aerosol Injection (SAI), hosted by the WCRP Lighthouse Activity- Research on Climate Intervention and the Core Activity “Atmospheric Processes and their Role in Climate”. Featuring 52speakers, the event provided a lively forum for in-depth discussions on SAI, a proposed climate intervention that would aim to reduce the impacts of global warming through the injection of reflective particles in the stratosphere. As this topic becomes more widely discussed, it is important that robust scientific discussions are had to better identify potential risks and impacts of SAI across different scenarios, to understand and reduce uncertainties in future projections using Earth System Models, and to address SAI science questions using small scale deployment that may not be answered by studying natural analogues only
The workshops explored a wide range of topics, from observational strategies and modeling of stratospheric aerosols to climatic, societal, and ecological impacts, as well as the ethical considerations of studying and testing SAI. Participants shared the latest research, debated potential risks and uncertainties, and considered strategies for robust monitoring and simulation of future scenarios.
By fostering an inclusive, international dialogue, the series emphasized collaboration across observational and modeling communities, aiming to advance our understanding of Earth system responses to climate interventions and inform evidence-based policy and governance.
2024 STIPMEX Workshop
June 2-7 2024, Pune, India
An International workshop on Stratosphere-Troposphere Interactions and Prediction of Monsoon weather EXtremes (STIPMEX) will foster all observational/modelling aspects of the stratosphere-troposphere coupling processes and extreme weather events associated with Asian summer monsoon. The workshop will provide a platform for discussions on dynamical, chemical, radiative and convective processes of the atmosphere during the Asian summer monsoon. It will particularly emphasize on the recent changes/trends in stratosphere-troposphere coupling process, linkages of stratospheric process/volcanic eruptions with the Asian summer monsoon. The challenges of forecasting extreme weather events during Asian summer monsoon will also be deliberated upon. The workshop will also showcase the new initiatives and insights for future pathways of forecasting extremes along with stakeholder discussions. There will be a one-day pre-workshop training session for students and early career scientists/professionals on latest data analysis techniques.
2022 SSiRC Workshop
March 2022, Leeds, UK
The 3rd International SSiRC Workshop has now been confirmed for 16-18 May 2022 in Leeds, UK. Visit the conference website here for updates and details.
2021 Virtual Meeting
17-20 September 2021
In September 2021, SSiRC hosted its first virtual conference with more than 100 participants. In three sessions, recent and ongoing studies related to sulfur and stratospheric aerosol were presented and discussed. A complete list of 39 presentations with titles is found here.
Stratospheric aerosol in the post-Pinatubo era: Processes, Interactions, and Importance
18-23, March 2018, Tenerife, Spain
Stratospheric aerosol, a persistent yet highly variable component of the stratosphere, has impacts on radiation and stratospheric ozone, and thus climate. Since the 1960s the study of stratospheric aerosol has been substantially influenced by the large volcanic eruptions of: Agung, Fuego, El Chichón, and Pinatubo. This paradigm of decadal major volcanic eruptions changed after Pinatubo in 1991. Since then, no volcanic eruptions have had similar magnitudes and in most cases the stratospheric signature was lost within one year. The period following Pinatubo to the present overlaps with a golden age for stratospheric aerosol and gas phase sulfur measurements from satellites, aircraft, balloons, and the ground, representing an optimum period for testing climate models that use prescribed stratospheric aerosol and gas phase sulfur, and those that use surface emissions and calculate stratospheric aerosol and gas phase sulfur. Historically such a period of quiescent to mild volcanism is perhaps more common than the active volcanism of the 1960s through the 1990s, and is more suited to study troposphere-to-stratosphere transport, background stratospheric chemistry, trends in stratospheric sulfate aerosol, and the sources and potential climate impact of non-sulfate stratospheric aerosol. This Chapman Conference will be focused on addressing the following scientific questions that have grown out of this period of observations.
- What sources (volcanic, natural non-volcanic, and anthropogenic) and processes have controlled stratospheric aerosol levels since the decay of the Mt. Pinatubo aerosol?
- How do the observed variations in stratospheric aerosol, over the recent quiescent and mild volcanic period, impact climate and the composition of the stratosphere?
- How well do we understand the sulfur budget over the ?golden period? of stratospheric observations, in the post-Pinatubo era?
- What is the role of non-sulfate aerosol in the stratosphere and how much does it change the current sulfate-dominated picture of stratospheric aerosol?
- How well do the global aerosol climatologies, derived primarily from satellite measurements, capture the climate relevant quantities during the quiescent to mild volcanic period?
- How well do models represent the stratospheric aerosol over quiescent to mild volcanic periods?
Workshop on the Measurement of Stratospheric Aerosol
September 6-8, 2017, Boulder, Colorado
SPARC's Stratospheric Sulfur and its Role in Climate (SSiRC) activity is sponsoring a workshop focused on facilitating communications and collaborations among scientists responsible for observations of stratospheric aerosol by in situ, ground-based and space-based instruments. Key goals are to develop strategies for understanding and closing differences among instruments, and for characterizing the continuity of the measurement record as instruments and measurement paradigms change, while keeping in mind the end goal of providing data users, particularly the climate modeling community, more robust and better-characterized data sets than normally obtained from single instruments. As such, it will consist of a few invited talks and substantial time set aside for group discussions. We hope that participants will develop ideas for collaborative projects and, perhaps, proposal ideas. We will summarize meeting outcomes in the SPARC Newsletter.
Given the nature of the workshop, attendance will be limited to about 25, with some allowance for students and early career scientists. If you are interested in attending, please contact the conveners. If you wish to make a presentation, please include a synopsis in your email. We will distribute the synopses to attendees prior to the workshop. The workshop is scheduled for September 6 to 8th at Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder, Colorado. A modest registration fee is expected. More details about the meeting location and schedule will be forthcoming.
2016 SSiRC Workshop
25-28 April 2016, Potsdam, Germany
2nd SSiRC Workshop took place 25-28 April 2016 in Potsdam, Germany. The meeting was very well sought with over 70 participants. Presentations from the workshop are now downloadable here!
2013 SSiRC Workshop
28-30 October 2013, Atlanta, Georgia
Presentations are available for download here.