Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The 250th anniversary of American independence provides a unique and engaging backdrop for examining our nation's history of international collaboration in meteorology and related fields From early colonial exchanges—including Benjamin Franklin’s scientific correspondence with European counterparts—to the International Polar Year (1882–1883) and more modern milestones like the creation of the WMO, America's history is full of fascinating examples of collaborating with partner countries. These efforts have been vital to improving our global understanding of the atmosphere (as well as the hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere), and how it affects our daily lives.
The discussion will include large international campaigns in the second half of the twentieth century- e.g. International Geophysical Year (IGY) to Global Atmosphere Research Program (GARP), GARP Atlantic Experiment (GATE), and Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA). These efforts demonstrated that only by working across international boundaries could scientists observe Earth system phenomena at scale. The panelists will share their insights on how collaborations have built today’s weather-climate prediction infrastructure, fostered global data sharing and offered a blueprint for resilience in an era of accelerating weather extremes. Process understanding in atmospheric chemistry that has been gained from international field campaigns will also be discussed. Finally looking ahead, future international collaborations need to be fostered to enable our Earth observing capability in an era of AI/ML and uncrewed systems.
The 250th anniversary of American independence provides a unique and engaging backdrop for examining our nation's history of international collaboration in meteorology and related fields From early colonial exchanges—including Benjamin Franklin’s scientific correspondence with European counterparts—to the International Polar Year (1882–1883) and more modern milestones like the creation of the WMO, America's history is full of fascinating examples of collaborating with partner countries. These efforts have been vital to improving our global understanding of the atmosphere (as well as the hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere), and how it affects our daily lives.
The discussion will include large international campaigns in the second half of the twentieth century- e.g. International Geophysical Year (IGY) to Global Atmosphere Research Program (GARP), GARP Atlantic Experiment (GATE), and Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA). These efforts demonstrated that only by working across international boundaries could scientists observe Earth system phenomena at scale. The panelists will share their insights on how collaborations have built today’s weather-climate prediction infrastructure, fostered global data sharing and offered a blueprint for resilience in an era of accelerating weather extremes. Process understanding in atmospheric chemistry that has been gained from international field campaigns will also be discussed. Finally looking ahead, future international collaborations need to be fostered to enable our Earth observing capability in an era of AI/ML and uncrewed systems.
