Jelmer Jeuring

Affiliation: The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Development centre for weather forecasting, Bergen, Norway

FOCUS: Accounting for forecast uncertainties in communicating sea-ice and weather information in the Arctic (https://focus-arctic.com/index.html)
PRISMAS: Delivering policy-relevant knowledge about past and projected change, risk and safety of maritime activities around Svalbard (https://en.uit.no/project/prismas)
ArcRCC-N: Arctic Regional Climate Centre Network (https://www.arctic-rcc.org/)
Nansen Legacy (https://arvenetternansen.com/)

Planned fieldwork on Svalbard: Many of the projects in which I am involved build on co-production principles. My tasks in these projects are mainly to identify user contexts that shape preferences for weather and climate information, and to facilitate stakeholder engagement in project activities. While no specific periods are currently identified for fieldwork, in 2021 we plan to organize several workshops with stakeholder groups in Svalbard around safety issues for maritime operations.

I have a background in cultural geography and social psychology, and currently apply this in inter/transdisciplinary research projects. Many of these projects are geographically situated in the Arctic, and various specifically focus on Svalbard (and its surrounding waters). My role in these projects is to try to better understand the needs and perceived value of different types of weather and climate information for a wide range of organizations and communities. As such I am trying to interact with and involve local communities into the research projects, as to facilitate dialogues and bottom-up feedback that helps to improve weather, sea-ice and climate information provided by MET Norway.

I have always been very curious about the weather and how it is experienced by people. Some might even say that from a young age I have been addicted to observing clouds and checking weather forecasts. I can only confirm this. The weather is to me as much an atmospheric process that can be measured, predicted and communicated about, as a psychological and cultural phenomenon that is physically experienced and made sense of in cognitive and affective ways. Accounting for these socio-cultural processes is crucial for the translation of weather and climate information into actionable formats that support decision-making in the wide variety of user contexts. This is a challenge everywhere, but especially in a remote area as Svalbard, with its harsh climate that is currently changing quickly.