Many of the EGU General Assembly higlights will be streamed live, so if you can’t make it to Vienna this year, you can still watch the Union Session on Curiosity’s first results (US1), the Great Debate on fracking, several medal lectures and all the press conferences at the 2013 General Assembly live on the conference website.

To watch a session, simply click on the link that appears next to its entry on the full webstreaming schedule (available here). Videos will also be available on demand after the Assembly, and if you’d like to watch past year’s sessions, you can do so on EGU TV or the Union’s YouTube channel.

If you are a journalist or a freelance writer or science blogger interested in watching press conferences via webstreaming, you may ask questions to panellists using Skype, or on Twitter, using the hashtag #askEGU. For more information, please check the Webstreaming page on the EGU 2013 Media portal.

Oral Presentations

The guidelines for oral presentations are online. The link also specifies the equipment available in each room (laptop, microphone, laser pointer, ability to hook up your own laptop, etc.). Oral presentations this year are in four 90-minute time blocks, with each talk being about 12 minutes long with 3 minutes for questions. Please be in the presentation room approximately 30 minutes before your time block starts, so your presentation can be uploaded to the provided laptop or so you can connect your laptop to the system.

Austria Center Vienna by night during the General Assembly

Posters

Guidelines for poster presentations are also online. Importantly, the required dimensions of poster boards are 197 cm x 100 cm (landscape). Posters should be hung between 08:00 and 08:30 in the morning using tape available from roaming student assistants. By the start of the Assembly, EGU will have sent your poster location (e.g. XY0439) by email. Locations are also listed online in the programme. You can find the exact location of your poster using the online floor plans. Please retrieve your poster at the end of the day. Those that are not collected will be disposed of.

The Authors in Attendance Time will also have been sent to you. Note that some sessions may have a poster walk-through (in some cases this will be noted in the session details), where authors are asked to summarise their poster with other members of their session in attendance. Other sessions will comprise scheduled poster summaries and discussion.

Time Blocks

Timetabling at the General Assembly is in four time blocks as follows:

TB1 08:30–10:00
TB2 10:30–12:00
TB3 13:30–15:00
TB4 15:30–17:00
TB5 17:30–19:00 (not on Friday)

There is free tea and coffee available in the poster halls in the breaks between TB1 & TB2 and TB3 & TB4.

No-shows

Including your abstract in the conference programme obliges you, or one of your co-authors, to present your contribution at the time and in the mode indicated. If you already know that your oral will not be presented, you are kindly requested to withdraw your corresponding abstract as soon as possible.

The EGU General Assembly 2013 programme is available here.

The scientific programme of the General Assembly 2013 includes Union Symposia, Interdivision Sessions, Educational and Outreach Symposia, as well as oral and poster sessions on disciplinary and interdisciplinary topics covering the full spectrum of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The Keynote and Medal Lectures, Great Debate in the Geosciences, Short Courses, Townhall Meetings, and Splinter Meetings complete the overall programme.

Since 2005, the General Assembly has taken place in at the Austria Center, Vienna

There are different approaches to access the programme, so you can explore the sessions in your preferred way:

• Browse by day & time: Online view of the oral and poster sub-sessions, their time and location, sorted chronologically by conference days, time blocks and by programme groups
• Browse by session: Online view of the sessions and their oral and poster sub-sessions, sorted by programme groups and session numbers
• Personal Programme: Online tool to generate your own personal programme by selecting specific presentations or sessions. To be printed, saved in the Copernicus Office (for later recall or modification), or generated as PDF
• Papers of Special Interest: Listing of those abstracts which were selected by the respective Conveners to be of special interest for the press & media representatives

We look forward to seeing you in Vienna for the General Assembly 7-12 April 2013!

A limited amount of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly is reserved to assist young scientists who wish to present at the meeting. From 2005 to 2012, the total amount awarded grew from about €50k to €80k; for the 2013 General Assembly, the EGU has allocated €90k for support awards.

The financial support may include waiving of the registration fee and a refund of the Abstract Processing Charge related to the abstract for which support was requested. Additionally, the grant may include a support for travel expenditures. The EGU currently runs three different financial support schemes; you can find more details about these awards on the Support & Distinction section on the EGU2013 website.

Scientists who wish to apply for financial support should submit an abstract, on which they are first authors, by 30 November 2012. Late applications, or applications where the young scientist is not the main author, will not be considered.

To submit the abstract of your oral or poster presentation, please enter the Session Programme page on the EGU2013 website, select the part of the programme you would like to submit an abstract to, and study the respective session list. Each session shows the link to Abstract Submission that you should use. More information on how to submit an abstract is available from the EGU2013 website.

To apply for financial support, make sure you click the appropriate box(es) when submitting your abstract. Bare in mind that, even if you are applying for support, you will still need to pay the Abstract Processing Charge. A screenshot of the first screen of the abstract submission process is shown below; the support application section is just above the Abstract Title box.

The selection process follows a three-step process:

• The first and most important step, after the submission deadline of 30 November 2012, corresponds to the evaluation (ranking and comments) made by the session convener and/or co-conveners.
• The second step corresponds to the decision made by the EGU support selection committee which is based, on a first instance, on the quality of the abstract, which is reflected on a convener’s higher ranking and favourable comments.
• In the third and final step, the Treasurer/Finance Committee takes into account the overall annual budget allocation, the number of abstracts submitted by each session, and the number of registered participants by country (estimated based on previous-year numbers).

In 2012, of the 1113 applications received, representing 1086 applicants, 218 were awarded financial support. Next year’s financial-support awardees will be notified in late January.

If you cannot make it to Vienna this year, you can still watch Union Medal Lectures (ML0–ML3), the two Great Debates,  and all press conferences at the 2012 General Assembly live on the conference website. To watch a session, simply click on the link that appears next to its entry on the full webstreaming schedule available here. Videos will also be available on demand after the Assembly. If you’d like to watch past year’s sessions, you can do so via the EGU TV website.

If you are a journalist or a freelance writer interested in watching press conferences via webstreaming, you may ask questions to panelists using Skype. For more information, please check the Webstreaming page on the EGU 2012 Media portal.

This year’s General Assembly features a special photo exhibition documenting the devastation left behind by last year’s earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. “A Catfish Sleeps – Tohoku, photographs in Japan 2009-2011: before and after the Great East Japan Earthquake” shows how, in only a few days, entire communities and landscapes were swept away as seawater enveloped parts of Japan’s eastern coastline. The exhibition will take place from Monday to Friday in the Blue Level (basement) of the Austria Center Vienna, near Rooms 10 and 11. Make sure you don’t miss the talk by Stephen Vaughan, the photographer, on Wednesday at 17:30-19:00 in Room 11!

Kuwagasaki, Miyako, Iwate Prefecture, Japan, 2011 by Stephen Vaughan. This photo is part of the collection 'A Catfish Sleeps'.

Oral Presentations

The guidelines for oral presentations are online. The link also specifies the equipment available in each room (laptop, beamer, microphone, laser pointer, ability to hook up your own laptop, etc.). Oral presentations this year are in four 90-minute time blocks, with each talk being about 12 minutes long with 3 minutes for questions. Please be in the presentation room approximately 30 minutes before your time block starts, so your presentation can be uploaded to the provided laptop or so you can connect your laptop to the system.

Austria Center Vienna by night during last year's General Assembly

Posters

Guidelines for poster presentations are also online. Importantly, the required dimensions of poster boards are 197 cm x 100 cm (landscape). Posters should be hung between 08:00 and 08:30 in the morning using tape available from roaming student assistants. By the start of the Assembly, EGU will have sent your poster location (e.g. XY0439) by email. Locations are also listed online in the programme. You can find the exact location of your poster using the online floor plans. At the end of each day, the student assistants will carefully remove posters and place them in storage bins in the poster halls, labeled by day.

The Authors in Attendance Time will also have been sent to you. Note that some sessions may have a poster walk-through (in some cases this will be noted in the session details), where authors are asked to summarise their poster with other members of their session in attendance. Other sessions will comprise scheduled poster summaries and discussion.

A list of the equipment in PSD (Poster Summaries & Discussions) rooms is on the EGU GA website, as are guidelines for converners.

Time Blocks

Timetabling at the General Assembly is in four time blocks as follows:
TB1 08:30–10:00
TB2 10:30–12:00
TB3 13:30–15:00
TB4 15:30–17:00

There is free tea and coffee available in the poster halls in the breaks between TB1 & TB2 and TB3 & TB4.

No-shows

Including your abstract in the conference programme obliges you, or one of your co-authors, to present your contribution at the time and in the mode indicated. If you already know that your oral will not be presented, you are kindly requested to withdraw your corresponding abstract as soon as possible.

The EGU General Assembly 2012 programme is available here.

The scientific programme of the General Assembly 2012 includes Union Symposia, Interdivision Sessions, Educational and Outreach Symposia, as well as oral and poster sessions on disciplinary and interdisciplinary topics covering the full spectrum of the geosciences and the space and planetary sciences. Furthermore, Keynote and Medal Lectures, Great Debates in the Geosciences,Short Courses, Townhall Meetings, and Splinter Meetings complete the overall programme.

Since 2005, the General Assembly has taken place in Vienna (source: Wikimedia)

There are different approaches to access the programme in your preferred way:

• Browse by day & time: Online view of the oral and poster sub-sessions, their time and location, sorted chronologically by conference days, time blocks and programme groups;
• Browse by session: Online view of the sessions and their oral and poster sub-sessions, sorted by programme groups and session numbers;
• Personal Programme: Online tool to generate your own personal programme by selecting specific presentations or sessions. To be printed, saved in the Copernicus Office (for later recall or modification), or generated as PDF;
• Papers of Special Interest: Listing of those abstracts which were selected by the respective Conveners to be of special interest for the press & media representatives.

We look forward to seeing you in Vienna for the General Assembly 22-27 April 2012!

Writing Your Abstract

• Abstracts should be short (300–500 words), clear, concise and written in English with correct spelling and good sentence structure.
• Mathematical symbols and equations must be typed in, and metric symbols should be used. Figures and tables should not be included.
• We recommend that the abstract is carefully compiled and thoroughly checked, in particular with regard to the list of authors, before submission in order to avoid last minute changes.
• The submission of an abstract carries with it the obligation that it is actually presented at the meeting by the author or, at least, by one of the co-authors.

Submitting Your Abstract

1. Use a text editor of your choice to compile your abstract: Title, Author(s), Affiliation(s) of author(s), and the Abstract Text;
2. Browse through the Session Programme and select the session of your interest;
3. Use the link “Abstract Submission” at the respective session;
4. You are asked to login to the Copernicus Office Meeting Organizer. Use your account data or create a new account;
5. Fill in the information about Title, Author(s), and Affiliation(s) of author(s);
6. Choose between Plain Text, LaTeX or WORD content with regard to the Abstract Text;
7. Copy-and-Paste your information into the form or download and use the WORD template;
8. Check the generated PDF file of your edited and formatted abstract;
9. If the conversion of your abstract fails please specify your problems when contacting Copernicus;
10. In any case, please indicate your invoice details for the Abstract Processing Charge as well as your payment details;
11. Submit your abstract. Your credit card will be checked and debited.

Authors may decide to submit their abstract with a preference either for a poster presentation or for an oral presentation. However, there is no guarantee that an oral preference can be realized.

First Author Rule: Regarding the oral preference, you are allowed as first author to submit either ONE regular abstract plus ONE abstract solicited by a convener, or TWO solicited abstracts. Each further abstract has to be submitted with a poster preference. If you submit to a session belonging to the programme group EOS, you are allowed as first author to submit ONE more abstract with an oral preference (THREE in total).

The Abstract Processing Charge

• An Abstract Processing Charge (APC) of €40 gross must be paid for each abstract submission.
• Abstracts are only processed and available for the session organization by conveners after the payment is completed. Please note that this is a processing charge and not a publishing fee.
• APCs are not refundable in case of an abstract withdrawal, rejection or double submission. The charges collected cover the cost to process the abstracts whether or not one attends the meeting.
• The APC does not register you for the EGU2012 General Assembly. Separate registration fees apply.
• Solicited Speakers do not receive discounted APCs, registration fees, or travel reimbursement.

In case of any questions, please contact us.

This information can also be found on the EGU GA 2012 webpages.

Several participants in the Geoblogsphere having been posting recently about sand dunes. Its part of Sand Dune Week declared on twitter by Brian Romans. Some of the posts are listed by Matthew Francis or find more by searching on twitter for “sand dune week”.

There are three sessions at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012 directly related to sand dunes, these are listed below. To submit an abstract visit the meeting website.

GM5.1 Aeolian Processes and Landforms

Convener: J.M. Nield, Co-Convener: J. King
Aeolian geomorphology covers a wide spectrum of research from the small scale study of processes in the field or laboratory to modelling projects predicting long-term dune field evolution. This session aims to bring together a diverse group of researchers that study wind-blown sediment (both sand and dust) and associated bedforms in a range of environments, from coastal and semi-arid regions, to hyper arid deserts. Contributions that use novel instrumentation in field studies, remote sensing at the landscape scale or innovative numerical modelling methods, are encouraged, particularly those which attempt to elucidate feedback between surface properties and sediment transport.

GM10.1/PS2.9 Planetary Geomorphology

Convener: S. Conway, Co-Conveners: M. Balme , C. Gallagher
This session aims to give a different perspective on planetary science by bringing together geomorphologists from terrestrial sciences with those who spend more time on other planets. Studies of landscapes on any scale on any solid body are welcome. We particularly encourage those who use Earth analogues (either in the field or laboratory) to present their work. Submissions can include studies on glacial, periglacial, aeolian, volcanic or fluvial landforms. We welcome submissions from geomorphologists who are new to planetary science.

AS4.13/CL4.7 Aeolian dust, initiator, player, and recorder of environmental change

Convener: P. Knippertz, Co-Convener: J.-B. Stuut

The interactions between aerosols, climate, and weather are among the large uncertainties of current climate and 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.
In addition, properties of dust deposited in sediments and ice cores are important (paleo-)climate indicators.

This interdivision session is open to contributions dealing with:
(1) measurements of all aspects of the dust cycle (emission, transport, deposition, size distribution, particle characteristics) with in situ and remote sensing techniques,
(2) numerical simulations of dust on global and regional scales,
(3) meteorological conditions for dust storms, dust transport and deposition,
(4) interactions of dust with clouds and radiation,
(5) influence of dust on atmospheric chemistry,
(6) fertilization of ecosystems through dust deposition,
(7) any study using dust as a (paleo-)climate indicator including investigations of Loess, ice cores, lake sediments, ocean sediments and dunes.

We especially encourage our colleagues to submit papers on the integration of different disciplines and/or modeling of past, present and future climates.

Image by Ioannis Daglis, distributed by EGU under a Creative Commons licence.