NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has fostered and shepherded a multidisciplinary dialogue on climate processes, which resulted in the 2012 first Comparative Climatology for Terrestrial Planets (CCTP) conference in Boulder, Colorado.

CCTP-1 promoted interdisciplinary dialogue on a wide range of planetary climates. Out of this first CCTP, a University of Arizona Press book of the same title was produced. The CCTP-2 meeting offered a similar range of conversations, including the effects of the Sun and other stars, on the climates of Earth and other planets in and beyond the solar system. CCTP-3 continued this dialogue and interactions started at the two previous conferences examining from the micro to the macro scale. This third conference encouraged cross-disciplinary conversation on climate processes at work on terrestrial planets both within our solar system and in extrasolar systems. The CCTP-3 conference treated terrestrial climate as a broad term, which included the climates of Earth, Mars, and Venus as well as the climates of Titan and Pluto. CCTP-3 also covered exoplanets similar to Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, and Pluto.

The conference synthesized present and past research in terrestrial climate science, including solar-stellar influences. It did this from a multidisciplinary, multiplanet perspective to promote discussions of forthcoming research, including future mission needs. This meant that CCTP-3 benefited from expertise from disciplines ranging from planetary science, to heliophysics, to Earth science, to astronomy. It also meant that it encouraged the growth of a diverse and inclusive community, so that future conference and activities in these themes will incorporate as many perspectives as possible into this multidisciplinary discussion.

As an outcome from this third conference, an ad hoc committee will be formed to maintain continuity on this multidisciplinary science dialogue . A website will also be established to act as a repository of all the CCTP conferences. The NASA Office of the Chief Scientist will be shepherding this effort.

For more information about the conference, including the program and abstracts, visit https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/climatology2018/.

— Text provided by Adriana Ocampo