Abstract
After 20 years of intensive scientific and outreach activities,
the Baltic Sea Experiment (BALTEX , 1993-2013), one of the original continental-scale experiments of the Global Energy
and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX ) within the World
Climate Research Program (WCRP), recently came to its
scheduled end. As BALTEX was among scientists regarded
as a very successful research programme, the science
steering group agreed to launch a successor programme
with the new name “Baltic Earth”, with a revised focus
on Earth system science. The programme is led by a
renewed and younger steering group to continue the
interdisciplinary and international collaboration in the Baltic
Sea region. Although Baltic Earth will face new challenges,
it inherits the BALTEX network (people and institutions),
infrastructure (secretariat, study conferences, workshops,
and publications) and scientific legacy, symbolized by a
somewhat modified logo (compare the logos on both covers
of this issue). Like BALTEX, the new programme aims to be
embedded into international, global-scale programmes like
GEWEX/WCRP and Future Earth.