ARCUS Annual Meeting Meeting
Please Save The Date! The 2020 ARCUS Annual Meeting will take place virtually this year on Thursday, 29 October 2020, 9-11am AKDT, 10am-12pm PDT, 11am-1pm MDT, 12-2pm CDT, 1-3pm EDT. ARCUS Annual Meetings serve as an important opportunity for for the Council of ARCUS Institutional Member Representatives, ARCUS Individual Members, and other members of the broader Arctic research community to connect with one another, the ARCUS Board of Directors, and staff. The meeting will be open to all interested participants and there is no cost to attend.
ARCUS Virtual Backgrounds Available Announcement
The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) supports a rich range of Arctic research, education, and communication activities. Our Polar Media Archive is a valuable resource that is home to over 20,000 beautiful photos from across the Arctic. Of these, we’re proud to present 25 handpicked images to serve as virtual meeting backgrounds.
Call for Sea Ice Outlook Contributions Call for Input
The Sea Ice Prediction Network–Phase 2 (SIPN2) announces the Call for Contributions for the 2020 Sea Ice Outlook August Report (based on May, June, and July data). The Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) provides an open process for those interested in Arctic sea ice to share ideas.
Pan-Arctic and Regional Sea Ice Extent Outlooks and any additional figures and gridded fields will be accepted for the 2020 August Outlook. We particularly encourage submissions for the Alaska region (i.e., Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas). All participants whose methods provide information at the local scale are encouraged to provide full spatial fields via the SIPN Data Portal. New for the August SIO Report: Forecasts for ice advance dates (IAD) will be calculated from the full spatial fields of sea ice concentration that extend through the ice-advance seasons.
The 2020 SIO will also accept pan-Antarctic sea ice extent of the September monthly mean. Additionally, we encourage submissions to the associated effort of the Sea Ice Drift Forecast Experiment.
Submission deadline: 6:00 p.m. (AKDT) Wednesday, 12 July 2020 (firm).
Witness the Arctic Publication
This issue includes news about the new NSF Director, Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan; updates from NSF’s Office of Polar Programs; summaries of recently released strategic plans from NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) and from the American Geophysical Union (AGU); science articles about understanding circumpolar bear ceremonialism and about the changing carbon cycle of the Arctic Ocean; updates on the PolarTREC program and the Sea Ice Prediction Network–Phase 2 project; overviews of the first Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) Investigators Meeting and of the sixth annual APECS conference; comments from the ARCUS Executive Director, Board President, and other board members; and a highlight of ARCUS member institution, Kawerak, Inc.
2020 July Sea Ice Outlook Report is Now Available Online Report
The 2020 July Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) report is now available online. The Sea Ice Outlook, an effort managed by the Sea Ice Prediction Network–Phase 2 (SIPN2), provides an open process for those interested in Arctic sea ice to share predictions and ideas. The monthly reports contain a variety of perspectives—from advanced numerical models to qualitative perspectives from citizen scientists. The Outlook is not an operational forecast.
For the 2020 July report, 38 contributions were received that included pan-Arctic predictions. Of those contributions, 10 included predictions for the Alaska Region and 7 included pan-Antarctic predictions. Additionally, we received 13 submissions of sea-ice probability and 10 submissions of first ice-free date. New this year, the report includes ice-free conditions for the Hudson Bay region; the September sea-ice concentration contour in the Fram Strait region, motivated by the MOSAiC expedition; and we invited contributors to submit initial conditions (sea-ice concentration and sea-ice thickness) of their forecasts to better understand how observations are being used in forecasts.
For the pan-Arctic, the median July Outlook value for September 2020 sea-ice extent is 4.36 million square kilometers, with quartiles of 4.1 and 4.6 million square kilometers. The median is close to the observed 2019 September sea-ice extent of 4.32 million square kilometers.
New Resources Available Through PolarTREC Education
We are excited to announce new resources available through the PolarTREC website. Whether you are a classroom teacher looking for new lessons for next fall or an informal science educator looking for new ideas to use with your audiences - PolarTREC has resources for you! Recently published resources include:
- Growing Up on Ice – In this STEM-based lesson, students analyze Weddell seal pup growth data, collected by the Growing Up on Ice, B-030, research team.
- Don’t Clam Up - The Effect of Warming Seas on Respiration and Biomass – This lesson plan is designed to teach students about the importance of the benthic community in the shallow portions of the Arctic and how climate change may affect their respiration.
- Jumping Into Warming Seas – This lesson introduces students to the impacts of increasing ocean temperatures on marine life.
Witness Community Highlights Publication
The June 2020 issue of Witness Community Highlights is now available online. This issue includes two articles: “Arctic Data Center's New Customizable Portal Service,” summarizing features, applications, and examples of effective use of the new data tool; and “US Arctic Research Commission Hosts Virtual Conference and Workshop,” highlighting discussion panels and topics addressed during the virtual conference on COVID-19 Impacts in the Arctic, held in mid-May 2020; as well as an overview of the Virtual Alaska Electric Vehicle (EV) Workshop held in mid-June 2020.
Call for Sea Ice Outlook Contributions Call for Input
The Sea Ice Prediction Network–Phase 2 (SIPN2) announces the Call for Contributions for the 2020 Sea Ice Outlook July Report (based on May and June data). The Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) provides an open process for those interested in Arctic sea ice to share ideas. Pan-Arctic and Regional Sea Ice Extent Outlooks and any additional figures and gridded fields will be accepted for the 2020 July Outlook. We particularly encourage submissions for the Alaska region (i.e., Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas). All participants whose methods provide information at the local scale to are encouraged to provide full spatial fields via the SIPN Data Portal. First ice-free dates (IFD) for Hudson Bay will be calculated from the full spatial fields that cover this region. For those interested, submissions the September 2020 80% sea ice concentration contour for Fram Strait are also invited. The 2020 SIO will also accept pan-Antarctic sea ice extent of the September monthly mean. Additionally, we encourage submissions to the associated effort of the Sea Ice Drift Forecast Experiment.
Submission deadline: 6:00 p.m. (AKDT) Monday, 13 July 2020 (Firm).
2020 June Sea Ice Outlook Report is Now Available Report
The 2020 June Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) report is now available online. The Sea Ice Outlook, an effort managed by the Sea Ice Prediction Network–Phase 2 (SIPN2), provides an open process for those interested in Arctic sea ice to share predictions and ideas. The monthly reports contain a variety of perspectives—from advanced numerical models to qualitative perspectives from citizen scientists. The Outlook is not an operational forecast.
For the 2020 June report, 33 contributions were received that included pan-Arctic predictions. Of those contributions eight included predictions for pan-Antarctic and the Alaska Region. Additionally, we received 13 submissions of sea-ice probability and ten submissions of first ice-free date. New this year, the report includes ice-free conditions for the Hudson Bay region; September sea-ice concentration contour in the Fram Strait region, motivated by the MOSAiC expedition; and we invited contributors to submit initial conditions (sea-ice concentration and sea-ice thickness) of their forecasts to better understand how observations are being used in forecasts.
For the pan-Arctic, the median June Outlook value for September 2020 sea-ice extent is 4.33 million square kilometers, with quartiles of 4.06 and 4.59 million square kilometers. The median is close to the 2019 June Outlook, of 4.40 million square kilometers, and to the observed 2019 September sea-ice extent of 4.32 million square kilometers.
2020 Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook Season Closes Project Update
The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook concluded the 2020 season on Friday, 12 June after twelve weeks of weekly reports featuring local observations from seven Bering Strait Communities, National Weather Service sea ice and weather forecasts, and NWS and ACCAP satellite images. All reports are available in our archive. Thank you to our local observers and partners for a productive season!
Image Spotlight
Angie Allen, a student in the joint Brown-Marine Biological Lab Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Studies, identifies invertebrates from a portion of a stream near Toolik Lake that she experimentally shaded. To describe the food web of these organisms, Allen will also analyze variations in stable isotopes.
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