Date

For more information about the 15 December 2000 town meeting or the
activities of the UNOLS Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee (AICC),
check the UNOLS web site at:

http://www.unols.org/aicc/ or http://www.unols.org/aicc/twnhall.html

or you can contact the UNOLS office at:

University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS)
Moss Landing Marine Labs
8272 Moss Landing Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
Phone: 831/632-4410
Fax:831/632-4413
Email: office [at] unols.org


ARCTIC ICEBREAKER PLANNING MEETING
FRIDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2000
5:00-6:00 PM
MOSCONE CENTER (AGU MEETING SITE)
ROOM 276

The UNOLS Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee (AICC) is an
NSF/USCG-sanctioned committee whose purpose is to provide arctic marine
science projects with planning and scheduling assistance and to
facilitate communications between scientists, science funders, and
facility providers. Particular concerns of this committee at present are
the U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers Polar Sea, Polar Star, and Healy.
Additional information about the AICC is available on the UNOLS web site
at: http://www.unols.org/aicc/ or the Arctic Research Consortium of the
United States at: http://www.arcus.org/AICC/AICC.html.

To advance expeditionary planning for 2002-2006 and to keep the
community at large informed of the status of U.S. icebreakers for arctic
marine research, the AICC will hold a public information and planning
meeting at the 2000 AGU Fall Meeting on Friday, 15 December 2000, from
5:00-6:00 pm in Room 276 of the Moscone Center in San Francisco,
California.

The Committee's goal for these meetings is to provide U.S. icebreaker
information and to help pull together a critical mass of scientific
planning to give direction for scientists in writing proposals. At each
planning meeting the AICC will discuss with the science community
various advance propositions for arctic marine research use of the Healy
and Polar-class icebreakers submitted in person or by email.
Investigators will not be bound by their submitted planning ideas. Plans
received by the AICC from past solicitations will be retained, and can
be modified or dropped at any time by the submittors. These will be
incorporated into a rolling five-year community science plan for these
vessels which considers scientific focus, region, season, year, and
additional logistics considerations. During early 2001, the community
arctic vessel use plan will appear on the UNOLS web site,
http://www.unols.org. The AICC will repeat a call for Healy vessel use
ideas and plans - and hold similar planning meetings - on an at-least
annual basis. Planning ideas can be submitted at any time and still be
considered.

These community plans will help guide the AICC and give the Coast Guard
and U.S. funding agencies a rough advance measure of community interest
in using USCGC Healy and the Polar-class icebreakers for arctic marine
research, but the planning process is in no way meant to influence
agency funding decisions.

For plans or ideas submitted in person or by email, the following
information is useful:

Investigator name:
Investigator email address:
Investigator telephone:
Working title of research project:
Likely support agency:
Region:
Year(s) preferred:
Season(s) preferred:
Approx. number of in-Arctic days needed (not including transits from/to
Seattle):
Approx. size of science party:
Foreign EEZs in which you need to work:
Short description of seagoing activities:

The AICC reminds all that a formal ship-time request for arctic science
missions on the Polar-class vessels and the Healy must be submitted as
part of the proposal process. Information submitted for the community
arctic vessel use plan described in this message does not constitute
such a ship-time request. A ship-time request form is available from:
http://www.gso.uri.edu/unols/ship/mainmenu.html.

Please attend the planning meeting and/or reply by email to the UNOLS
Office at: office [at] unols.org.

James H. Swift, Chair
UNOLS Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee
jswift [at] ucsd.edu