Dear ARCUS Community,
Earlier this week, ARCUS and IARPC Collaborations co-hosted an informal virtual speed networking event to help introduce members of our shared Arctic research community. It is a busy time of year and—like many other people I know—I’ve been feeling the weight of trying to keep up with all the different online meetings that have become such a routine part of our lives over the past two years. Although I looked forward to being part of the event, I can’t deny that I also had to give myself a bit of a pep talk before clicking Join. When interacting with someone in person, creating meaningful connections takes time and energy. Attempting to achieve the
same level of engagement online, while also trying to overcome “Zoom burnout”, is something I think many of us are struggling with these days… which is why I was so encouraged to see our event participants engaging in such animated conversations, inspiring one another with the work they are doing and the ideas they were sharing!
I think we are all so eager to start connecting with one another again in more meaningful ways. ARCUS is currently planning to resume more of our in-person activities in 2022, and we can’t wait to see those of you who are able to participate. For example, we will have staff and board members at the upcoming UArctic Assembly meeting and are already making plans for in-person activities at the AGU Fall Meeting. However, I’m also very grateful to every one of you struggling (just like me) to stay engaged online too. I know all those important community forums aren’t going away anytime soon—and it’s just so much nicer to participate when you know you might
bump into a friend while you are there!
Sincerely,
Helen V. Wiggins
Executive Director
ARCUS News & Announcements:
 PolarTREC Teacher Heading to Greenland - PolarTREC teacher, Erin Towns, is heading to Ilulissat, a coastal town in western Greenland, to work with a team of researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on the Greenland Subglacial Tremor Project. They will be in
Greenland to learn more about the Greenland ice sheet, examining how increases in surface runoff will influence ice flow and subsequent loss of water mass from the Greenland ice sheet to the oceans. Ms. Towns will be sharing her experience through journals, photos, videos, and real-time webinars. Visit the expedition page here for some amazing photos and drone footage.
 Witness Community Highlights - The April 2022 issue of Witness Community Highlights is now available online. This issue includes two articles: Investigating Dramatic Growth in
Thermokarst Features in Interior Alaska, an overview of how climate warming across interior Alaska has dramatically increased the top-down thaw of permafrost; and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Tools for Arctic Research, a discussion of how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) offer strong applications to Arctic science problems.
For questions, or to suggest topics for future articles, please contact Betsy Turner-Bogren, ARCUS (betsy@arcus.org).
 Arctic Research Seminar with Dr. Tobias Schoerer - ARCUS invites registration for the next Arctic Research Seminar featuring Dr. Tobias Schoerer (University of Alaska Fairbanks). Dr. Schoerer’s presentation, titled “Harnessing the Power of Community Science to Address Data Gaps in Arctic Observing,” will be held via Zoom on
Wednesday, 11 May 2022 at 9:00 a.m. AKDT (1:00 p.m. EDT). Registration is required for this event. Register to attend here.
 Polar Technology Community Call - Please save the date for the first Polar Technology Community Forum IARPC Self-Forming Team meeting, which will be held via webinar on Friday, 6 May at 9:00–10:00 a.m. Alaska Time. This first meeting will include information about the intentions for this team, outcomes from the 2020 Polar Technology Conference, and highlights from new work. To receive more information about this event, please join the IARPC Polar Technology Community Forum self-forming team on the IARPC Collaborations website.
Requests for Arctic Research Community Input:
 Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium Questionnaire on Arctic Icebreaker Access - Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium Questionnaire on Arctic Icebreaker Access - ARICE are looking for information on how transnational access to research icebreakers can be improved, in particular your experience and suggestions on how easier and broader access to the few research icebreakers in operation in the Arctic could be facilitated. The questionnaire can be found here and there is more information here.
 APECS Remote Sensing Data Use Survey - The APECS Remote Sensing Project Group is seeking information from Early Career Researchers on the use of satellite remote sensing data in polar research. The deadline for completing the survey is 10 May 2022. For more information about the project, please contact Will Harcourt (wdh1@st-andrews.ac.uk) or Hiral Jain (hj.hiral@gmail.com). Complete the survey here.
 Request for Comment on Changes to NSF Proposal Manual for Field Projects - The US National Science Foundation has published a notice in the Federal Register announcing the availability of a “for comment” draft of the Proposal & Award Policies & Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (NSF 23-1). NSF is soliciting comments on the draft PAPPG until cob 13
June 2022. To facilitate review, revised text has been highlighted in yellow throughout the document and explanatory comments have been included in the margins, where appropriate.
A notable change is a required supplementary document, "Plan for Safe and Inclusive Field/Vessel/Aircraft Research (PSI-FVAR)," for proposals to NSF that include fieldwork. Please use this opportunity to review the draft changes to the PAPPG and provide comments through the federal register process.
Member News & Announcements:
We are very happy to share the announcements and achievements of our members! If you have something that you would like us to include our next monthly newsletter &/or through other ARCUS communication channels, please contact Brit Myers at brit@arcus.org.
 Happy Retirement to former AOOS Executive Director, Molly McCammon - Since 2003, Molly led AOOS from a small one-person operation to the largest purveyor of ocean observing data in the vast Alaska Region. Last year, Molly stepped down from being the full time AOOS Executive Director to become a Senior Advisor to the organization to help the transition to a new Director and
to work on special projects. She now plans to spend most of her time with her first grandchild, her new puppy, and to travel. Read AOOS’ full announcement of Molly’s retirement here.
 ULapland & UiT Appointments of Arctic Five Chairs - The Arctic Five is a partnership between Luleå University of Technology; UiT The Arctic University of Norway; Umeå University; the University of Lapland; and the University of Oulu, whom together aim to lead the way on key Arctic issues. The mission of the alliance is to advance and share knowledge, develop education, and create innovations for the advancement of our region and a sustainable Arctic.
The University of Lapland is pleased to announce the appointment of two Chairs to The Arctic Five network, Senior researcher Tanja Joona and Professor Outi Rantala. Learn more about the ULapland Arctic Centre Chairs here.
The four UiT researchers appointed as Arctic Five Chairs include Alun Hubbard, Torjer Olsen, Gregor Maxwell and Gunhild Hoogensen Gjørv. Each chair has defined their scope of collaboration by framing their research focus and plans, including potential linkages with educational activities. Learn more about the UiT Chairs and their plans here.
 Planet Labs Incubator at Arizona State University - Planet Labs and Arizona State University have partnered to provide free access for ASU users to an expansive Earth-observation dataset. Planet Labs downlinks 11 terabytes of satellite imagery data per day from their large network of cubesat spacecraft. The Planet constellation of satellites orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, providing time-resolved data useful to a range of users, including students, researchers, and even
policy makers. Learn more about the partnership here.
 Beneath the Surface: From Priceless Art to Disintegrating Coastlines, Sherry Stout Builds Resiliency One Community at a Time - As a member of NREL’s Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Stout consults with a vast range of clients. She helped the Architect of the Capitol insulate its archives from increasingly hot, sweaty summers. But she also works with communities big and small, urban and remote to transition to renewable energy or manage their own climate crises, including extreme drought, disintegrating
coastlines, or blackouts. In short, Stout consults on how everything from one-of-a-kind art to the villages people call home can survive a changing climate. Learn more about Sherry and her work in this introduction article from NREL.
 The NOSB Has A New Website - The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is excited to announce the launch of its new website as part of the program’s 25th anniversary celebration. The redesigned site easily links our program participants—students, coaches, regional coordinators, and volunteers, and alums—to helpful information such as study resources, opportunities, regional bowl information, and more. There are also new theme-based resource pages and a revised general resources page to
assist competing teams. Please take some time to explore the new site, including the 2022 national finals competition page and the National Ocean Scholar Program page (2022 applications are due 28 May). Learn more and visit the new website here.
 2022 Bering Strait Community Needs Assessment Published - Kawerak partnered with McKinley Research Group, an Alaska research firm, to survey households in the Kawerak Service Area. The survey was designed to identify community strengths, challenges, and needs, as well as individual household needs. Impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic were also assessed. Data from the surveys are available and the report will be used to inform Kawerak strategic planning, services, and programs. Learn more and review the report here.
 Increase in Atmospheric Methane Set Another Record During 2021 - For the second year in a row, NOAA scientists observed a record annual increase in atmospheric levels of methane, a powerful, heat-trapping greenhouse gas that’s the second biggest contributor to human-caused global warming after carbon dioxide. NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) annually collects more than 15,000 air samples from monitoring stations around the world and analyzes them in a state-of-the-science laboratory in Boulder,
Colorado. Every spring, NOAA calculates the global average levels of four primary greenhouse gasses—carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride—observed during the previous year. Learn more about the NOAA GML and its 2021 observations here.
 Plastic Pollution in the Arctic - Plastic pollution is now pervasive in the Arctic, even in areas with no apparent human activity, such as the deep seafloor. In this Nature review article, Bergmann et al. describe the sources and impacts of Arctic plastic pollution, including plastic debris and microplastics, which have infiltrated terrestrial and aquatic systems, the cryosphere, and the atmosphere. Read the article
here.
 Meet PUFINS at Sea Team Member Lauren Neitzke Adamo - PUFINS is a 14-day deep-sea sediment coring cruise in the North Atlantic being led by the University of Washington and Rutgers University. Adamo’s role on the PUFINS sea expedition will be as the Chief Education Officer. Not only will she participate in all scientific activities onboard, but she will also be responsible for organizing all the outreach and education activities with the other Onboard Educators. Learn more about Adamo and the expedition here.
 Researchers Study Particles Collected in Alaska During ARM Field Campaign - As part of an ARM field campaign, researchers collected aerosols in August and September 2015 at a tundra site outside of Utqiaġvik, Alaska, near ARM’s North Slope of Alaska site. That work has helped researchers uncover new information about the composition of aerosols found in the Arctic. Learn more in this article.
 Welcome Julie Schram, New Scientist in Residency Fellow - The Sitka Sound Science Center is excited to welcome Julie Schram as this month’s Scientist in Residency Fellow (SIRF). The SIRF Fellowship is meant to provide four weeks for scientists to have time to work on their research and engage a breadth of the community in a variety of ways. Ms. Schram’s fellowship is funded from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ NSF EPSCoR (National
Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) program. Learn more about Julie and her SIRF Fellowship here.
 Call for Applications: JOIDES Resolution Expedition to the NW Greenland Glaciated Margin - The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) is currently accepting applications for researchers interested in participated in an upcoming expedition to study the NW Greenland Glaciated Margin (12 August - 12 October 2023). Opportunities exist for researchers (including graduate students) in all shipboard specialties, including but not limited to sedimentologists, petrologists, micropaleontologists, paleomagnetists,
petrophysicists, borehole geophysicists, igneous geochemists, inorganic geochemists, organic geochemists, and microbiologists. Applications for participation must be submitted by 1 June 2022. Learn more and apply here.
 Ukraine War: How Western Sanctions on Russian are Hurting Science & Climate Change Research - Reuters spoke with more than two dozen scientists about the impact of the Ukraine conflict on Russian science. Many expressed concern about its future after tens of millions of dollars in western funding for Russian science has been suspended in the wake of European sanctions on Moscow. Read the Reuters article
here.
 President Biden Appoints Nikoosh Carlo to the USARC - On 5 April 2022, President Biden appointed Dr. Nikoosh Carlo to the United States Arctic Research Commission (USARC), an independent federal agency that advises the President and Congress on Arctic Research. Dr. Carlo succeeds Maj. Gen. Randy (Church) Kee who resigned from the USARC in September 2021 to accept a leadership position in the newly established Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies. Learn more about the appointment here.
 UAA at Arctic Symposium - University of Alaska Anchorage students, faculty, and staff recently participated in the Arctic Encounter Symposium which took place earlier this month in Anchorage, AK. Read UAA Chancellor Sean Parnell’s message about his organization’s involvement in the event as well as UAA’s many ongoing contributions to research in the Circumpolar North here.
 Darrow, Bhatt, Bret-Harte Named 2022 Usibelli Award Winners - The University of Alaska Fairbanks has announced the winners of the 2022 Emil Usibelli Distinguished Teaching, Research and Service Awards. The Distinguished Teaching Award will go to Margaret Darrow, a professor of geological engineering at the College of Engineering and Mines. The Distinguished Research Award will be presented to Uma Bhatt, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the Geophysical Institute and College of Natural Science and
Mathematics. Syndonia Bret-Harte, a professor of ecology at the Institute of Arctic Biology and College of Natural Science and Mathematics, will receive the Distinguished Service Award. Learn more about the Usibelli Awards and the 2022 recipients here.
 Group Characteristics & Spatial Organization of the Eastern Beaufort Sea Beluga Whale - Using aerial photographs taken in mid-July and early August 2019, Mayette et al. examined group characteristics and spatial organization of the Eastern Beaufort Sea beluga population in two distinct summering areas: (1) the continental shelf and offshore region of the southeast Beaufort Sea, and (2) the inshore of the Mackenzie Estuary. Learn
more about the study published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology here.
 UArctic Assembly Meeting 2022 in Portland, Maine on 1-3 June - UArctic is pleased to invite its members to attend the 3rd Annual Assembly meeting of UArctic, held in Portland, Maine, US. Dates are 1–3 June 2022 with pre-conference on 30–31 May. More information about the event is available on the Assembly website and registrations are open until 15 May on the Registration page.
 New Study Explores the Sensitivity of Glacier Dynamics to Bedform Characteristics - A new study by McKenzie et al. published in the journal Earth Surface Processes and Landforms uses a large dataset of 11,628 landforms to explore the importance of terrain on glacier bed morphology and ice-flow behavior. Read the journal publication here.
 Newest Satellite Data Shows Remarkable Decline in Arctic Sea Ice Over Just Three Years - In the past 20 years, the Arctic has lost about one-third of its winter sea-ice volume, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Washington and the California Institute of Technology. That decline is largely due to loss of older, multiyear sea ice. New satellite data also show that wintertime Arctic sea ice is likely thinner than previous estimates. Learn more about the study published 10 March in Geophysical Research Letters here.
 Canadian Scientists Back at Sea on US Research Vessel - Canadian scientists are back at sea this spring monitoring ocean climate conditions on the East Coast thanks to a data- and ship-sharing agreement between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The collaboration will enable ship-challenged Canada to carry out the first spring survey of its Atlantic zone monitoring program in three years. Learn more about the collaboration here.
 Donors Pledge $41M to Monitor Thawing Arctic Permafrost - Climate scientists, policy experts, and environmental justice advocates have announced a major project to better understand the contribution of thawing permafrost to global warming, and to help Arctic communities to cope with its effects. Learn more in this article from The New York Times.
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