Past Events

The Eastern Snow Conference (ESC) is a joint Canadian/U.S. organization founded in the 1940s originally with members from eastern North America. Today, our members come from the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany, as well as North America. Our current membership includes scientists, engineers, snow surveyors, technicians, professors, students and professionals involved in operations and maintenance. The western counterpart to this organization is the Western Snow Conference (WSC), also a joint Canadian/US organization.

After last year’s celebration of the 75th meeting of the ESC in Washington, D.C., we return to a familiar venue in rural Vermont in close proximity to a long-time ESC supporter, the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.

The scientific program is open to sessions on theoretical, experimental, remote sensing, modeling and operational studies of snow, ice, and winter hydrology. The ESC has only a plenary session (oral and poster viewing), allowing time to view and discuss the research of each participant. You are invited to submit an abstract for an oral or a poster presentation (please indicate type). Using the template available, an abstract of 200-250 words should be submitted by 12 April 2019.

Please visit the website above for more information.

The International Glaciological Society will hold an International Symposium on ‘Five Decades of Radioglaciology’.

THEME:

Radio echo sounding is a powerful geophysical approach for directly characterizing the subsurface conditions of terrestrial and planetary ice masses at the local, regional and global scales. As a result, a wide array of orbital, airborne, towed and in situ instruments, platforms and data analysis approaches for radar sounding have been developed, applied or proposed. Terrestrially, airborne radar sounding data has been used in glaciology to observe ice thickness, basal topography, englacial layers and for more than five decades. More recently, it has also been exploited to estimate the extent and configuration of subglacial water, the ice sheet surface, the geometry of subglacial bedforms, the spatial variation of melt, temperature, and the transition between frozen and thawed bed. Planetary radar sounders have been used or are planned to observe the subsurface and near-surface conditions of Mars, Earth’s Moon, comets and the icy moons of Jupiter. These instruments provide critical subsurface context for surface sensing, particle, and potential-field instruments in planetary exploration payloads. This symposium will discuss advances in radar sounding systems, mission concepts, signal processing, data analysis, modeling and scientific interpretation.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

We seek papers and presentations that advance the understanding of radar sounding and its use in physical glaciology. Key focus areas include (but are not limited to):

1. Radar systems: development, performance and platforms
2. Data: intercomparison, validation and release
3. Radar processing: propagation, inversion and automation
4. Englacial structure: layers, deformation and accretion bodies
5. Attenuation: near surface properties, temperature and chemistry
6. Bed conditions: topography, roughness, thermal state and hydrology
7. Interpretation: comparing observations with modeling and theory.

PROGRAM:

True to tradition, the symposium will include oral and poster sessions interlaced with ample free time to facilitate interactions between the participants. Additional activities include an opening icebreaker, a banquet dinner and an excursion during the mid-symposium afternoon break.

ABSTRACT AND PAPER PUBLICATION:

Participants who wish to present a paper (oral or poster) at the Symposium will be required to submit an abstract by 11 March 2019. Accepted abstracts will be posted on the Symposium’s website. The Council of the International Glaciological Society will publish a thematic issue of the Annals of Glaciology on topics consistent with the Symposium themes. Participants are encouraged to submit manuscripts for this Annals volume. The deadline for submission of Annals papers is 1 August 2019.

The annual international user meeting for the ice-flow model Úa will this year be held at Northumbria University, Newcastle, United Kingdom.

Úa is a finite-element ice-flow model. It is easy to use, robust, and an ideal tool to solve flow of ice sheets, ice shelves and alpine glaciers, and for ice-flow problems involving grounding line migration (https://sway.com/A3ihHbhXG59GwsYf).

The meeting is suitable for both new and experienced users.

As in previous years, there will be an introduction to the use of model and presentations by current users in the mornings. The afternoons can be used to set up and run models, and participants are encouraged to work on their own modelling problems.

One of the focal points of this year's meeting is ice-ocean interactions, and Katlin Naughten from BAS and Jan De Rydt from Northumbria University will give an overview over current Úa+MIGgcm coupling capabilites. Adrian Jenkins from BAS will also give a lector on ice+ocan interactions.

The number of places is limited to 20. There is no course fee. Participants are required to take care of their own accommodation and travel arrangements. There some scope for contributing towards travelling expenses in justified cases.

In response to feedback from last year meeting, there will be an optional further ÚaThon week (May 17-21) where participants can develop their models further under supervision.

Further details about the program will follow closer to the date of the meeting.

For information and registration please send an email to Hilmar Gudmundsson (hilmar.gudmundsson at northumbria.ac.uk).

There have been many recent changes to better observe Alaska from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) perspective. The most significant change was on February 12, 2019 when GOES-17 became NOAA’s operational West geostationary satellite. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) has spectral bands covering the visible, near-infrared and infrared portions of the electro-magnetic spectrum. The ABI represents a major improvement from the legacy GOES imagers for many attributes, such as those relating to: spectral, spatial, temporal, radiometric, and image navigation/registration. An on-board cooling issue associated with the Loop Heat Pipe on GOES-17 causes degradation for certain periods of the year, at certain times, mostly at night. The affected spectral bands are those with wavelengths greater than 4 micrometers with effects that start with biasing, striping, banding, and ultimately complete saturation for the most affected bands. In order to mitigate the impacts of this issue, improvements to the calibration procedures are improving the image quality before and after saturation occurs. These improvements include a modification to the ABI timeline in the 10-min Full Disk flex mode, predictive calibration, and other changes. Once a spectral band is saturated, there is little that can be done to better calibrate the data. The current status of Level 2 or derived products, such as cloud heights or atmospheric motion vectors, from the GOES-17 ABI will also be covered.

We strongly encourage pre-registration for webinars. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer.

Following successful CHGCS 2017 in Wuhan, China (in conjunction with the ISPRS Geospatial Week 2017), CHGCS 2019 will provide an opportunity for all professionals involved in cryosphere and hydrosphere to share research ideas and results, foster and enhance cooperation, draw inspirations and maximize potentials. It will take place on June 14, 2019, in Enschede, the Netherlands, organized by ISPRS WG III/9 Cryosphere and Hydrosphere.

The themes of the event cover a wide range of remote sensing research and applications relevant to cryosphere and hydrosphere, including, but not limited to the following aspects:

• Ice sheets, glaciers, and ice shelves
• Sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic
• Mass balance
• River and lake ice
• Albedo at high latitudes
• Permafrost
• Cryosphere-atmosphere interaction
• Himalayan cryosphere
• Surface water and groundwater hydrology
• Coastal environments and sea-level rise
• Data assimilation and cryospheric and hydrological models
• Retrieval of satellite cryospheric and hydrological parameters

The role of non-governmental actors (NGA) in the polar regions has been discussed in different articles and books, but a comprehensive volume assessing their normative role for the lives of people, institutions and laws in both the Arctic and Antarctic has yet to be released.

The planned volume Non-governmental Actors in the Polar Regions aims to fill that gap. The proposal will be submitted to a major academic publisher, such as Springer or Routledge.

We therefore invite 200-word Abstracts on the topic, which can range from political sciences, social sciences, law or economics, by 15 June, so that a full-scale proposal can be developed. We would also welcome balanced commentaries, which highlight positive and negative aspects of NGA-presence in the polar regions. The idea is to create a volume consisting of research articles (9,000-11,000 words), research notes (3,000-5,000 words) and commentaries (2,000-3,000 words).

Suggested topics are (but are not limited to):

– The role of indigenous organisations in Arctic law- and policy-making
– Tourism enterprises in the polar regions
– Non-governmental organisations in environmental decision-making
– Businesses and companies in polar environments
– Subcontractors in Antarctic operations

Please send your Abstracts to Nikolas.sellheim (a) gmail.com and Marzia.scopelliti (a) gmail.com.

We look forward to working with you on this project!

Objectives:
The main goal of the Joint Summer School 2019 is to provide participants with innovative practical and methodological skills to characterize complex terrain and object features using close- and near range remote sensing techniques. The Summer School will be the third edition after two successful implementations in 2015 and 2017.

Teaching Methods:
Theoretical lectures will be complemented by fieldwork assignments and hands-on data processing sessions using different novel software. The assignments will be divided into two different tracks. One track will focus on mountain research, the other on sensor and data processing techniques.

A variety of sensor systems will be available for data acquisition in the high mountain surroundings of the summer school venue, including terrestrial laser scanners, unmanned aerial vehicles and spectral cameras.

A poster session on the participants' current research interests and work will stimulate open exchange and discussion between students and lecturers in a relaxed atmosphere.

Thematic focus will be on mountain research, and will include vegetation characterization, (deformation) monitoring for glaciology, geomorphology and natural hazard research.

Technical focus will be on sensor and data aspects, such as sensor modelling, calibration, data acquisition, 2D and 3D data fusion, geometric methods for information extraction from point clouds and (multispectral) images and data quality assessment.

Theoretical focus will address critical steps within a processing chain, such as impact of registration, choice of stand points during data acquisition and derivation of deformation vectors, issues related to multispectral image analysis etc.

Practical exercises using predominantly open source software, deepen the conveyed knowledge and help all participants establish a workflow for their research.

Venue:
The Summer School will take place in and around Obergurgl, at almost 2000 m the highest village in Austria. The main venue is the Obergurgl University Center. Here lectures will take place and accommodation is provided to all participants. Directions will be available via the website. Please note that fieldwork will take place in a mountainous environment, which requires surefootedness.

Registration deadline: 30 November 2018.

The Polar Science Center at the University of Washington, in collaboration with the eScience Institute and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), announce a “hackweek” for Cryospheric Science with ICESsat-2 (CSI).

The ICESat-2 Cryospheric Science Hackweek will bring together experts from the ICESat-2 science team, data providers and application program interface (API) designers, and data science experts, with researchers who want hands on experience with using and manipulating geophysical data from ICESat-2. Participants will learn about ICESat-2 fundamentals, data formats, tools, and how to get to results quickly, as well as technologies used to access and process ICESat-2 data with a focus on the cryosphere.

Introductory lectures will be combined with open data exploration, tool development, sample research applications, and community building. Mornings will consist of interactive lectures, and afternoon sessions will involve facilitated exploration of datasets and hands-on software development.

Participants are expected to have some experience with programming and analysis of remote sensing data.

To better design this event, organizers invite those interested to complete a short survey.

Application deadline: 2 November 2018.

Climate Change 2019 warmly welcomes each one of the individuals and supporters from worldwide to attend 4th World Summit on Climate Change and Global Warming.

This Climate Change Conference overwhelmingly emphasis on Change Scenarios: Slow, Rapid, Abrupt, or Episodic. Meetings International is a diagram to bring collectively all leading academic scientists, researchers and studies pupils to trade and percentage their studies and research results on all aspects of Meteorology technology and Climatology. It additionally gives a gold standard interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners, and educators to give and discuss the most recent innovations, tendencies, and worries in addition to sensible challenges encountered and answers followed in the fields of Earth technological know-how and Climate Change.

Climate Change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns that last for an extended period of time. The Earth's atmosphere has been changing all through the history. Just over the most recent 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of cold progress and withdraw, with the unexpected end of the last ice age around 7,000 years back denoting the start of the cutting edge atmosphere period and of human development. The vast majority of these atmosphere changes are credited to little varieties in Earth's circle that change the measure of sun-powered vitality our planet gets. At the exhibit, the present situation of the environmental change is at disturbing levels. The present warming pattern is of specific hugeness on the grounds that the majority of it is likely human-prompted and continuing at a rate that is remarkable in the previous 1,300 years. Earth-orbiting satellites and other innovative advances have empowered researchers to see the master plan, gathering a wide range of kinds of data about our planet and its atmosphere on a worldwide scale. This group of information gathered over numerous years, uncovers the signals of a changing climate.

Please follow the link above for more information.

The OGGM workshop is an annual, informal meeting for developers, users, and future users of the OGGM model. The workshop is open to any interested scientist (within the limits of our capacities!).

Anyone interested in the model, or in glaciological modelling in general! In particular, we would like to encourage potential users and developers to join us to get to know each other and to gather first-hand information about the model internals, as well as PhD students and young scientists. Note that in case of high interest we might have to limit the number of participants.

If you wish to participate to the workshop or if you have questions regarding the organization please send us an e-mail at info [at] oggm.org before March 31st, 2019.

Please see the link above for more information.

The Helmholtz Climate Initiative 'Regionale Climate Change' (REKLIM) takes the pleasure to welcome you to the 2nd International Conference "Our Climate - Our Future: Regional Perspectives on a Global Challenge“ which will be held from 23-25 September 2019 in Berlin, Germany.

REKLIM warmly welcomes researchers over the globe to take part in the conference which incorporates keynote speeches, oral talks, poster presentations, networking opportunities, and many more. We are looking forward to receive your abstracts for oral and/or poster presentations in due time.

Deadlines:
Deadline for travel grant applications: 31 May 2019
Deadline for submitting abstracts (extended): 17 June 2019
Letter of acceptance: 17 June 2019
Deadline for Early Bird registration (online): 30 June 2019
Deadline for online registration: 8 September 2019

More information about the host REKLIM are available at www.reklim.de. Keep up on information on the conference: info [at] reklim.de

Seminar No. 1 in the NCA4/NOAA 11-part Seminar Series: The Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States.

US Global Change Research Program and NOAA's National Ocean Service Science Seminar; coordinators are Katie Reeves & Tracy Gill.

Webinar Access:

Please register at: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/nca4_1/event/registration.html

Users should use either IE or Edge on Windows or Safari if using a Mac. Audio will be available thru the computer only; no phone. Questions will be addressed in the chat window. This Webcast will be recorded, archived and made accessible in the near future.

The Belmont Forum invites proposals for a second Collaborative Research Action (CRA) focused on the Arctic region. The theme of this CRA is Resilience in a Rapidly Changing Arctic.

This joint Belmont Forum CRA calls for co-developed and co-implemented proposals from integrated teams of natural and social scientists, and stakeholders to address key areas of Arctic resilience understanding and action. This collaboration of academic and non-academic knowledge systems constitutes a transdisciplinary approach that will advance will understanding of the fundamentals of Arctic resilience and spur action, inform decision-making, and translate into solutions for resilience.

Project teams must be international in their composition and must draw off of support from at least three organizations supporting this CRA from at least three different countries. Possible funding organizations can be found online.

Proposing consortia are required to identify and address at least two of the following interconnected elements of resilience:

• Arctic natural systems
• Social elements of resilience
• Cultural elements of resilience
• Human elements of resilience
• Financial capital
• Infrastructure
• Knowledge assets

Call Opens: 20 February 2019
Proposals Open: 03 March 2019
Proposals Close: 20 June 2019 23:59 UTC

The tools and techniques for making monthly and season scale climate forecasts are rapidly changing, with the potential to provide useful forecasts at the month and longer range. We will review recent climate conditions around Alaska, review some forecast tools and finish up the Climate Prediction Center's forecast for July 2019 and the fall season. Feel free to bring your lunch and join the gathering in person or online to learn more about Alaska climate and weather.

Available online or in-person at: Room 407 in the Akasofu Building on the UAF Campus in Fairbanks.

We strongly encourage pre-registration for webinars. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer. Follow the link above to register.

The International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) steering committee invites abstracts for the next ITEX meeting. This meeting will have the theme of Documenting and Understanding Tundra Ecosystem Changes, and will focus on ecological research in Arctic and alpine environments.

Organizers invite abstracts on the following themes:

• Using nearly 30 years of ITEX observations to understand tundra ecosystem dynamics
• Plant traits and ecosystem dynamics in tundra ecosystems
• Biotic interactions in a warmer tundra: plants, herbivores, pollinators, mycorrhiza, and pests
• Planning the next wave of ITEX syntheses

Organizers do not wish these themes to be exclusive and welcome abstract submission for oral and poster presentations regarding the spectrum of activities relevant to ITEX.

One task of this meeting will be the presentation and finalization of papers to be included in the special issue on Arctic Science.

Abstracts should be submitted via email to alessandro.petraglia [at] unipr.it and michele.carbognani [at] unipr.it

Abstract submission deadline: 23 June 2019

This workshop is organized annually by members of the WAMC Planning Committee across the globe. The WAMC brings together those with research and operational/logistical interests in Antarctic meteorology and forecasting and related disciplines. As in the past, the annual activities and status of the Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC), Automatic Weather Station (AWS), and Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS) efforts will be addressed, and feedback and results from their user communities will be solicited. More broadly, this workshop also is a forum for current results and ideas in Antarctic meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and weather forecasting, from contributors around the world. There will be discussions on the relationships among international efforts and Antarctic forecasting, logistical support, and science. We welcome papers on these topics.

The SCAR Operational Meteorology in the Antarctic (Op Met) Expert Group will be holding a meeting during the WAMC, with the time to be determined. If you are not in the OpMet Expert Group and are interested in learning more about this, please inquire at the workshop.

For the fourth YOPP-SH meeting in Charleston, project investigators and representatives of national agencies active in Antarctica are invited to provide updates on their activities during the YOPP Special Observing Period (SOP) in the Southern Hemisphere, November 16, 2018-February 15, 2019. To make most effective use in data denial experiments of all the additional radiosonde observations collected during the SOP, we want to assemble complete radiosonde data sets from all operators. We will likely want to assemble all surface observations as well. A key question to be decided by the meeting is whether to hold a winter SOP in the April-June time period in either 2020 or 2021.

Please follow the link above for more information and to register.

Seminar No. 2 in the NCA4/NOAA 11-part Seminar Series: The Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States.

Presenter(s):

Dr. Upmanu Lall is the Director of the Columbia Water Center and the Alan and Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering, and the Chair of the Dept. of Earth & Environmental Engineering at Columbia University. He has broad interests in hydrology, climate dynamics, water resource systems analysis, risk management and sustainability. He is motivated by challenging questions at the intersection of these fields, especially where they have relevance to societal outcomes or to the advancement of science towards innovative application. Dr. Lall has been engaged in high level public and scientific discussion through the media, the World Economic Forum, and with governments, foundations, development banks, and corporations interested in sustainability. He has served on several national and international panels. He was one of the originators of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, and is a past President of the Natural Hazards Focus Group of the American Geophysical Union.

Craig Zamuda is a senior policy advisor with the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Policy. He provides policy and technical advice on DOE programs related to energy sector vulnerabilities and resilience. He has provided leadership to public-private partnerships with electric utilities focusing on characterizing critical infrastructure vulnerabilities; identifying and deploying cost-effective resilience activities and best practices, and addressing key research and policy opportunities. Craig has served as a lead author on numerous reports related to the energy sector and resilience, including the Energy Chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, as well as, Climate Change and the Electricity Sector: Guide for Climate Change Resilience Planning; Climate Change and the U.S. Energy Sector; Regional Vulnerabilities and Resilience Solutions; and, U.S. Energy Sector Vulnerabilities to Climate Change and Extreme Weather. These reports examine current and potential impacts of extreme weather and climate change on the energy sector, and cost-effective resilience solutions to enhance preparedness and resilience.

Webinar Access:

Please register at: https://noaabroadcast.adobeconnect.com/nca4_2/event/registration.html

Users should use either IE or Edge on Windows or Safari if using a Mac. Audio will be available thru the computer only; no phone. Questions will be addressed in the chat window. This Webcast will be recorded, archived and made accessible in the near future.

Join PolarTREC for the first live event of the 2019-2020 field season! Ale Martinez and the Phenology and Vegetation in the Warming Arctic 2019 Team will be broadcasting live from Toolik Field Station in Alaska. Ale's team is studying environmental variability and increased temperature on tundra plant phenology, growth, species composition and ecosystem function. Read more about their research and what Ale is learning here.

Team scientists will be on hand to answer your questions. The events will be 1 hour long with Q&A at the end for teachers, students, friends and family.

The event is free. Please join us!

AntClim21 would like to announce an upcoming workshop on CMIP6 21st century projections and predictions for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The aim is to help ensure that the Antarctic and Southern Ocean climate science communities make a significant contribution to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report (AR6).

Contributions on model-observation comparisons and evaluation of CMIP6 21st century predictions and projections from decadal to century timescales will be encouraged. However, relevant non-CMIP6 simulations, such as Antarctic CORDEX, are also encouraged. In addition, a session dedicated to science-policy discussion is planned.

Registration deadline: 15 March 2019 23.30 UTC

David Walker and the Carbon in the Arctic Team will be broadcasting live from Toolik Field Station in Alaska. During this event, the team will share their recent research on how microbes and sunlight interact in the Arctic and where thawing permafrost soils release large amounts of carbon from land to water. Read more about their research and what David is learning here.

Team scientists will be on hand to answer your questions. The events will be 1 hour long with Q&A at the end for teachers, students, friends and family.

The event is free. Please join us!