Past Events

SEARCH invites you to read the Arctic Futures 2050 conference report and to discuss future directions for Arctic research. You can access the online version of the full, 48-page conference report here or the 4-page executive summary here. You also can request a printed copy of the report or summary from Andrea Fisher at afisher13 [at] alaska.edu.

Two webinars—open by registration—will allow you to discuss Arctic research needs in the context of the conference report and/or your own observations and research. Those discussions will help SEARCH develop both its future programs as well as offer input to the 5-year Arctic research plan being developed by the Interagency Arctic Policy Research Committee (IARPC). More information about the IARPC research plan is here.

We hope you will join us for one of these SEARCH-hosted webinars (90 minutes):

Webinar 1: Thursday, May 14 at 9:00 am AKDT, 10:00 am PDT, 11:00 am MDT, 12:00 pm CDT, 1:00 pm EDT

Register here: https://alaska.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYlcuGppzMiGdSgFiBda7K9vkwbao4…

Webinar 2: Monday, May 18 at 12:00 pm AKDT, 1:00 pm PDT, 2:00 pm MDT, 3:00 pm CDT, 4:00 pm EDT

Register here:
https://alaska.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYldOCgqTsqHdGdcurEnKEJFeGIO4h…

The webinars are open to all (whether or not you attended the conference) and reading the conference report beforehand is optional. While you are welcome to join both webinars, the format and opportunity to offer your input will be the same for both sessions. Please contact Andrea Fisher (afisher13 [at] alaska.edu) with questions about the report or the webinars.

We look forward to hearing from you on May 14 or May 18.

Learn about our most current and exciting research through fast and informal virtual talks presented by Byrd Center PIs, Postdocs, and Grad students.

Everyone is welcome to attend via Zoom! Please follow the link above to register.

• Monday, May 18, 2020 - 11:00am to 12:30pm (EDT)
• Monday, June 1, 2020 - 11:00am to 12:30pm (EDT)
• Monday, June 15, 2020 - 11:00am to 12:30pm (EDT)

Monday, May 18:

Michalea King, Spaceborne perspectives of rapidly changing Greenland outlet glaciers.
Michael Durand, Measuring the Water Cycle.
Audrey Sawyer, Modeling groundwater flow and heat transport near water track features in Arctic hill slopes.
Emilio Mateo, Current research by the Glacier Environmental Change Group.
Kira Harris, Virtual Reality
Melisa Diaz, Soil geochemistry of the Shackleton Glacier region, Antarctica.

Monday, June 1:

Emilie Beaudon, Paleo-synoptic Changes as Recorded in the Mineral Dust in the Guliya Ice Cap, Northwestern Tibetan Plateau.
Allison Chartrand, Mass balance of ice shelf basal channels.
Devin Smith, Geochemistry and hydrology of Irish rivers.
Chris Gardner, Iron behavior and bioavailability in sub-aerial runoff into the Ross Sea.
Joey Durkin, Re-evaluating the elastic response of the Antarctic continent to present-day ice mass change.
Saurabh Vijay, The influence of Greenland's supraglacial lakes during melt season.

Monday, June 15:

Aaron Wilson, A collection of Ohio-related weather and climate projects.
Kyungmin (Kay) Sung, Analyzing long term and seasonal drought trends.
Paolo Gabrielli, Climatic Processes Revealed by the Geochemistry of Atmospheric Particles Entrapped in Glaciers.
Deon Knights, Terrestrially derived nutrients transported to the Arctic Ocean have important implications for Arctic Ocean chemistry.
Santiago de la Pena Rodriguez, Seasonal surface ponding over the Greenland Ice sheet.
Zhiping Zhong, Viruses and microbes in glacier ice and Arctic brine.

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is proud to announce the much awaited 6th annual APECS International Online Conference to go live on 19 May 2020. This year’s theme, "Opening Doors: Collaboration Across Knowledge Systems" aims to encourage collaboration between early career researchers, science communicators, educators, and local community members in polar and alpine regions.

The 6th edition of the APECS International Online Conference will focus on knowledge exchange among multidisciplinary scientists, local communities, educators and science communicators. In a fast changing world, we believe it is important to pair traditional knowledge, education, and outreach with science efforts to better understand present and future challenges to the polar regions. This sort of comprehensive approach is best achieved by incorporating knowledge from a diverse array of disciplines and perspectives and is especially important for guiding policy-making. Through this conference, we hope to gain a better understanding of the many ways that Indigenous knowledge, science communication, and art can benefit our research. With this, APECS calls for early career researchers, science communicators and educators to come forward with a short presentation outlining their approach for promoting collaboration in polar science. This year’s conference will also introduce online breakout chat rooms through the Zoom platform, to foster interactions between presenters and attendees and to enable future collaboration. Within our team, we have science communication experts that will assist as facilitators in these chats.

Abstract Submission Deadline Extended: 14 April 2020.

A virtual conference organized and hosted by the US Naval War College, the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, and the US Arctic Research Commission about the impacts of COVID-19 in the Arctic. Please register to receive Zoom connection information, and updates to the program.

COVID-19 threatens the Arctic region with new challenges to human life, economic prosperity, and the fabric of communities. Ongoing climate and environmental change further compound the challenges facing Arctic communities.

In light of these unprecedented, intersecting challenges, the US Naval War College, the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, and the US Arctic Research Commission will co-host a virtual conference on the impacts of COVID-19 in the Arctic. Over two days, the conference will feature a series of panels focusing on Arctic community health, economic activities, US Coast Guard Operations, scientific research, international impacts, and more. Speakers will include leading voices from Arctic communities, federal and state agencies, academia, international entities, and the private sector.

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

The Polar Research Board will be holding a short open session at the (virtual) Spring Board meeting. The session will include updates from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), and presentations from agency representatives. A more detailed agenda and meeting connection information will be available closer to the event.

RSVP by Friday, May 15.

The radar remote sensing discipline is going through a series of exciting changes right now. Increasingly free-and-open access to SAR data, improved sensor technologies, and a wealth of brand-new automatic processing services have been transforming the science and applications portfolio that can be serviced by radar sensors. This presentation will introduce you to some of these recent developments, specifically focusing on current and upcoming sensors as well as on new data products and services offered by the Alaska Satellite Facility, NASA’s prime data center for SAR data.

The Antarctic Sciences (ANT) and Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics (AIL) Sections in the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) will be hosting virtual office hours this week to share information with the academic community regarding NSF’s current operations. These office hours will also allow the community to ask questions, share concerns, and/or offer suggestions on how ANT/AIL can do more to address the impact of COVID-19 on researchers.

Current awardees, pending proposers, and future proposers are welcome to attend.

To participate, you must register for a session (follow the link above). Sessions dates and times are as follows. If additional sessions are requested by the community, we will schedule them in the near future.

Wed., May 20, 2020, 3:00PM – 4:00PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Fri., May 22, 2020, 1:00PM – 2:00PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Please register in advance for the seminars - it appears that you can't register during the seminar itself, but you have already registered you should be able to use the same link as last week. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the seminar. Once you have registered please check the link.

The seminar will also be available afterwards on the Friends of the International Glaciological Society Facebook page so that you can watch it there if technology fails or you can't make it!

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 the coming months. 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. It helps speakers tailor their presentations to the audience. Follow the link above to register.

The Antarctic Sciences (ANT) and Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics (AIL) Sections in the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) will be hosting virtual office hours this week to share information with the academic community regarding NSF’s current operations. These office hours will also allow the community to ask questions, share concerns, and/or offer suggestions on how ANT/AIL can do more to address the impact of COVID-19 on researchers.

Current awardees, pending proposers, and future proposers are welcome to attend.

To participate, you must register for a session (follow the link above). Sessions dates and times are as follows. If additional sessions are requested by the community, we will schedule them in the near future.

Wed., May 20, 2020, 3:00PM – 4:00PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Fri., May 22, 2020, 1:00PM – 2:00PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The NASA Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) will convene their 6th Science Team meeting virtually. This is a great opportunity to connect with this major research effort, which has been working in Alaska and western Canada for 6 years and includes a focus on wildland fire disturbance. Relevant presentations will include:

• Understanding the Interactions between Wildfire Disturbance, Landscape Hydrology and Post-Fire Recovery in Boreal-Taiga Ecosystems (Laura Bourgeau-Chavez)
• Assessing impact of climate-driven increase in wildfire emissions on air quality and health of urban and indigenous populations in Alaska (Tatiana Loboda)
• NASA-USFS Partnership to Advance Operational Forest Carbon Monitoring in Interior Alaska (Bruce Cook)

Virtual Poster Session: May 23-31
Virtual Presentations and Breakouts: June 1-4

Update: The 54th Congress of the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS), scheduled for May 24-28, 2020 in Ottawa, has been cancelled. This decision was based on the recommendations of local, provincial, and federal governments and public health agencies regarding actions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our communities. It was made in collaboration with the Local Arrangements Committee (LAC), the Scientific Program Committee (SPC), the CMOS Executive and Council, and the Delta Hotel. All abstract submission fees and registration fees will be fully refunded through your original method of payment. This will be done automatically and no action is needed on your part. We will process refunds as quickly as possible, but please be patient as this may take several weeks to complete. We have confirmed with the Delta Hotel that all Congress-related hotel reservations have been cancelled. All payments made by exhibitors and sponsors will also be refunded. We will communicate with you later about the scheduling of the 2020 CMOS Annual General Meeting and other business meetings that normally take place during the Congress. These will be held as virtual meetings with remote attendance enabled.

The CMOS Congress in 2020 in Ottawa has the unique opportunity to highlight to policy makers the national observations, research and services that contribute substantively to reduction of society’s risk to extreme weather, climate and environmental events and to outline the challenges facing us in managing our Future Earth environment and societal resilience.

In addition, the Congress can foster cross-disciplinary dialogue amongst research and managerial professionals in meteorology, oceanography, hydrology, earth sciences, environment and social science on challenges facing us nationally and globally.

What measures can be taken to ensure that we have the necessary national and global infrastructure and expertise in place to maintain societal resilience?

Special sessions will be held not only on the use of weather, climate and environmental prediction for risk reduction but also on: (i) protecting Canada’s vast Arctic and sub-Arctic as weather, climate and environment changes and (ii) strengthening cooperation to reduce risks to agriculture and other sectors posed by changing weather and climate.

The Themes under which scientific and technical sessions will be organized are, in no order of priority:

• Risks and Impacts of Climate Change on the Resilience of Major Sectors
• Tornadoes and Other Extreme Weather Events Impacting Canadians
• Oceans and Ice in a Changing Climate
• Floods and Water Crises in Canada and Globally
• Impacts of A Changing Climate in the Arctic
• Climate-Weather-Water and Food
• Pollution of the Air, Water and Ecosystems
• The Cryosphere – Impacts Locally to Globally

Please submit abstracts online via the CMOS web site before 21 February 2020 (extended from February 14).

SIOS invites abstracts from the Svalbard science community working on applications based on Earth Observation, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation. The conference will take place online 4-5 June 2020.

Svalbard is probably the region in the Arctic with the most in situ measurements; still, there are massive gaps. Such data gaps can be filled using frequent satellite-based acquisitions, new product generation using remote sensing, and integration of in situ data with satellite-based information.

This conference will provide a broad platform to various regional and Svalbard-wide studies that are being conducted using EO/RS/GI.

The aim of the conference is to:

• Promote the PhD students, postdocs, researchers, senior scientists and academicians to contribute actively in the SIOS’s special issue on EO/RS/GI.
• Review the state-of-the-art EO/RS/GI applications in Svalbard.
• Provide social experience to the Svalbard scientific community during the difficult time.

The conference is being organised and coordinated by the SIOS-KC, the Remote Sensing Working Group (RSWG), and the guest editors of SIOS’s special issue on EO/RS/GI.

The top five papers presented by Early Career Researchers will be invited to contribute as full papers to the SIOS’s special issue in the Remote Sensing Journal free of charge.

Deadline to submit abstracts: 24 May 2020.

Update: Considering the situation with the COVID-19 outbreak, the Scientific Committee has decided to postpone the Colloquium to 17-21 May 2021.

The coastal ocean is under increasing multiple (climate and not-climate) pressures that affect its functioning and health, and compromise the provision of services to the society. The set-up of a scientifically underpinned ecosystem-based management scheme for the coastal ocean requires a thorough understanding of human impacts on the physics, biogeochemistry and biodiversity at large scale. Such a management scheme should be firmly embedded in the science-management-policy interface, taking account of selecting useful and communicable indicators for the ecosystem health, targeting ecosystem services and making use of novel analytical tolls acknowledging the complexity of Drivers-Pressures-Stressors-Impacts-Responses (DPSIR) interactions.

The 52nd international colloquium will gather an interdisciplinary community of scientists to overview the progress in our capabilities to understand, monitor and forecast the impact of human activities on coastal marine environments to guarantee a productive and healthy system as requested by the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14.

Update: Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Organizing Committee has decided to postpone the XVII Glaciological Symposium scheduled for 26-29 May 2020, St. Petersburg, Russia. The new dates will be 17-20 November 2020.

The XVII Glaciological Symposium will cover a wide range of cryospheric topics. It is expected that for the most part, presentations will describe results of recent investigations devoted to the main key issues of present-day glaciology. Each oral presentation will be allowed 20 minutes, including discussion. Poster sessions and discussion will also be scheduled. Working languages are Russian and English (no simultaneous translation will be provided). Please follow the link above for abstracts requirements.

Deadline for submission of abstracts is February 15, 2020.

All potential participants (including non-presenters) are invited to register online before February 15, 2020.

The NSF Arctic Data Center (https://arcticdata.io) plays a critical support role in archiving and curating the data and software generated by Arctic researchers from diverse disciplines. The Arctic community, comprising natural science and social science researchers, submits data from NSF-funded projects. Through data curation services and domain agnostic tools and infrastructure, the Arctic Data Center works to ensure data are accessible in the most transparent and usable way possible. This interoperability across diverse disciplines within the Arctic community facilitates collaborative research, and is complemented by interoperability between the Arctic Data Center infrastructure and other large scale cyberinfrastructure initiatives.

With the global pandemic, many researchers are having their summer field research seasons cancelled. That doesn't mean that science has to stop! Now is an excellent time to re-use submitted data for synthetic projects. In this webinar, Erin McLean, Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator with the Arctic Data Center, will discuss an overview of the Arctic Data Center; the history, infrastructure, and tools that support long-term preservation of the data and metadata. We will highlight the many features and services offered by the Arctic Data Center before stepping through some best practices for working with data and guidance on how to archive data with the Arctic Data Center. Finally, we will discuss how to search for and reuse data for synthesis studies.

Erin McLean is the Community Engagement and Outreach Coordinator with the Arctic Data Center, headquartered at NCEAS in Santa Barbara. She holds a bachelor of arts from Boston University in marine science and English literature and a master of science from the University of Rhode Island in biological and environmental sciences. A scientist, educator, and writer, she has built her career on making science more accessible to all.

Please register for the webinar by May 26th, 2020 by following the link above.

The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) Climate Change Program announces a webinar that will include an introduction to the Alaskan and Yukon Rivers Project and the Native Advisory Council application process.

During the webinar, participants can learn about a National Science Foundation Navigating the New Arctic Program-funded project looking at how climate change will affect river ice transportation corridors and fish habitat in Alaskan and Yukon rivers and about how to apply to be on the project’s Native Advisory Council.

The Council will help researchers evaluate input from the broader community and make decisions about research design, output, and more. The Council will also lead the design of an Arctic Rivers Summit Meeting currently scheduled to take place in Anchorage, Alaska during winter 2021/22. The Council’s structure, application process, and consultation fees will be discussed as well as other ways to participate in the project.

For more information and to register, please follow the link above.

Twenty Years of Svalbard Fieldwork: A Couple of 100 Gigatons of Ice, Lots of Surges, Two Polar Bears and One Pandemic Later

Please register in advance for the seminars. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the seminar.

The seminar will also be available afterwards on the Friends of the International Glaciological Society Facebook page so that you can watch it there if technology fails or you can't make it.

Update: The conference will be postponed because of coronavirus (COVID-19) situation. The new dates will be published later! Thank you for you patience.

(Im)migration in the north is not a new phenomenon, but indeed an unexplored area of research and development. The Arctic region is facing new problems and challenges along the side of the already existing ones of Arctic migration. Asylum flows, refugees are a growing group of inhabitants in the Arctic. Cultural differences, acceptance of foreign citizens in the local communities, integration into local communities and labour market are some of the issues, which need cross border cooperation in order to contribute to innovative solutions. Our network (UARCTIC) wants to address these issues and carry out pioneering work in the field of Arctic migration. This will be the first ever conference on (im)migration in the cap of the north that is a part of series of activities of UArctic Thematic network on Arctic Migration. All international Arctic and non-Arctic actors, researchers and policymakers are invited to attend the conferences.

Objectives: The Nordic integration model is an effective model across the world and the Nordic countries share and follow a comprehensive integration path which is based on welfare schemes. However, there are some disparities between policies and implementation of those policies in practice regarding immigrants or refugees. Socio-economic integration is a complex phenomenon. Subjective happiness of immigrants’ and the degrees of being satisfied differ from immigrant to immigrant — individual to individual— cities to cities. The project will investigate whether there are regional differences in happiness among immigrants in Nordic countries that will support or strengthen the Nordic synergies and identity. The project will identify the degrees of satisfaction of immigrants and whether the impact of effective integration is similar across the Nordic cities. How the happiness of immigrants is distributed among the Nordic cities, whether the quality of life is similar within the Nordic countries. How we can build integrated societies, what could be the model, tools and measure for an inclusive society and for being resilient.

Call for abstracts:

The call for abstracts is open until 29 February 2020 (noon, GMT +2, Finnish time). The topics include:

• Gender and migration in the arctic
• Immigrants and the labour markets in the North
• The role of mass media in the integration of immigrants
• Cooperating the stateless
• Growing arctic cities, shrinking arctic cities, melting arctic cities
• Local languages, education: Integration of adult and youth
• Outward migration from the arctic

In November 2019, the US icebreaker RV Sikuliaq headed to the north side of Alaska for a combined oceanographic and biological expedition. The biological work was performed within the ARICE-funded project GO-WEST. GO-WEST aimed to investigate the association of young polar cod (or Arctic cod, Boreogadus saida) with the newly forming sea ice, its prey field and carbon sources. Polar cod is a keystone species of the Arctic food web. The young (0-2 year-old) fish use the under-ice habitat as a foraging ground and shelter from predators. It has been hypothesized that juveniles get entrained with the new sea ice in autumn and use it as a transportation vector over large distances. The changing icescape of the Arctic Ocean will affect this close relationship between fish and sea ice. GO-WEST aimed to sample for the first time young polar cod at the underside of new sea ice between autumn and winter, and to investigate their survival conditions. To this end, we used a Surface and Under-Ice Trawl capable to skim the underside of sea ice. The first results of this expedition show that young polar cod were present in the under-ice habitat throughout the investigation area, along with their main prey species. During this webinar we will briefly explain how the expedition was planned and which logistical obstacles needed to be overcome. We will focus on how the field work was conducted in collaboration with the chief scientist and the crew of RV Sikuliaq, and how first raw data were generated. Finally we will give an outlook on sample elaboration, data processing and publications.