Past Events

Changes in the timing of the seasons in Alaska influences our wild berry flowering, pollination, ripening and fruit dispersal (including by us berry pickers). Dr. Katie Spellman and Dr. Christa Mulder will discuss the ongoing research by the UAF International Arctic Research Center and Institute of Arctic Biology that explores how earlier springs, warmer summers and wetter falls influence our amazing Alaska berries throughout their life cycles. Learn how public participation in this scientific research is helping improve our knowledge of ways berries are changing across our state.

Please follow the link above to register.

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: Due to the uncertainty of Covid-19 situation, the organizers have decided to postpone the “2nd Edition of World Congress on Geology & Earth Science” from July to November 12-14, 2020 at Osaka, Japan.

To continue the success of 1st congress, Innovinc International proudly announcing the “2nd Edition of World Congress on Geology & Earth Science” (GeoEarth-2020). GeoEarth-2020 welcomes colleagues from all branches of Geosciences and from many countries in the world to disseminate their valuable work.

Abstract Submission Deadline: July 15th, 2020.

Please follow the link above for more information.

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) unveiled a set of “Big Ideas,” 10 bold, long-term research and process ideas that identify areas for future investment at the frontiers of science and engineering (see https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/big_ideas/index.jsp). The Big Ideas represent unique opportunities to position our Nation at the cutting edge of global science and engineering leadership by bringing together diverse disciplinary perspectives to support convergence research. As such, when responding to this solicitation, even though proposals must be submitted to GEO/OPP, once received, the proposals will be managed by a cross-disciplinary team of NSF Program Directors.

NSF invites proposals to establish a Navigating the New Arctic Community Office (NNA-CO). Launched in 2016, NNA has been building a growing portfolio of research and planning grants at the intersection of the built, social, and natural environments to improve understanding of Arctic change and its local and global effects. Each NNA-funded project is responsible for its own performance, including its core research and broader impacts. However, an NNA community office is required to coordinate the activities of funded NNA projects; engage new PIs; and promote research, education, and outreach activities. The NNA-CO will also provide centralized representation of ongoing NNA activities to the broader scientific community and the public. The lead PI of the successful NNA-CO proposal will serve as the Office Director and will work with the research community to develop and implement appropriate communication networks and support for investigators, stakeholders, and research teams pursuing NNA research. NNA research is inherently convergent, seeking new knowledge at the intersection of the natural, built, and social environments. NNA research also inherently involves diverse stakeholders, from local to international. The NNA-CO will need to demonstrate the ability to work with these types of research teams and audiences.

Full Proposal Deadline Date: July 10, 2020.

Please follow the link above for complete details.

Human migration is projected as one of the greatest adverse impacts of climate change with future flows of climate migrants, also referred to as climate refugees, predicted at 200 million by 2050 (IPCC 2006).To address this intense and complex climate change impact, the Belmont Forum is excited to announce the scoping of a new international funding opportunity focused on Migration and Climate Change. We invite you to participate in a special online meeting to share your expert perspective of the state of the science as it relates to research and societal needs in Migration. We will ultimately incorporate your input into the development of research themes for an international call for proposals. Participation in this event does not make you ineligible to submit a proposal once the call is finalized and released.

The scoping meeting will be held online on July 10, 2020 at 11am UTC using a government-secured Zoom license to bring together stakeholders from multiple disciplines interested in Migration on various scales. Since Migration and Climate Change is a multifaceted issue, it would benefit from the collaboration of many knowledge types and international resource partners with diverse perspectives. Thus, the term stakeholder is used in its broadest sense as it includes communities, policymakers, business and industry, unionized bodies, tribal organizations, NGOs and many others. Accordingly, this meeting is the perfect opportunity to co-design a funding call based on the collection of adept input.

Please confirm your participation by completing this registration form at the link above.

Due to the uncertainty of Covid-19 situation, we have decided to postpone the “2nd Edition of World Congress on Geology & Earth Science” from July to November 12-14, 2020 at Osaka, Japan.

The decision has been taken in the interests of public safety and to help prevent the spread of the virus.

GeoEarth-2020 welcomes colleagues from all branches of Geosciences and from many countries in the world to disseminate their valuable work.

To continue the success of 1st congress, Innovinc International proudly announcing the “2nd Edition of World Congress on Geology & Earth Science” (GeoEarth-2020). GeoEarth-2020 welcomes colleagues from all branches of Geosciences and from many countries in the world to disseminate their valuable work.

Abstract Submission Deadline: July 15th, 2020.

Please follow the link above for more information.

Forecasters routinely monitor total precipitable water (TPW) in the atmosphere via the NOAA operational blended TPW product. A new Advected Layer Precipitable Water (ALPW) product provides a vertical dimension and depicts long-fetch flows of moisture which enhance flood events. How these products are generated will be explained, and typical forecast uses including in the Alaska region will be presented. Upcoming improvements to these products will be discussed.

Please follow the link above to register.

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.

The event is free of charge, but please register to obtain your login information for Zoom.

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 August and the remaining summer/early fall season. Join the gathering online to learn more about Alaska climate and weather.

Please follow the link above to register.

The IGS Head Office and the Durham Local Organising Committee have been monitoring the situation regarding the Covid-19 (coronavirus) infection. Yesterday, the UK government has advised that the pandemic will not peak for several weeks, bringing us closer to the scheduled start of our symposium.

Because of the severe travel restrictions put on scientists worldwide and in addition the advice we have received from Durham University, we have reluctantly decided to postpone the International Symposium on Ice Streams and Outlet Glaciers, scheduled to take place in Durham on 19-24th July 2020.

Later this year, we will look to reschedule the conference in either 2021 or 2022 and will provide further updates when available.

The International Glaciological Society will hold an International Symposium on ‘Ice Streams and Outlet Glaciers’. The symposium will be hosted by the Department of Geography, Durham University.

THEME:

Ice streams and outlet glaciers are important components of an ice sheet’s mass balance and their behaviour directly impacts on sea level. These corridors of fast-flowing ice have been described as the ‘arteries’ of an ice sheet and their distinction is largely semantic, with ice streams bordered by slower-moving ice and outlet glaciers bordered by exposed bedrock at the surface. Since the recognition of the importance of these features in the 1970s, there has been a huge growth in their investigation. This began with the pioneering work on West Antarctic ice streams and has subsequently expanded to studies of ice streams and outlet glaciers in all of the world’s major ice sheets and ice masses. Of urgent concern for society are recent observations of dynamic changes in ice streams and outlet glaciers, which are thought to be responsible for an acceleration in global eustatic sea-level rise.

In parallel, those studying palaeo-ice sheet beds have long recognized the distinctive geomorphology of ice streams in both marine and terrestrial settings. The study of palaeo ice streams offers an unprecedented opportunity to reconstruct their behaviour over time-scales much longer than modern observations permit, generating new insights into the spatial and temporal controls on their flow, including longer-term perspectives on retreat rates and thinning histories. The beds of palaeo ice streams and outlet glaciers are also more accessible for investigation, leading to new insights regarding
the mechanisms of sediment erosion, transport and deposition beneath fastflowing ice, including the formation of subglacial bedforms.

In addition to empirical studies, there have been major advances in our ability to simulate ice-stream and outlet-glacier behaviour in numerical models. Moreover, observations and reconstructions of ice streams/outlet glaciers have provided useful data to test and calibrate numerical models and recent developments have seen improved projections of mass loss.

The aim of this symposium is to bring together scientists working on both modern and palaeo ice streams/outlet glaciers, together with those using numerical modelling, in order to facilitate greater interaction and the crosspollination of ideas, data and theoretical insight on one of glaciology’s most important topics.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:

We seek papers and presentations on any aspect of ice streams and outlet glaciers, including observations at a range of spatial and temporal scales and insights gleaned from numerical modelling. Key topics include (but are not limited to):

1. Observations of ice streams/outlet glaciers and their links to the ocean–climate system
2. Interactions between ice streams/outlet glaciers and floating ice shelves/ice tongues
3. Geophysical studies of ice streams/outlet glaciers, including englacial and subglacial observations, and processes of sediment erosion, transport and deposition
4. Reconstructions of palaeo ice streams/outlet glaciers, including their links to the ocean–climate system and terrestrial investigations of their subglacial sediments and landforms
5. Numerical modelling studies of past, present and future ice-stream/outletglacier behaviour and/or of key processes relating to their behaviour
6. The role of ice streams/outlet glaciers in ice-sheet instabilities (e.g. Heinrich events).

ABSTRACT AND PAPER PUBLICATION:

Participants who wish to present a paper (oral or poster) at the Symposium should submit an abstract by 21 March 2020. Accepted abstracts will be posted on the Symposium 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 and participants are encouraged to submit manuscripts for this volume.

Update: Following the outbreak of COVID19, this event has been postponed to 19 to 30 September 2022.

This two-week workshop at the Isaac Newton Institute (INI) will build on the successful scientific programme SIP’17 with a similar title that took place at the INI from 21/08/2017 to 20/12/2017. This programme stimulated new areas of enquiry and consolidation of existing work that is continuing. The aims of the present workshop are to support these advances, to give an extra impulse to new research on the mathematics of sea ice, and to review the progress achieved after the SIP’17 programme. The continuing changes in the Earth’s polar sea-ice covers under global warming make advances in the mathematics of sea ice timelier than ever.

Recognizing this urgency and the need for succession planning, the follow-on workshop will include a Summer School for early career researchers with lectures on ice models, ice physics and research challenges. An Industrial Day and a half-day colloquium with the British Antarctic Survey are also planned. Topics of the talks and discussions during the proposed workshop will include but are not limited to:

• Large-scale ice models for offshore engineering and shipping, environmental or climate modelling
• Multi-scale ice modelling through several scales
• Quantification of uncertainties in ice modelling
• Parsimonious models of continuous and broken ice

Please follow the link above for more details.

Deadline for applications: 19 April 2020.

If you are interested in being part of the conversation on Arctic research planning or are curious about what the Arctic Research Plan is and how it is being developed, please join us for an IARPC Webinar.

In this webinar, IARPC will share information on the development of the next five-year Arctic Research Plan, how you can get involved, and what kinds of input we are seeking. There will also be time for questions and discussion. All are welcome. Please register for the webinar.

IARPC is currently asking for public comments on the development of the next five-year Arctic Research Plan. The public comment period is open through August 2.

Speaker: Sheanna Steingass, Marine Mammal Program Leader, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Courtesy Faculty, OSU Fisheries and Wildlife.

One Health’ is the concept that the health of humans, wildlife, and the environment are intertwined. This ideology is nowhere more apparent than in the swiftly changing Arctic. In remote Alaska, local villages rely heavily on traditional resources for both economy and culture. For the past several years, we have worked collaboratively with Alaska villages of Savoonga and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island to study the health and ecology of Pacific walrus. Come learn about the importance of community engagement, significance for this research in Arctic ecology and communities, and the questions and knowledge this research has generated.

Three shorter talks this week:

• Samira Samini (University of Calgary) “Meltwater Penetration Through Temperate Ice Layers in the Percolation Ice Zone at Dye-2, Greenland Ice Sheet”
• Sammie Buzzard (Ice and Climate Group, Georgia Tech) “A 3-D Model for Ice Shelf Hydrology”
• Keir Nichols (Tulane University) “Untangling Deglaciation in the Weddell Sea Embayment With in Situ C-14 Exposure Dating”

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.

The Arctic is experiencing record heat and wildfires are ramping up across the global north. New research shows northern forest fire frequency and severity are rapidly increasing, releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and worsening climate feedback loops. WHRC scientist Dr. Brendan Rogers will explain how global warming is threatening northern forests, and a panel will discuss climate consequences and possible policy responses.

In 2009, Commonwealth North called for the necessary infrastructure investments to allow increased human activity in the Arctic to occur safely and efficiently and to increase the U.S. Coast Guard's presence in the region, facilitated by the building of Polar Class icebreakers. Progress has been made on both fronts, but more remains to be done. This session will focus on illustrating both the progress and the opportunities for Arctic maritime infrastructure.

Speakers:

Admiral Charles W. Ray (invited)
Vice Commandant
United States Coast Guard

Vice Admiral Linda L. Fagan (invited)
Commander
Pacific Area
United States Coast Guard
Coast Guard Public Affairs

Rear Admiral Matthew T. Bell (invited)
Commander
17th Coast Guard District
United States Coast Guard Sector Anchorage

Ms. Cara Condit (invited)
Executive Director
Center for Arctic Studies & Policy
U.S. Coast Guard Academy

The Arctic Policy Study Group meets weekly on Wednesdays at 8 a.m. (AKDT) throughout the summer and early fall. Please join to explore the issues critical to the region and to the state of Alaska.

The program is free of charge but please register to receive login details.

The Bering Sea is undergoing rapid unprecedented change. Elders across the region have reported changes in sea ice quality and timing for decades. Sea ice extent in the late winters of 2018 and 2019 were by far the lowest recorded since satellite monitoring began in 1978. And even though sea ice and air temperatures were closer to “normal” this past winter, environmental change is having profound impacts on the fish, bird and marine mammals of the Bering Sea, as well as the peoples of the region who depend on these resources.

Using funds from a national Ocean Data Sharing Initiative, the Alaska Ocean Observing System is working with federal and academic partners and Bering region communities to foster greater sharing of Indigenous ocean-related observations and scientific information. We will be presenting some new data and information products, based on the needs of federal and state agency managers, coastal communities, tribes, and private industry, and invite webinar participants and other residents of western Alaska to join our conversation about their observations and their needs.

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

During the summer of 2020 ACCAP and the Alaska Fire Science Consortium hosted two Ernest F. Hollings scholars for the summer internships. Because of COVID-19 their internships were remote. During this webinar the scholars will present their summer’s work.

1. An exploration of the Hot Dry Windy Index & its applicability to the Alaska wildfire environment (Emily)
   Hot, dry, and windy conditions have a well-established link to wildfire growth. The Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW) combines daily values of wind speed and vapor pressure deficit to provide insight into large fire growth days. This study explores trends in HDW from 1980-2019 for Alaska based on ERA5 Reanalysis data, compares daily values of HDW to MODIS fire detections for individual PSA’s, and examines case studies to provide insight into HDW’s utility for fire forecasting in Alaska.

2. Changing Summer Nighttime Climate and its Impact on Alaska Fire Growth (Clairisse)
   Growth of wildfires in Alaska is generally expected to occur with the assistance of heat and low moisture during daylight hours, while overnight low temperatures and relative humidity recoveries limit this growth. However, the progression of climatological warming in the Arctic, combined with prolonged exposure to sunlight at high latitudes during the summer, may be providing more capability for overnight fire growth than previously thought. This project makes use of historical wildfire records and ERA5-Land reanalysis data to investigate the potential of taking nighttime temperatures and relative humidity recoveries into consideration for fire weather forecasts.
   Please follow the link above for more information and to register.

The Arctic and Antarctic regions continue to undergo dramatic change with global political, economic, social, cultural, scientific, environmental, and security implications.

The Wilson Center's Polar Institute will host its second edition of the Polar Week, to explore, analyze, discuss, and inform many of these important issues and dynamics. Through several public events, the July 2020 Polar Week will address: maritime activity in the Bering Strait; Canada's Arctic and Northern Policy Framework; the European Union's Arctic policy, ; the complex relationship in the Arctic between the United States and Russia; Marine Protected Areas in the Southern Ocean, and; the launch of the inaugural edition of the Wilson Center's Polar Perspectives publication series.

This edition of Polar Week is held in partnership with the Embassy of Canada, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, World Wildlife Fund, the Arctic Economic Council, the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth College, the UArctic Institute for Arctic Policy, Pew Charitable Trusts, US Arctic Research Commission, and with support from the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, Environmental Change & Security Program, Canada Institute, and China Environment Forum.

Please follow the link above for the full agenda.