Past Events

Please note that a symposium will be held on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of glacier research at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Munich. The symposium language will be German, but all people interested in glaciology and glacier research are welcome.

This is the third meeting of the Ocean Studies Board.

Topics include:

• Ocean
• Polar Science
• Ocean Ecosystems and Resources
• Pollution in the Ocean
• Arctic Issues

If you would like to attend the sessions of this meeting that are open to the public or need more information please contact Heather Chiarello at hchiarello [at] nas.edu.

Organizers announce that the 6th Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference and Forum (WAISC), entitled "Rural Science in Action," will be held 20-22 March 2013 in Nome, Alaska.

WAISC brings together scientists, rural Alaska leaders and community members, educators, and students to discuss science, research, and issues relevant to western Alaska. The 2013 conference will highlight regional scientific efforts and community-based projects, including work based in traditional knowledge and local expertise.

Organizers welcome abstract submissions drawn from all disciplines that use a scientific approach to address questions and issues of concern to western Alaska communities. Abstracts for oral and poster presentations or workshops are invited and should be submitted via email to Claudia Ihl (cihl [at] alaska.edu) as either a PDF or Word attachment. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words for oral (15 minutes) or poster presentations and 500 words for workshops (up to 1 hr 30 minutes).

Abstract submission deadline: Friday, 15 February 2013.

You are cordially invited to join the NRC’s Ocean Studies Board for the Fourteenth Annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture. The Revelle Lecture was created by the Ocean Studies Board in honor of Dr. Revelle’s contributions to the ocean sciences and his dedication to making scientific knowledge available to policymakers. The 2013 speaker is Dr. John Walsh, Chief Scientist of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

This year’s lecture, Melting Ice: What is happening to Arctic sea ice and what does it mean for us?, will explore the impacts of recent decreases in Arctic summer sea ice and the ways in which these decreases may already be affecting the larger climate system through a variety of physical, dynamical, and ecological processes.

The lecture is free and open to the public:
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 at 5:30 pm
Baird Auditorium in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC.
Reception to follow.
Pre-registration is not necessary to attend the lecture or reception, but is requested for planning purposes.

In the world of polar science, meetings are a part of our everyday work lives, especially as collaboration and cooperation become the norm. Whether it’s a small team meeting, a planning teleconference, or a large science meeting, the difference between success and failure relies on techniques and skills that most of us are not taught in school. Knowing how to plan and execute a successful meeting can greatly improve productivity and can serve you no matter what your career path.

This webinar will provide tips for a successful meeting, including: setting goals and agendas, facilitating discussion, preparing participants, dealing with group dynamics, and maintaining momentum; and how to utilize these project planning skills in a science career.

Register for webinar or join as it begins: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/930363264

APECS works with mentors and partners to develop webinars to assist APECS members and other early career scientists with their career development goals. The webinars give early career scientists a venue to learn valuable career skills that are usually not covered in their academic training. The webinar audience consists of graduate students, post-docs, and early career faculty across several disciplines. Since its inception in 2010, hundreds of people from around the world have participated in the webinars.

A recording and archive of each webinar is available on the APECS Vimeo site so that anyone can watch the videos anytime.

If you have any questions, potential topics, or potential presenters to suggest, please contact the APECS Webinar Coordinator, Kristin Timm at webinars [at] apecs.is.

The American Geophysical Union (AGU), in partnership with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the National Academies' Ocean Studies Board, will present a lunch briefing on Melting Sea Ice in the Arctic: Science to Understand the Impacts to Our National Security, Natural Resources, and Economy. Speakers for the event include Dr. Cecilia Bitz, associate professor of atmospheric sciences and affiliate physicist for the Polar Science Center at the University of Washington; Lt. Commander Kenneth J. Boda, Arctic strategic analys and prospective executive officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter POLAR STAR; Dr. Brendan P. Kelly, assistant director for polar sciences at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President; and Dr. John E. Walsh, chief scientist of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Alaska Fire Science Consortium announces a webinar entitled "Historic and Future Flammability in Alaskan Boreal Forests and Tundra Ecosystems." It will be held Wednesday, 20 March 2013 at 1:00-2:00 p.m. AKDT, and the target audience includes fire managers, resource managers, students, and scientists.

The webinar will be presented by Adam Young, at PhD student in the Department of Forest, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences at the University of Idaho. Young's current research is focused on how climate and vegetation influence fire occurrence at multi-decadal time scales in Alaskan boreal forest and tundra ecosystems. Worldwide fire regimes are expected to shift as a result of climate change. Predicting when, where, and how these fire regime changes will occur requires an understanding of the climatic controls of fire at differing temporal and spatial scales. This research uses past climate-fire relationships to predict 21st-century fire regime changes across Alaskan boreal forest and tundra ecosystems at a range of temporal and spatial scales, providing insight into when, where, and how future fire regimes may change.

Background information is available in a 2012 poster entitled 'Quantifying the historic and future distribution of fire in Alaskan tundra ecosystems,' by Young, Adam M.; Higuera, Philip E.; Duffy, Paul A.; and Hu, Feng Sheng. It can be downloaded at: http://tinyurl.com/Young-Poster.

For questions, please contact: Randi Jandt Email: rjandt [at] alaska.edu

The 100th meeting of the US Arctic Research Commission will be held in Bethel. Additional information will be available online.

Alaska Sea Grant and other sponsors will hold a 3.5-day Wakefield Fisheries Symposium, to advance understanding of present and future responses of arctic marine ecosystems to climate change at all trophic levels, by documenting and forecasting changes in environmental processes and species responses to those changes. Presentations will focus on collaborative approaches to understanding and managing living marine resources in a changing Arctic, and to managing human responses to changing arctic marine ecosystems.

All keynotes and 20-minute contributed talks will be presented in plenary sessions. A call for abstracts will be released soon for oral and poster contributions. Organizers encourage contributions that focus on collaborative approaches to understanding and managing living marine resources in a changing Arctic and to managing human responses--locally, regionally, and globally--to changing arctic marine ecosystems.

Session topics include:

• Observed and anticipated environmental changes in the Arctic;
• Lower trophic level productivity of arctic waters in a changing climate;
• Marine fish resources of the Arctic in a changing climate;
• Observed and anticipated responses of arctic birds and marine mammals to environmental changes in the Arctic;
• Effects of changing arctic marine ecosystems on humans; and
• Understanding and managing arctic marine ecosystems in a time of change.

The Warming Arctic, the Edward R. Murrow Center and the Center of International Environment and Resource Policy will convene a group of experts, policy makers, business and media to examine the growing body of evidence on the climate impact of the Arctic - and try to share some big approaches to it.

This meeting is sponsored by:

• The Edward R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy
• Center of International Environment and Resource Policy
• Canadian Consulate Boston
• Media Partners: Global Post, Alaska Dispatch, Living on Earth

Polar regions are undergoing considerable changes. To address the potential impact of these changes, new technological tools and mindsets are urgently needed. This webinar, given by Bruno Danis, Associate Professor at Universite Libre de Bruxelles will develop a vision on emerging collaborative networks, illustrated by a set of real-life examples.

Register for webinar or join as it begins: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/930363264

APECS works with mentors and partners to develop webinars to assist APECS members and other early career scientists with their career development goals. The webinars give early career scientists a venue to learn valuable career skills that are usually not covered in their academic training. The webinar audience consists of graduate students, post-docs, and early career faculty across several disciplines. Since its inception in 2010, hundreds of people from around the world have participated in the webinars.

A recording and archive of each webinar is available on the APECS Vimeo site so that anyone can watch the videos anytime.

If you have any questions, potential topics, or potential presenters to suggest, please contact the APECS Webinar Coordinator, Kristin Timm at webinars [at] apecs.is.

The Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard will hold a field hearing in Alaska on Arctic shipping safety and reviewing the lessons learned from the 2012 offshore drilling season. The hearing will also examine the U.S. preparation for Arctic shipping more generally, with testimony from Alaska maritime experts, local communities, and environmental groups. Witnesses include:

• The Honorable Tommy P. Beaudreau, Acting Assistant Secretary - Land and Minerals Management, US Department of the Interior (via video teleconference
• Rear Admiral Thomas P. Ostebo, Commander, Seventeenth District, U.S. Coast Guard
• Mr. Pete E. Slaiby, Vice President, Exploration and Production, Shell Alaska
• Ms. Helen Brohl, Executive Director, US Committee on the Marine Transportation System (via video teleconference)
• Mr. Ed Page, Executive Director, Marine Exchange of Alaska
• Ms. Eleanor Huffines, Manager, U.S. Arctic Campaign, Pew Charitable Trusts
• Mr. Matt Ganley, Vice President, Bering Straits Native Corp.

The Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) will meet to receive comments or questions regarding their draft document, "U.S. Arctic Marine Transportation System: Overview and Priorities for Action." To join the conference call, please email your request to ArcticMTS [at] cmts.gov. Staff will provide the call-in information. Both U.S. and international lines are available. The draft CMTS Arctic MTS paper is available here.

This is a three-day boating course provided by Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA http://amsea.org). Aimed at researchers working in or around water, this course covers topics such as inflatable boat and motor use, emergency signaling devices, personal flotation devices, and hypothermia. Students spend time on and in the water during training.

For more information and registration, please email fieldrisk [at] polarfield.com.

Snow grain size is an essential property required for many applications: cold regions hydrology, polar and mountain climatology, optical and microwave remote sensing, snow chemistry, etc. However, field and laboratory measurements of snow grain size are notoriously difficult and impaired by the coexistence of inconsistent definitions. Several instruments and methods based on very different physical principles (optical, gas adsorption, tomography, stereology) have been developed in the last decade, with differences in terms of reproducibility, acquisition time and vertical and horizontal resolution in the field. In recent years, grain size measurements have been conducted by different groups in a wide variety of environments. However, little is known about the accuracy of these methods due to the lack of an approved reference method and the insufficient number of inter-comparison exercises.

The *main objectives *of the meeting is to gather snow grain size specialists to:
1. Present established and new methods of measurements.
2. Discuss about the accuracy, comparability and quality of existing measurement methods,
3. Identify areas where action at the international level is needed to improve the situation.

Emphasis is deliberately placed on field or laboratory methods together with their theoretical relation to a particular definition of snow grain size. Development and applications related to grain size in the field of remote sensing, snowpack modeling and data assimilation are also welcome and open for discussion.

The 4-day workshop will include keynote lectures, oral presentations, poster presentations, discussions and one-day field trip near Grenoble. The objective of this field day is to demonstrate the instruments brought by the participants to the others and to potentially initiate an inter-comparison.

This workshop is the first meeting associated to the working group "From quantitative stratigraphy to microstructure-based modeling of snow" which will be supported by the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (http://www.cryosphericsciences.org/).

The 9th Annual Polar Technology Conference will be held 2-4 April 2013 in Annapolis, Maryland at the U.S. Naval Academy. The primary purpose of this conference is to bring together polar scientists and technology developers in a forum to exchange information on research system operational needs and technology solutions that have been successful in polar environments.

Participants from the private sector, state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academia are welcome. Presentations generally cover system requirements for proposed research along with descriptions of systems and approaches that have been proven in polar deployments. Discussions on intra- and inter-national cooperation in site deployment and maintenance are encouraged. Informal breaks allow for networking and information exchange, and a poster session will be included.

A call for presentations and conference registration will be announced in mid-December 2012.

Scientific writing is like a language. To become fluent you need to overcome a certain amount of fear. You need to repeat the techniques you have learnt so that your skills improve. Finally, you need to continue to talk this new language so that you do not forget your new skills. ClimateSnack builds on these ideas and offers an unintimidating approach to climate blogging, where the main aim is to improve writing skills as part of a community, rather than by oneself. This webinar, given by Mathew Reeve of the University of Bergen, will introduce the background to the ClimateSnack concept and how people can get involved.

Register for webinar or join as it begins: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/930363264

APECS works with mentors and partners to develop webinars to assist APECS members and other early career scientists with their career development goals. The webinars give early career scientists a venue to learn valuable career skills that are usually not covered in their academic training. The webinar audience consists of graduate students, post-docs, and early career faculty across several disciplines. Since its inception in 2010, hundreds of people from around the world have participated in the webinars.

A recording and archive of each webinar is available on the APECS Vimeo site so that anyone can watch the videos anytime.

If you have any questions, potential topics, or potential presenters to suggest, please contact the APECS Webinar Coordinator, Kristin Timm at webinars [at] apecs.is.

The main theme of the conference is the examination of high frequency climate changes reflected in the geological record, and the pacings of change and their geological consequences, during the Holocene (the past 11,700 years). The meeting will be divided into sessions on ocean change, sea-level variability, terrestrial change, ice core change, the modeling of any or all of these, and the interaction between climate and humans. Provisional keynote speakers include Graeme Barker, Ian Hall, Anthony Long, Rosalind Rickaby, Bo Vinther, and Heinz Wanner.

Conference paper and poster contributions are welcome. Abstracts should be 150 words, and must be submitted to Steve Whalley (steve.whalley [at] geolsoc.org.uk) no later than 12 October 2012.

For further information about the conference or to submit an abstract, please contact:
Steve Whalley
Email: steve.whalley [at] geolsoc.org.uk

The Geophysical Institute and International Arctic Research Center are sponsoring a First Friday event entitled "Views of the Boreal Forest," on April 5, 2013 in Room 204 of the Akasofu Building on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The art show will feature unique perspectives of northern forests through the eyes of local artists. The event runs from 5 to 7 p.m. and parking is free!

The EGU General Assembly 2013 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. Especially for young scientists, it is the aim of the EGU to provide a forum where they can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geosciences. The EGU is looking forward to cordially welcoming you in Vienna.