Past Events

We are pleased to announce this call for abstracts for the APECS Polar Career Workshop. We invite individuals early in their careers to submit their application to present a video/thesis/presentation - there is no restriction on topics.

Individuals from underrepresented and non-academic backgrounds are encouraged to submit a proposal. The event will consist of a day of workshops on a range of topics, a series of presentations, and keynote speakers. Details of topics and items to be confirmed.

Application deadline: 2 October 2020
Event Date: 14 October 2020

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

Unlike the passive microwave satellite record of Arctic sea ice extent, long-term observations of sea ice thickness remain quite limited. In this webinar, I’ll discuss the different methods (satellite instruments and model simulations) of observing sea ice thickness in order to understand changes in the recent Arctic amplification era. I’ll also highlight the large-scale environmental and societal consequences of a thinning Arctic sea ice cover.

Please follow the link above to register.

The Alaska Sea Ice Program (ASIP) is a unique program within the National Weather Service. The program has seen many changes over the years, including evolving from hand drawn sea ice analyses using a light box to GIS-based digital analyses. We will take a look at where we started, where we are now and what we do, and where we hope to be in the future. We will also look at some times when sea ice in Alaska waters has caused problems for both Alaska residents and others operating within Alaskan waters.

Please follow the link above to register.

Alaska's Arctic communities are innovating toward new and renewable energy opportunities. This panel will provide an overview of the trends that are driving clean energy and electrification projects in the Arctic as well as showcase several projects that demonstrate how communities and energy providers are using the Arctic environment and new technologies to expand electrification, decarbonization, and a brighter energy future.

Speakers:

• Rob Roys, Deployment Driector - Launch Alaska
• Ingemar Mathiasson, Energy Manager - Northwest Arctic Borough
• Matt Bergan, Wind Farm Project Engineer - Kotzebue Electric Association

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

The Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the Polar Research Center in cooperation with The Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Polar Consortium jointly organise the 38th International Polar Symposium "Environmental changes in polar regions: New problems - new solutions" to be held on 13-15 May 2021.

The Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the Polar Research Center in cooperation with The Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Polish Polar Consortium jointly organise the 38th International Polar Symposium.

The IPS is a recurrent bi-annual scientific conference on widely understood polar topics. The conference has been very popular within the research communities in Poland and abroad for years. Now it gives again a great opportunity to exchange experiences, to discuss and to integrate experts from various fields who conduct their research in the Arctic, the Antarctic and elsewhere in the world.

The IPS in 2020 is exceptional, since accompanied with a plenary meeting under an umbrella of the European Polar Board. We expect researcher from numerous countries, who will be participating in special topic sessions.

Last but not least, the 45th anniversary of the NCU Polar Station on Spitsbergen will be celebrated during the IPS.

Update: the convention will now be held virtually.

The annual convention serves as the principal forum and voice for the Alaska Native community in addressing critical issues of public policy and government. The convention convenes thousands of official delegates and participants from membership organizations across the state.

At the Convention, delegates discuss strategic opportunities and challenges, listen to memorable keynote speeches, hear reports from political leaders and presentations from expert panels, and share stories resilience, experiences, strengths, knowledge and hope for the future.

The resolutions passed by the voting delegates set the priorities for the year and guide AFN’s efforts. The Convention is the largest representative annual gathering in the United States of Native peoples.

In addition to the plenary sessions, the Convention features a trade show of 100 exhibitors and 170 artists in the renowned Customary Native Arts Show. Evening cultural performances, known as Quyana Alaska, present our traditional dances and sell out 2,500 tickets per night. In partnership with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Southcentral Foundation, AFN hosts a health fair and a walk-in legal clinic with Alaska Legal Services Corporation. The closing banquet provides an opportunity for leaders and partners to gather for a social evening of entertainment and celebration.

The EU-H2020 funded INTERACT (International Network for Terrestrial Research and Monitoring in the Arctic) opens a call for research groups to apply for Trans-National Access and Remote Access to 52 (TA) and 33 (RA) research stations. The sites are located across the Arctic and northern alpine and forest areas in Europe, Russia and North-America and they represent a variety of glacier, mountain, tundra, boreal forest, peatland and freshwater ecosystems, providing opportunities for researchers from natural sciences to human dimension. Trans-national Access includes free access (either physical or remote) for user groups/users to research facilities and field sites, including support for travel and logistic costs. Overall, INTERACT provides three different modalities of access: Transnational and Remote Access that are applied through annual calls, and Virtual Access which means free access to data from stations, available at all times through the INTERACT VA single-entry point.

The current call for Trans-national and Remote Access applications is open until 15th October 2020, and it is for access taking place between April 2021 and March 2022.

Regarding COVID-19 and the ongoing call: we proceed with the call in a regular manner, but reserve the possibility to modify the call, postpone the granted accesses or negotiate shift from physical access to remote access if the situation and safety regulations so require. You can find the TA/RA Call information, descriptions of stations and their facilities, and registration to the INTERACCESS on-line application system from the INTERACT website.

An online webinar will be held on Tuesday 15th September at 10:00-11:00 (CEST, +1UTC) to provide information about the ongoing TA/RA call and for answering questions related to the application process and TA and RA in general.

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 November and the early winter season. Join the gathering online to learn more about Alaska climate and weather.

Please follow the link above to register.

Due to the current COVID-19 virus situation and the strong uncertainty of its worldwide development the local organizing committee has decided to postpone the 3rd IPICS Open Science Conference "Ice Core Science at the three Poles" scheduled for 18-23 October 2020 in Crans-Montana, Switzerland until October next year.

We also discussed other options including a remote solution. However, we think that apart from valuable scientific discussions a virtual conference cannot replace the in-person contacts and the get-together of the ice core community during coffee and lunch breaks, the conference dinner, and the excursions that have been essential for the success of the first two IPICS conferences.

We will provide information about the new dates in the nearest future. Please look for the new announcements around December, 2020. The local organizing committee has put together a great program, and we will be delighted to host the 3rd IPICS conference in October 2021!

Ice cores provide information about past climate and environmental conditions as well as direct records of the composition of the atmosphere on timescales from decades to hundreds of millennia. With the pioneering work of Hans Oeschger of University of Bern on carbon dioxide in polar ice cores, a long tradition of ice core research in Switzerland began. Less known is that Hans Oeschger also initiated a high-alpine drilling project on Colle Gnifetti in Switzerland in the 1970s. To acknowledge Hans Oeschger’s important contribution to these two ice core fields and to foster the link between the corresponding communities the theme of the conference is Ice Core Science at the three Poles.

Scientific Topics:

• Glacial / interglacial dynamics, interglacials, and sea level
• Holocene and last 2000 year climate forcings and variability
• Progress in proxy development and interpretation
• Ice dynamics, ice sheet instability and geophysics
• High-alpine ice cores
• Ice biology, basal ice, subglacial lakes
• Pollution records
• Advances in drilling engineering and borehole observations
• Time scales and methods for ice dating
• Rapid changes and teleconnections
• Biogeochemical Cycles in the Earth system – data and models
• New ice archives
• The Oldest Ice challenge, and the preservation of climatic signals in the deepest ice
• Open session

Important Dates:

Deadline for abstract submission: April 30, 2020
Early bird registration closes: July 1, 2020
Online registration closes: September 1, 2020

The Arctic Data Center has announced a call for applications for a data science training workshop for Arctic researchers.

The Arctic Data Center provides training in data science and data management. These are critical skills for the stewardship of the data, software, and other research products that are preserved in the Arctic Data Center. The major goals of the Arctic Data Center are to advance data archiving and promote reproducible science and data reuse. This five-day workshop will provide researchers with an overview of best data management practices, data science tools, and concrete steps and methods for more easily documenting and uploading their data to the Arctic Data Center.

Space for this workshop is limited. Both early career and established researchers from the Arctic research community are encouraged to apply. Participants will be selected on the basis of their current research or work activities; their previous experience with open science practices, data management techniques, and analysis methods; and their current or former opportunities to access training in these areas. Applications from individuals currently funded through NSF Polar Programs will be prioritized.

Participants will receive support to cover the cost of an economy round-trip airfare within the contiguous United States. Course participants will also be provided with accommodation in Santa Barbara, California for the duration of the course.

Application Deadline: Friday, 24 April 2020.

Throughout October, IARPC Collaborations will be holding a "MOSAiC Month" focused on the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. Led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, MOSAiC is the first year-round expedition into the central Arctic exploring the Arctic climate system. The backbone of MOSAiC is the year-round operation of R/V Polarstern, which has been drifting with the sea ice across the central Arctic with researchers setting up a distributed regional network of observational sites.

This webinar features five early-career researchers who recently participated in the MOSAiC expedition. Each will give a 3-5 minute lightning talk about their research and experience. There will be time for questions at the end of the lightning talks.

All are welcome to attend this webinar – early-career researchers, established researchers, and members of the public are all encouraged to join. Register here.

Agenda

Zoom intro & IARPC overview (5 min)
Lightning talks (3-5 min each)
Summer on the MOSAiC floe: Rapid melt, declining albedos, and implications for climate modeling – Maddie Smith
MOSAiC: An early-career perspective – Carrie Harris
Winter energy cascade in the upper central Arctic Ocean inferred from MOSAiC Leg 1 observation – Ying-Chih Fang
Observations of Arctic atmospheric boundary layer with small unmanned aerial vehicles during Leg 3 of MOSAiC – Gina Jozef
Sea ice coring & methane cycling in the Arctic Ocean – Michael Angelopolous
Q&A – 20-30 min

Speaker Bios

Maddie Smith
Maddie Smith is a postdoctoral scholar in the Polar Science Center at the Applied Physics Lab. Her current research uses observations from the MOSAiC expedition to improve representation of sea ice processes in a coupled global climate model (CESM), with a focus on lateral melting and sea ice albedos. She was a participant on Leg 4 of MOSAiC (June-August), and also has prior fieldwork experience on field campaigns in both the Arctic and Southern Oceans. General research interests include ice-ocean interactions, sea ice thermodynamics, sea ice modeling, and surface waves and turbulence.

Carrie Harris
Carolynn (Carrie) Harris is a PhD student at Dartmouth College in the USA. Her research interests include biogeochemistry, stable isotope geochemistry, and polar systems. Carrie is passionate about making polar science more safe and welcoming for all. She is an Outreach Ambassador for the MOSAiC Expedition and a member of leadership for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists.

Ying-Chih Fang
Ying-Chih Fang is a physical oceanographer and postdoctoral sciences in the Section of Physical Oceanography of the Polar Seas at the Alfred Wegener Institute. His career focuses on using knowledge of physical oceanography to explore important information hidden in the data. He joined MOSAiC’s Team Ocean during MOSAiC Leg 1.

Gina Jozef
Gina is a PhD student in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder, affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. Her research focus is boundary layer meteorology of the Arctic. She recently participated in the MOSAiC Expedition, flying unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) to collect advanced atmospheric measurements of the boundary layer over the Central Arctic Ocean sea ice pack. Before beginning graduate school, she obtained her undergraduate degree at Colorado College in environmental sciences with a concentration in physics.

Michael Angelopoulos
Michael is a PhD student at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Potsdam, Germany, researching sub-aquatic permafrost beneath thermokarst lakes, lagoons, and seas in the Siberian Arctic and along the Alaskan coast. He is particularly interested in salt transport impacts on sub-aquatic ice-bearing permafrost evolution and gas movement in the sediment. At AWI, he also took part in MOSAiC, where he spent four months on the Polarstern icebreaker exploring sea ice and methane cycling in the Arctic Ocean. Before joining AWI, he worked for four years as a consultant for Golder Associates, where he specialized in mining and oil & gas development projects in permafrost regions. He holds an MSc from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and is a licensed Professional Geoscientist (P. Geo) in Ontario, Canada. Long-term, he hopes to expand his research to investigate extreme terrestrial environments as analogues for Mars.

This event has been postponed to 26-28 October 2021.

This workshop aims to build on a series of successful workshops by the IICWG Data Assimilation Working Group to advance international capabilities for sea ice prediction on timescales from hours to a season. The focus of the workshop is to discuss cross-cutting issues in sea ice modelling and assimilation and how deficiencies of current systems can be more efficiently diagnosed and addressed.

General topics considered appropriate for this workshop include:

• Sea ice observations and uncertainties
• Sea ice data assimilation (methods and results)
• Sea ice model parameterizations and coupling to ocean and atmosphere models
• Verification approaches for sea-ice analyses and forecasts
• Recent research to sea ice operation transfer
• Automated predictions systems

The workshop will be organized around a few keynote and contributed presentations with ample time for discussion. As the number of participants is limited, please provide a short abstract (or motivation for attending) in the registration form. As attendees are encouraged to make a contribution, please specify your preference for oral or poster presentation.

For this 10th event, the workshop will be held in Toulouse and Montréal simultaneously via video conferences facilities. Participants are asked to mention in which place they will physically attend the workshop.

This workshop has been postponed to 12-15 July, 2021.

In recent decades we have seen major changes in Arctic Ocean circulation, salinity, and temperature and associated declines in sea ice coverage and thickness. There is evidence of connections of these changes with climate indices, and the changes arguably affect climate by altering the radiative heat balance at high latitudes, impacting the strength of the global overturning circulation, and influencing the interaction between the ocean and Greenland ice sheet. There are also indications that Arctic sea ice and atmospheric circulation can play an important role in extended range predictability of extreme weather events in mid-latitudes. In spite of its importance, Arctic Ocean observations are limited. Several major in situ observing programs that existed in the 2000s have ended, and today sustained oceanographic observations outside the Canada Basin have almost ceased to exist. This workshop will aim to assess our understanding of the Arctic Ocean circulation and discuss observing system requirements needed to confirm and extend that understanding.

More specifically, the workshop will explore changes in Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas circulation related to global change and the observing system required to track those changes in the future. The observing system design effort will be cognizant of the practical, geopolitical, and operational constraints of Arctic Ocean observing, but will incorporate modern objective experimental design and data assimilation using numerical models as fundamental guiding principles. Its work will contribute to evaluations of model simulations and observational analyses to assess opportunities for model improvements.

The US CLIVAR Observing, Modeling, and Understanding the Circulation of the Arctic Ocean and Sub-Arctic Seas Workshop will include presentations addressing:

A. The state of knowledge of Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas circulation with an eye toward identifying critical gaps in observations of modes of variability
B. The observing system needs and data assimilation approach to track those modes of variability
C. The practical, institutional, technical, and geopolitical challenges of increasing the coverage of Arctic Ocean observations that are required by A) and B)

Please follow the link above for more information.

Organiser: Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network
Co-Organisers: Ministry for Foreign Affairs Iceland, Rannsóknamiðstöð Íslands RANNÍS, SSNE, Eimur

Globally, the use of geothermal energy has been growing steadily in the past years due to its renewable nature, low carbon- footprint and versatility of use. It‘s versatility lies primarily on the fact that it can both be used for the production of electricity or directly for domestic heating and industrial purposes. In the Arctic region, the utilisation of renewable energy sources has been a central topic as fossil-fuel based energy production is expensive, has a heavy carbon footprint, generates risk of pollution and is subject to fluctuations in the supply chain. This event aims to shed light on the current role of geothermal energy and its potential for the sustainable development of Arctic societies. In particular the emphasis is put on regional societal and industrial development and food security.

In Iceland, geothermal energy represents up to 66% of Iceland‘s primary energy use. It is most widely applied for district heating, but is also essential for local food production where, for example, fresh vegetables are grown in geothermally heated greenhouses. Icelandic greenhouse farmers all provide to the Icelandic food market, reducing its dependence on international imports. Currently there is a rising interest in Iceland for further utilisation of geothermal resources for food production on a larger scale.

The event draws on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Icelandic Arctic Council Chairmanship (2019-2021) theme on Climate and Green Energy Solutions, and Iceland‘s Climate Action Plan for 2018 – 2030. The webinar brings together experts and stakeholders to discuss the role of geothermal energy in municipal and regional development, and its application for food production. Local food production can both stimulate regional economic and societal growth, and enhance the security of its inhabitants. The main objectives are to:

• Promote the importance of renewable sources in relation to food security, and share knowledge of sustainable food production in cold climates.
• Create an international network of experts and stakeholders, including communities, academics, and the public and private sectors, with the goal of exploring opportunities for future collaboration.
• Outline strategy for moving towards sustainable development and renewable energy solutions in northern communities. (The summary from the session would include ideas to that effect.)

The Centre for Arctic Studies at the University of Iceland, the Icelandic Arctic Cooperation Network and the West Nordic Council in collaboration with the Nordic Region in Focus, the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council and the Arctic Circle have organized a series of online discussions, taking place in the fall of 2020, on key Arctic issues highlighted by the Icelandic Chairmanship of the Arctic Council. The Icelandic Arctic talks build on the work and experience of Icelandic organizations and institutions on issues concerning societies, cooperation, health, and energy in the Arctic. Join us in the discussion!

Follow the link above for the program and more information.

The event will be in English.

International Glaciological Society Global Seminar #25:

Speaking: Richard Alley, Penn State University: "Here Be Dragons... Exploring the Long Tail of Sea-Level Rise".

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 second Arctic Resilience Forum will be held online as a series of ten weekly webinars launching on October 7, 2020. Each session touches on a specific aspect of Arctic resilience, ranging from food security and Indigenous youth leadership, to gender, energy and connectivity. The forum seeks to actively engage participants in conversations about how to build resilience of Arctic communities and ecosystems. It offers the opportunity to discuss concrete best practices and experiences from the Council and the broader community of circumpolar experts and knowledge holders. The Arctic Resilience Forum aims to continue to strengthen cooperation on resilience work.

The Arctic Resilience Forum will be convened every Wednesday from 11:30am – 1:00pm (EST) over a series of ten weeks, beginning October 7, 2020. The online series seeks to engage a broad audience in conversations about how to build the resilience of Arctic communities and ecosystems across a variety of focus areas, including:

• October 7: Indigenous Youth Leadership
• October 14: Food Security
• October 21: Renewable Energy
• October 28: Human Health and Pandemics
• November 11: Broadband Connectivity
• November 18: Gender
• November 25: Socio-Ecological Resilience
• December 9: Infrastructure
• December 16: Respecting Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Systems

Follow the link above to learn more, register, and to get updates for the whole Arctic Resilience Forum series. Individual session pages will open up with registration for specific events approximately one week in advance. Russian language translation will be available for all session.

Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC) will be presenting the 2020 Fall Fire Science Workshop Online in association with the Alaska Wildland Fire Coordinating Group Interagency Fall Fire Review (October 19-23).

Agenda:

8:30 Welcome and AFSC updates - Sarah Trainor, Alison York, and Zav Grabinski, AFSC (15 min)
8:45 Overwintering fires in boreal North America - R. Scholten, R. Jandt, E. Miller, B. Rogers, S. Veraverbeke, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
9:05 When does a lightning strike start a fire in Alaska? - T. Hessilt, G. van der Werf, R. Scholten, S. Veraverbeke, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
9:25 Break
9:40 Fire Occurrence Prediction – An Example from British Columbia - Steve Taylor, Canadian Forest Service
10:00 McKinley fire video - Jen Schmidt, UAA
10:15 Wrap up and Evaluation - Alison York, AFSC
10:30 Adjourn

This webinar series is designed to increase transparency of the Arctic Science Ministerial science process and to provide additional opportunities for scientists, Indigenous Peoples and Arctic research stakeholders to further engage with the science and proposed actions leading up to the Third Arctic Science Ministerial in Tokyo, Japan in May 2021. The webinar series is a joint cooperation between the ASM3 Organizers in Iceland and Japan and the European Polar Board.

Each webinar will be shared afterwards on the European Polar Board YouTube page and a written summary will be made available on the ASM3 website.

This event is a two-part series. The first event will cover "History of Indigenous Communities in the Arctic", the second event topic is "Cogeneration of Knowledge and Examples in the Arctic".

Kaare Ray Sikuaq Erickson is the Outreach and Engagement Manager for UIC Science/Battelle ARO (Arctic Research Operations) in Utqiaġvik, Alaska. Kaare was raised along the Bering Sea coast in Savoonga, St. Michaels, and Unalakleet. Kaare’s parents and community taught him to provide for his community through subsistence and leadership. His upbringing taught him to be aware of problems facing Arctic communities and to find creative, realistic, and effective ways to alleviate or solve these issues. Kaare spent over a decade immersed in Arctic anthropological projects (cultural, historical, and archaeological) working for the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center, UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research and other entities. Kaare’s unique upbringing, his expertise in cross-cultural communication, and his deep knowledge of Arctic history allows him to fulfill his role as liaison to both Arctic communities and Arctic research entities.

Kaare has taken a leading role as cultural broker between Arctic communities and stakeholders in U.S. Arctic research. This role requires a clear understanding of the U.S. scientific agenda by representing the Iñupiat at research gatherings (conferences, symposiums, presentations, etc.) and engaging in meaningful communication with scientists, institutions, and funding agencies. Kaare is also responsible for relaying news, information, findings and intentions regarding the U.S. scientific agenda back to Arctic communities; as well as to gather, translate, and share feedback from these communities back to scientists to foster reciprocal communication.

Follow the link above to register.