Past Events

The CliC Arctic Sea Ice Working Group has held three past workshops (2009 - 2011) bringing together some of the world's leading sea ice researchers to develop, standardize and implement measurement protocols and to integrate observation and modeling. Since 2011 CliC, together with SCAR, strives to integrate sea-ice modeling and observation activities in the Southern Ocean through ASPeCt. This workshop for 30 researchers from around the world will include specialists working on sea-ice modeling, observations, remote sensing and forecasting.

Workshop goals include:

• To establish optimal linkages between international groups involved in sea ice modeling, observations, data assimilation, prediction and service provision;
• To find avenues for future research efforts that are most productive for addressing the gaps in knowledge and weaknesses in our ability to observe sea ice, generate sea-ice data products and strengthen sea-ice modeling capabilities; and
• To outline observational needs for sea-ice models.

Projected outcomes include:

• A review of the current state-of-the-art research, gaps and advances in sea-ice observations, modeling, data assimilation and prediction;
• Action items with identified partners on how to coordinate overlapping interests, close gaps in knowledge, and enhance networking between groups; and
• A compendium of sea-ice issues to be discussed with the wider climate community in the third meeting under this proposal.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks announces that applications are now being accepted for an 18-day three-credit summer field course entitled "The 2013 Arctic Vegetation Ecology." The course will be taught at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, the Toolik field station, and remote locations in northern Alaska 6-23 June 2013.

The course is appropriate for vegetation scientists and botanists, as well as students interested in an overview of the Arctic, its ecosystems, and its role in contemporary discussions of climate change and land-use change. An interdisciplinary approach will examine vegetation, soils, permafrost, geology, land-use and climate-change issues in a wide variety of habitats and settings along the climate gradient. Students will learn methods of vegetation, soil, and environmental sampling required for vegetation analysis.

The course will be offered through the Summer Sessions program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is limited to ten students. The cost of meals, lodging and travel between the field sites is included in the course fee. Students are expected to pay for their travel to Fairbanks and meals while in Fairbanks.

A $500 non-refundable deposit is required within one week of acceptance the course. Final payment is due 6 May 2013.

Contributions are invited on the following topics:

• From visual data interpretation to semiautomatic and automatic procedures in an archaeological perspective
• Remote sensing, GIS, and geospatial analysis for the risk monitoring and management of cultural resources
• Integration of space/airborne and ground remote sensing in archaeogeophysics
• The "LiDAR revolution" - SAR applications for archaeology and palaeonvironmental studies
• Interactions between environment and human civilizations in the past: which approach by using remote sensing? * Geographic information and earth observation technologies for the protection and management of cultural resources in emerging countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
• Low cost technologies
• From remote sensing to virtual reconstruction: the study of human past

Methodology keywords include: cellular automata spatial modeling; change detection; classification; data fusion; data integration; data mining; edge detection; geomatics; geostatistics; geovisual analytics; image interpretation; image processing; linear and non linear statistical analysis; pansharpening; pattern recognition; segmentation; site catchment analysis; space-temporal modeling; spatial autocorrelation; spatial multicriteria decision analysis; spatial statistical models; viewshed analysis; visual exploratory data analysis; wavelet.

The workshop focuses on the impact of our climate on coastal zones and inland waters, on climate change and its expected effects on European seas, and on the role of remote sensing for its study. Topics include:

• Changing terrestrial run-off into coastal waters
• Escalation of extreme coastal events: floods, storms, high tides
• Hydrology and water budget evolution of rivers and lakes
• Increasing temperatures in inland and coastal waters
• Impact of varying physical forcing on morphodynamics and ecosystems
• New developments of habitats, biodiversity and alien invaders
• Fluxes and fate of seawater constituents, including pollutants
• Role of Coastal Zone Management in adapting to climate change

Topics involving investigation with remote sensing include:

• Active and passive methods in all spectral ranges, sensor combinations
• Satellite, airborne and ground-based methods including ground truth
• Modeling of radiative transfer, image processing and related aspects
• Interaction of physical, biological and chemical conditions and processes
• Ocean color remote sensing for coastal and inland waters

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists in conjunction with Congressman Sam Farr and responders will highlight how they access and interpret science to keep communities safe and commerce moving through a hypothetical California-based scenario impacting a National Marine Sanctuary, walking participants through each step of the response. The scenario will cover: oil spill response, marine debris tracking and removal, early Natural Resource Damage Assessment efforts, information management, and public involvement. There will be many opportunities for audience engagement and discussion.

The goal of this Chapman Conference is to bring together scholars, social scientists, and journalists to discuss both the history and recent advances in the understanding of climate science and how to communicate that science to policymakers, the media, and society. A research agenda of the conference will focus on the efficacy of scientific communication, with ideas on improved practices arising as an outcome from collaborations spawned at the conference.

This exploration will take place through: 1) discussions covering the history of climate science and successes and failures in communicating scientific ideas to the policy makers and public; 2) an assessment of where we are with respect to current knowledge of climate science and its communication and acceptance by society; 3) a comparison with experiences in other areas producing similar difficulties between scientific knowledge dissemination, societal acceptance of that knowledge, and governance.

Organizers announce that the 22nd International Conference on Port and Ocean Engineering under Arctic Conditions (POAC '13) will be held 9-13 June 2013, at the Aalto University campus in Espoo, Finland.

POAC conferences began in 1971 and have been held every two years at different international venues. Over the years, POAC has been the mainstay of arctic engineering conferences and typically attracts over 150 participants to each conference.

The abstracts for the conference can be sent through the conference homepage (https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/POAC13/HOME). The deadline for the abstracts is Friday, 30 November 2012. The authors of the accepted abstracts will be informed of the acceptance by end of December 2012.

Abstract submission deadline: Friday, 30 November 2012.

Umea University announces the availability of a residential PhD course entitled 'Community Adaptation to Climate Change in the North.' It will be held 10-14 June 2013, and located outside of Umea, Sweden.

The course focuses on the social science aspects of adaptation to climate change, based in a community context. The course discusses and problematizes social vulnerability and community adaptation literature, theoretical relevance and usability of an adaptation perspective, and relevant methodologies for community adaptation research. During the course, a specific focus will be placed on cases from the circumpolar north for reference, but students from all regions are invited to apply.

The residential stay may be supplemented by preparatory coursework and the submission of a final essay after the course. For students who are accepted, costs for lodging and board will be covered (students need to cover their own travel). There are no additional fees for international students.

Application deadline: Friday, 1 March 2013.

The Antarctic Meteorological Research Center (AMRC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announces the 8th Antarctic Meteorological Observing, Modeling, and Forecasting Workshop (AMOMFW). It will be held 10-12 June 2013, at the University of Wisconsin's Pyle Center in Madison, Wisconsin. There will be an informal icebreaker on 9 June.

This workshop brings together those with research and operational/logistical interests in Antarctic meteorology and forecasting and related disciplines. As in the past, the annual activities and status of the observing (e.g. Automatic Weather Stations) and modeling (Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System) efforts will be addressed, and feedback and results from their user communities will be solicited. More broadly, this workshop also is a forum for current results and ideas in Antarctic meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and weather forecasting from contributors around the world. There will be discussions on the relationships among international efforts and Antarctic forecasting, logistical support, and science. Papers and posters on these topics are welcomed.

There will be three Arctic Council workshops from 10th and 14th of June:

10-11 June (2 days) – 3rd Ecosystem Approach to Management workshop. The overall aim of this workshop is to discuss data management, availability, integration, and communications as essential to implement the ecosystem approach to management, taking into account outcomes of the Ministerial meeting and EA.

12-13 June (1 ½ day, ending at noon on the 13 June) – AMSA II(C)/AMSA II(D)-PSSA bridging workshop with the aim to assist in the scope of the AMSA II(D) project, The purpose of this workshop is to explore the sensitivity and ecological importance in more detail and with more resolution, in relation to potential threats and measures with regard to shipping.

13-14 June (1 ½ day starting at noon on the 13 June) – 1st Scoping workshop for the revision of the 2004 Arctic Marine Strategic Plan with the aim to get input from other Arctic Council working groups and stakeholders as relevant and based on the main outcomes and relevant documents deliverd to the 2013 Kiruna Ministerial meeting.

The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) will host a webinar entitled "Responses of Marine Mammals to Environmental Changes in the Arctic" on Tuesday, 11 June 2013 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. AKDT. The webinar will be presented by Kathy Huntington, Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services (AVPS).

Climate variability and change pose several threats to marine mammals across the Arctic. Potential impacts include alterations in pathogen pathways, effects on body condition due to shifts in the food web, and changes in toxicant exposures. The lack of integrated long-term data on health, diseases, and toxicant effects in arctic marine mammals severely limits our ability to predict the effects of climate change on marine mammal health. During this presentation, the observed and anticipated impacts to marine mammals to environmental changes will be discussed, including the unusual mortality event that occurred in seals and walrus in northern Alaska in 2011. Data and information for understanding marine mammal health in the Arctic will also be discussed.

To register for the webinar, please fill out the form available at: http://ine.uaf.edu/accap//teleconference.htm#register.

For questions, please contact:
Tina Buxbaum
Phone: 907-474-7812
Email: tmbuxbaum [at] alaska.edu

Organizers for the North Atlantic Forum 2013, entitled "Rural Tourism - Challenges in Changing Times: Community, Experience, Economy, and Environment," announce a call for papers. The conference will be held 13-15 June 2013 in Holar in Hjaltadalur, Iceland.

This conference will explore the challenges, practices of and the opportunities in smart and sustainable rural tourism. The program will address the rural tourism development challenges through four themes:

• Community
• Experience
• Economy
• The Environment

The conference will feature discussions, presentations, workshops, and tours, as well as plenty of informal and networking opportunities. Organizers invite papers from community practitioners, academics, consultants, government policy advisors, and others.

Abstract submission deadline: Tuesday, 15 January 2015.

On May 10, 2013, the President signed the National Strategy for the Arctic Region. At that time - recognizing that successful implementation of the National Strategy will depend upon productive collegial engagement with Alaska Natives, the State of Alaska, Members of Alaska's congressional delegation, and other key stakeholders - the White House announced that it would host initial meetings in Alaska in June to discuss how best to move forward. Please join us for a roundtable moderated by Fran Ulmer, Chair of the US Arctic Research Commission.

Participants include:

• Nancy Sutley (Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality)
• Kathy Sullivan (Acting Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
• David Hayes (Deputy Secretary of the Interior)
• Tommy P. Beaudreau (Director, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)
• Rear Admiral Thomas Ostebo (U.S. Coast Guard)
• Ambassador David Balton (Department of State)
• Tony Ceraolo (Director, Maritime Security & Director, Arctic Region Policy, National Security Staff)
• Brendan P. Kelly (Assist. Director, Polar Science, Office of Science & Technology Policy, EOP)

For further information, please contact: Brendan P. Kelly (bkelly [at] ostp.eop.gov, 202-456-6056) or Fran Ulmer (fran.ulmer [at] arctic.gov).

As always, we welcome presentations on all aspects of ice shelf research, including, but not limited to:

• Formation, flow and disintegration of ice shelves
• Response of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers to past, present and future climate variability
• Surface and basal mass balance of ice shelves
• Ice‐ocean interaction at the calving front of ice shelves and tidewater glaciers
• Mass transport across the grounding line
• Ocean circulation and water mass transformation beneath ice shelves and within pro‐glacial fjords
• Impact of ice shelves on the global ocean
• Processes controlling the delivery of ocean heat to glaciated coastlines
• Climate records from on or near current or former ice shelves

The deadline for registration is 20th May 2013. Although we would appreciate an early indication of your intentions to present work, you can submit abstracts up to 10th June 2013.

We look forward to welcoming you to mid-Wales in June. In the meantime, if there are any questions please email me (ajen [at] bas.ac.uk) or Penny Goodearl (peod [at] bas.ac.uk) or (preferably) both of us.

Airborne lidar measurements are in widespread use for mapping changes of ice sheets and glaciers. With developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and terrestrial lidar, and novel photon counting techniques for both airborne and satellite applications, lidar measurements will continue to be a key tool for ice sheet and glacier monitoring, and measurement of sea ice properties. The 2-day workshop is aimed to bring together specialists from major airborne lidar campaigns, such as NASA-IceBridge and the ESA-Cryosat validation programs, regional or national glacier mapping teams using research or commercial systems, and scientists and engineers developing novel laser technologies for airborne and space use, to exchange experience and presenting novel trends in lidar developments.

Scientists and engineers with interest in present and future application for mapping snow and ice are encouraged to come to the workshop and present their current research and development.

The workshop will be held at Reykholt, W-Iceland, June 20–21 (1½ day, Thursday, Friday, arrival in the afternoon on Wednesday 19 June will be most suitable for foreign participants). An optional excursion on snow scooters onto the nearby Langjökull ice cap is planned for the afternoon of June 21.

Deadline: April 15 – abstract, registration and lodging. To register, please send an e-mail to lidar2013 [at] vedur.is indicating whether you plan to give oral or poster presentation, whether you intend to participate in the excursion, and whether you arrive on June 19 or 20. A block booking of rooms has been made at the Reykholt hotel. Potential participants are encouraged to register early due to limited number of hotel rooms.

The workshop is sponsored by SVALI – Nordic Center of Excellence (Stability and Variability of Arctic Land Ice, www.ncoe-svali.org).

Graduate and undergraduate students and high aptitude high school seniors are invited to participate in the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) 2013 summer programs and expedition training in interdisciplinary arctic and mountain earth system science, which will be conducted 21 June to 16 August on the Juneau ice field located in Alaska and British Columbia and Yukon Territory, Canada.

The program offers earth system sciences education and field training to students and scientists through field research and classroom training including lectures on natural sciences such as glaciology, geology, climatology, meteorology, biology, and ecology. Students will participate in JIRP's long-running mass balance and surface elevation surveys. The program provides training in backcountry skiing, glacier travel, and crevasse rescue.

Participating students may earn academic credits through the University of Alaska Southeast.

Application deadline: 15 April 2013.

Contact: Jeffery Kavanaough
Email: jeff.kavanaugh [at] ualberta.ca
Phone: 780-492-1740

The inaugural Transantarctic Mountains Science Meeting will be held at the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis, MN. The purpose of the meeting is to allow for annual interaction amongst and within the varied group of established and young scientists of any background with interests in Transantarctic Mountains (TAM). The meeting is structured to facilitate:

• high profile invited synthesis talks,
• short three minute descriptions of recent results,
• determination of grand scientific challenges,
• only one concurrent oral session to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange,
• ample time for exchange of ideas and planning for future research and collaborations,
• planning of future campaigns and shared field sites.

The Polar Geospatial Center, located on campus of University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, is providing the local organizational support. The scientific program and overall lead will be provided by the planning committee: Chair - Jaakko Putkonen (University of North Dakota); members - Nick Golledge (University of Wellington, NZ), Erik Gulbranson (University of Wisconsin Milwaukee), Audrey Huerta (Central Washington University), Chui Lau (Princeton University), Melissa Nigro (University of Colorado, Boulder), and Eric Sokol (Virginia Polytechnic Institute).

Please register on the website. We can accommodate and support approximately 80 attendees. If you plan on attending and need support please sign up right away as the meeting may fill up quickly and the support will run out. All information including: FAQ, Shackleton campsite information, last year’s workshop summary, this year’s meeting agenda, etc. can be found at the following website http://tamcamp.org/.

For More Information Contact:
Jaakko Putkonen, Ph.D., Transantarctic Mountains Science Meeting Chair
Assistant Professor, Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering
University of North Dakota
Grand Forks, ND 58202
Email: tamscience [at] und.edu
Tel: (701) -777- 3213
Fax: (701) -777- 4449

Hundreds of earth and space scientists, students, policymakers, and industry professionals will discuss key earth and space science topics that address challenges to our economy, national security, environment, and public safety. This meeting will focus on the science that helps inform policymakers' decisions related to energy, natural hazards, technology and infrastructure, climate, oceans, and the Arctic. The event is hosted by American Geophysical Union (AGU), a Washington, D. C.-based international nonprofit scientific association.

Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) was established in 2003 to promote geosciences and its application for the benefit of humanity, specifically in Asia and Oceania and with an overarching approach to global issues.

Asia- Oceania region is particularly vulnerable to natural hazards, accounting for almost 80% human lives lost globally. AOGS is deeply involved in addressing hazard related issues through improving our understanding of the genesis of hazards through scientific, social and technical approaches.

AOGS holds annual conventions providing a unique opportunity of exchanging scientific knowledge and discussion to address important geo-scientific issues among academia, research institution and public.

Recognizing the need of global collaboration, AOGS has developed good co-operation with other international geo-science societies and unions such as the European Geosciences Union (EGU), American Geophysical Union (AGU), International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), Japan Geo-science Union (JpGU), and Science Council of Asia (SCA).

The 10th Annual Meeting (AOGS 2013) is an excellent platform for the interaction of the conference delegates with exhibitors wishing to take advantage of the meeting to raise their profile with the Geosciences community. The exhibition will be located in the same room as the conference posters to maximize its value both to delegates and to exhibitors.

This is your opportunity to reach out to more than 1500 researchers, consultants, students to:

• Gain exposure to the rapidly growing geosciences community and delegates from around the world
• Be amongst the market leaders and key players in the Asia and Oceania regions
• Share and publicize innovative ideas and research tracks, new methods and concepts relating to the study of geosciences
• Acquire new clients and connect with geoscientists from the regions
• Be up and close with authors and business counterparts in the global geosciences community

The Melnikov Permafrost Institute announces that the Third Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists will be held 24 June - 13 July 2013 in Yakutsk, Russia.

The forum will include the Geocryological Conference held in Yakutsk from 24-27 June 2013 and the Field Workshop in the southern Verkhoyansk Mountains from 29 June to 13 July 2013. Young researchers--including undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows--are invited to attend. Forum themes include:

• Regional and historical geocryology
• Thermal regime of cryolythozone
• Periglacial processes and forms
• Landscape dynamics in permafrost regions
• Permafrost geochemistry
• Permafrost hydrology and hydrogeology
• Climate change and permafrost evolution
• Greenhouse gases and gas hydrates
• Permafrost microbiology
• Remote sensing of permafrost
• Stability of engineering structures on permafrost

The conference registration page is now available online (http://mpi.ysn.ru/index.php/en/registration.html), and abstracts are being accepted (http://mpi.ysn.ru/index.php/en/call-for-abstracts.html).