Past Events

Presenter: Richard Thoman, Climate Science and Services Manager, NWS Alaska Region

Seminar Sponsor: Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy
Point of Contact: accap [at] uaf.edu

Remote access, register at:
https://accap.uaf.edu/NWS_Briefings

Abstract: This webinar will review recent conditions and current state of the climate system in and near Alaska and the status of important global climate drivers, review guidance available for the monthly and seasonal scale outlooks and finish up with the official outlooks by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

About the Speaker: Richard Thoman works as the Climate Science and Services Manager, for NWS Alaska Region Headquarters. He works closely with NOAA line offices and partners throughout Alaska providing information on climate monitoring, analysis and forecasting at the two week to one year time frame.

Join us for a PolarConnect event with teacher Eric Thuma and Dr. Jim Madsen from the Antarctic Neutron Monitoring Program from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Read more about the research and what Eric and the team are learning here:

https://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/antarctic-neutron-monitors-for-so…

This event is not hosted by PolarTREC. To register please go to the PolarConnect link above.

Search and rescue (S&R) in cold waters is a short race against time. Low temperatures, poor visibility, and bad weather, as well as vast distances, conspire to make S&R operations challenging. Although ice floes can keep people afloat for longer periods, and modern communication systems means there is less search and more rescue, even with the best survival gear the odds are decidedly poorer than in warmer waters. With the advent of dramatically reduced summer ice coverage, human activity in the Arctic Ocean ranging from petroleum exploration and drilling to shipping and cruise traffic is set to increase significantly. Mass rescue operations (MROs) must be handled differently in the Arctic, and to understand how the risk of a large accident in this sparsely populated area should be assessed one must draw on the understanding of the weather conditions, the changing climate, and the limited resources available in this region.

Conference topics will include:

• Aquaculture in the high north in time of change
• The new Arctic in the global context
• Resilient Arctic societies and industrial development
• Circumpolar safety, search, and rescue collaboration

Abstract submission deadline: 19 September 2017.

Abstract submission for the 14th Conference on Polar Meteorology and Oceanography, held as part of the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is now open. Submissions on all aspects of polar weather, climate, and oceanography are being solicited. The conference will include invited and contributed oral and poster presentations, joint sessions between other relevant AMS conferences, and activities for early career polar scientists on behalf of the Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). Participation from students is especially encouraged, as we will be awarding first and second place prizes for both oral and poster presentations given by students, as well as four student travel awards to partially offset registration and travel expenses.

The abstract deadline is August 1 2016.

For further information and a link to submit an abstract, see the Call for Papers at:
https://annual.ametsoc.org/2017/index.cfm/programs/conferences-and-symp…

Or feel free to contact the Program Chair:
Dr. Ryan Fogt
fogtr at ohio.edu

Organizers announce a call for abstracts for the Arctic Frontiers Science Conference entitled "White Space - Blue Frontiers".

Arctic Frontiers is an international arena on sustainable development in the Arctic. The conference addresses the management of opportunities and
challenges to achieve viable economic growth with societal and environmental sustainability. Arctic Frontiers 2017 will discuss the gaps in our knowledge about the Arctic oceans and the role these will play in the future.

The science section will address four main themes:

• Bridging physical and biological processes in the Arctic Ocean
• Pushing back the Frontiers: New approaches, new technologies, and new insights
• Future Fisheries
• Managing risk in policymaking and law

The call for papers is now open. All abstracts will be reviewed by members of the four scientific committees for rating of abstract quality and presentation content.

Deadline for abstract submission: Tuesday, 20 September 2016

For further information about the conference, go to the Arctic Frontiers secretariat website.

The purpose of the meeting is:

• To present and discuss new results on observations and modeling of the dynamics and mass budget of Arctic glaciers, including the Greenland ice sheet
• To plan and coordinate field work on Arctic glaciers with the aim of using the available infrastructure and logistics in the most efficient way
• To develop ideas for future projects and collaboration

The meeting is open to everyone interested in Arctic glaciology. We particularly welcome contributions to our special sessions. Special session on atmosphere-glacier interactions include:

• Regional patterns of atmospheric warming and links to changes in atmospheric circulation over the Arctic
• Firn processes and implications on glacier-mass balance / mass-balance assessments

Special session on glacier–ocean interactions include:

• Process studies on glacier calving/frontal ablation
• Frontal-ablation results for selected glaciers or regions
• The importance of subaqueous melt for frontal ablation and link to ocean temperatures
• Glacial freshwater runoff and effects on fjord/ocean circulation and the marine ecosystem

The latter special session will feature a workshop session led by Luke Copland, University of Ottawa,on the importance of calving (frontal ablation) for the mass budget of Arctic glaciers. This session follows up activities initiated at the IASC workshop in Poland, Sopot, 15-17 October 2016, with the aim to derive a consistent pan-Arctic frontal-ablation estimate for the period 2000-2015.

Registration deadline is December 05, 2016.

For more information about the workshop please visit our website.

The 2017 Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS), Alaska’s premier marine research conference, will take place on January 23-27, 2017. AMSS brings together scientists, educators, resource managers, students, and interested public to discuss the latest and greatest marine research being conducted in Alaskan waters. Research will be presented by geographic theme, including the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands, and the Arctic. Topic areas will include ocean physics, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, local traditional knowledge and more. Keynote presentations will be held Monday, January 23rd; Gulf of Alaska presentations will be on Tuesday, Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands on Wednesday, followed by the Arctic on Thursday.

Registration ends January 18, 2017

We will convene a 1 1/2 day workshop at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in January 2017 (directly following PARCA 2017), with the purpose of defining a path forward for a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observation network in Greenland. There are many means for determining Greenland ice mass loss, but almost all rely on some form of satellite positioning, generally using GNSS or its subset Global Positioning System (GPS). Thus a network of geodetic-quality GNSS receivers is desirable.

Such a network already exists in the form of GNET, a joint US/Danish network of GPS receivers. Existing funding for GNET is drawing to a close, and the future of the network remains uncertain. Thus it is important to bring the various stakeholders and potential users of these data together to define the system requirements and the path forward.

If you are interested in attending, register now! There is no fee for this workshop, and for those in need there is a small amount of travel funding available.

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

Presenters: Sheekela Baker-Yeboah, Ph.D. NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI

Sponsor: NOAA NESDIS National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) Arctic Team (NCEI.Arctic.Actions [at] noaa.gov). NCEI Arctic Action Team's webpage: https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/arcticteam.html

Remote Access:
Phone: 1-877-725-4068 (8634769#); limited to 25 callers on a first come first served basis.
For webcast access go to:
http://www.mymeetings.com/nc/join.php?i=744868915&p=science&t=c

Abstract: The Arctic Data Center is a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded archive for Arctic scientific data and information (see https://arcticdata.io/). It is a national partnership, led by the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California Santa Barbara, in collaboration with NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and the NSF-funded Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE). NCEI (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/) are responsible for hosting and providing access to one of the most significant archives on earth for ocean, atmosphere, and geophysical data. NCEI was formed in 2015 as the merger of the former NOAA National Oceanographic Data Center, National Climatic Data Center, and National Geophysical Data Center.

Join us for a webcast event with teacher Josh Heward & Dr. Byron Adams from the Tough Tardigrades team in McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Read more about the research and what Josh and the team are learning here:

https://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/tough-tardigrades

This event is hosted by PolarTREC. To register please go to the PolarConnect link above.

Save the date for the first Toolik All Scientists Meeting. The goal of this meeting is to promote collaboration and synthesis among researchers working at Toolik Field Station and others working on Alaska's North Slope. It is an opportunity to think broadly about exciting science questions, present your research and learn what others are doing, and develop plans for collaborating on research and synthesis. The first day of the All Scientists meeting will be devoted to research presentations (a mix of oral presentations and posters). The second day will be devoted to planning for research and synthesis.

Information on registration, poster submissions, and travel will be coming soon.

Organizers announce a call for abstract submissions to the 31st Wakefield Fisheries Symposium, entitled "Impacts of a Changing Environment on the Dynamics of High-latitude Fish and Fisheries." The symposium will take place 9-12 May 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska.

This symposium examines the impacts of the environment, especially climate change and variability, on the dynamics of arctic and subarctic species of commercial, subsistence, and ecological importance. We will focus on the effects of warming, loss of sea ice, ocean acidification, and oceanographic variability on the distribution, phenology, life history, population dynamics, and interactions of these species and how a better understanding of these effects can inform the assessment and management of fish and invertebrate populations in a changing ocean for the benefit of affected communities.

Abstracts for oral presentations and posters are invited from fishery, marine, and social scientists as well as managers, industry, and representatives of affected communities.

Extended abstract submission deadline: Monday, 30 January 2017.

Jointly organized by the Polar Climate Predictability Initiative (WCRP-PCPI; http://www.climate-cryosphere.org/wcrp/pcpi), the Polar Prediction Project (WWRP-PPP; http://www.polarprediction.net), and the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN; https://www.arcus.org/sipn), the workshop will be hosted by the International Coordination Office for Polar Prediction at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany and will convene 27-30 March 2017.

The workshop will build on a series of international workshops held in Boulder, USA (2014), Reading, UK (2015) and Palisades, USA (2016). As in previous years, the focus will be on environmental prediction in the polar regions on a wide range of timescales, thereby helping to build a "seamless" polar prediction community. Sea ice will again play a central role, with one desired outcome being the compilation of recommendations for the 2017 Sea Ice Outlook season. However, the workshop also aims to stimulate discussion on other interesting predict ands of the polar weather and climate system.

The focus of this workshop will be environmental prediction in the polar regions on subseasonal to interannual timescales. Sea ice prediction will also be a main focus, with a desired outcome being the compilation of recommendations for the 2017 Sea Ice Outlook season. In planning for the Year of Polar Prediction, officially launching in May 2017, this workshop aims to stimulate discussion about other relevant predictions of the polar weather and climate system.

A call for abstracts will be open 4-30 January 2017.

Abstract submission deadline: 30 January 2017.

Workshop Organizers:
Cecilia Bitz, Helge Gosling, Kirstin Werner,
Ed Blanchard-Wrigglesworth, Ed Hawkins, and John Fyfe

The exciting topic of Marine Turbulence will be revisited for the 3rd time during “Marine Turbulence Re-visited” as the 49th Liège Colloquium in 2017 in Liège, Belgium.

As already in 2007, the workshop will be co-organised together with the Warnemünde Turbulence Days (its 8th edition), a biennial workshop on specific challenges in marine turbulence, organised by the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde, Germany.

From decade to decade enormous progress is achieved in our understanding of marine turbulence. A major trigger of this progress is the technological development of oceanic instrumentation, numerical modeling and theory. For the instruments, higher sampling rates, larger data storages and faster data processing facilities generally allow for better resolution but do also open perspectives for novel mechanical, acoustical and optical devices. For the numerical modeling, steadily growing computer resources allow for substantially more complex models and higher resolution than a decade ago. The theory of marine turbulence has further developed towards concepts linking small-scale turbulence, internal waves, surface waves, and (sub)meso-scale dynamics. Tight collaboration between marine and atmospheric scientists in all these fields has substantially triggered progress in the field of geophysical turbulence.

Combining the historically broad approach of the Liège Colloquium with the specialized Warnemünde Turbulence Days, this joint venture will concentrate on five focal topics:

• Turbulence-wave-interaction
• Turbulence-(sub)mesoscale interaction
• Turbulence and the marine ecosystem
• Turbulence observations in the ocean
• Turbulence modelling in the ocean

Contributions to these focal topics as well as to related problems of marine turbulence are invited to the Liège Colloquium in 2017.

Further details (submission, registration, deadlines, venue, ...) are available on the web site.

Submission of abstracts deadline: 30th January 2017

We are looking forward to welcoming you in Liège in the name of the Organizing Committee.

Sincerely,
Jean-Marie Beckers, Ulg, Belgium
Hans Burchard, IOW, Germany
Carsten Eden, UH, Germany
Lars Umlauf, IOW, Germany

Organizers of the 15th Annual Climate Prediction Application Science Workshop (CPASW) announce a call for abstracts. The theme of this workshop is "Understanding Extreme Events and Decision-Maker Needs in the Context of Climate Variability and Change" and will convene 2-4 May 2017 in Anchorage, Alaska.

The 2017 CPASW will be hosted by the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Services Branch, the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP), and other climate services partners. It will bring together climate researchers, service producers, decision-makers, and other users to accelerate developments in the research and applications of climate information for societal decision-making.

Focus areas for this workshop include:

• Climate information applications at local, regional, and global scales related to preparedness and management for weather and climate extremes
• Climate services for coastal and indigenous communities in high-latitude areas, including the Arctic
• Best practices of observing, documenting, and communicating climate information relevant for national, tribal and international collaborations
• Service delivery coordination and decision support for planning, resource allocation, sustainable development, and environmental management needed for building resilient communities.

Short-term climate variability and long-term climate change as well as attribution science are cross-cutting concerns for all of these focus areas, especially in preparedness activities for extreme events and supporting critical decision-making for several socio-economic sectors.

Organizers invite abstracts that address the use of climate data and products including monitoring, predictions, and projections in all of the focus areas listed above, particularly for extreme events. Papers highlighting best practices in the areas of communication and outreach, decision support tools, and preparedness methods for advancing societal adaptation are also invited. The target audience for this workshop includes planners, managers, practitioners, researchers, service providers, and tribal environmental coordinators and leaders dealing with climate-related challenges.

Extended abstract submission deadline: Tuesday, 31 January 2017.

For more information or to submit an abstract, go to the link above.

For more information, contact:
Jenna Meyers
Email: Jenna.Meyers [at] noaa.gov
Phone: 301-427-9113

Tina Buxbaum
Email: tmbuxbaum [at] alaska.edu
Phone: 907-474-7812

The Joint Science Education Project (JSEP) and the Joint Antarctic School Expedition (JASE) invite high school students in their junior year to apply for two National Science Foundation (NSF)-supported polar science exploration programs. The JSEP project will take place in Greenland and the JASE project will be located in Antarctica and the Chilean Antarctic Institute in Chile.

The three-week JSEP program takes place entirely in Greenland. Participants from the United States, Denmark, and Greenland live and work together while exploring current research and completing their own inquiry-based investigations. The program includes two weeks of extensive field experiences near Kangerlussuaq and a final week with a visit to Summit Station, the U.S. research facility located at the top of the Greenland ice sheet.

The one- to two-week JASE program takes place in King George Island, Antarctica. Students from the United States join a Chilean high school expedition to Escudero Base on King George Island. The program includes visits to international research stations and field sites in Antarctica as well as the Chilean Antarctic Institute in the Patagonia region of Chile. JASE participants must be fluent in Spanish.

Both programs provide an opportunity for students to connect with polar scientists as they conduct research in a wide variety of fields including biology, geology, climatology, chemistry, and engineering. The successful candidates will also have significant hands-on experiences in field research under the guidance of professional teachers from the participating nations.

JSEP and JASE are open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents in the 11th grade at the time of application. Students may apply for one or both programs using the same application. NSF's Division of Polar Programs covers all costs, including food, transportation, lodging, and instruction for students selected to participate.

Application deadline: 31 January 2017.

For additional information and application materials, go to the link above.

For questions, contact:
Lauren Culler
Email: Lauren.E.Culler [at] dartmouth.edu

The 2nd Asian Conference on Permafrost (ACOP2017) will take place on 2-6 July, in Sapporo, Japan. The conference is hosted by the International Permafrost Association (IPA) and covers all aspects of frozen ground – both permafrost and seasonal frost – and its related natural and technological topics. The proposed sessions are as listed below:

• Periglacial Geomorphology
• Ground ice dynamics
• Mountain permafrost and geohazards
• Permafrost eco-hydrology
• Permafrost mapping and techniques
• Climate change and the carbon balance in permafrost
• Frozen ground physics
• Frozen ground engineering
• Asian frozen ground
• Paleo-permafrost
• Extrazonal permafrost and seasonal frost
• Living and working on frozen ground: cultural and historical significance of permafrost
• Outreach/education, history

Also we will offer options of pre- and post-conference field excursions as follows (dependent on the numbers of participants).

• Daisetsu Mountains, Japan
• Artificially frozen ground sites, Tokyo and Fukushima-daiichi nuclear power plant
• Mongolia
• Kamchatka Peninsula
• Northeast China
• Mt Fuji, Japan

For more details, please visit our website.

Registration and abstract submission are already open until the 31 January, 2017.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact by email: acop2017 [at] arc.hokudai.ac.jp

We look forward to see you in Sapporo in summer 2017!

Organizers of the 3rd Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) International Online Conference 2017 announce a call for
abstract submissions. This year's theme is entitled, "Outside the Box: Encouraging alternative solutions for undertaking and communicating polar research."

Organizers are seeking abstracts for short 10-minute presentations that relate this year's theme of encouraging alternative solutions for undertaking and communicating polar research. As a new generation of polar researchers stepping up to the plate, new and innovative polar challenges must be embraced.

The ability to successfully address such challenges and steer the polar world in a positive direction has far-reaching local, regional, and global consequences. Researchers should venture "outside the box" of the ideas that previous generations of polar researchers have left in order to overcome the severity of polar challenges. New ideas regarding international and interagency collaborations, idea-sharing between poles, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to research, technology and the ability to modify and develop it to suit needs, affordable methods of research, and improved ways of communicating scientific and social research are needed. To this end, APECS is working to foster the sharing of alternative solutions for undertaking and communicating polar research.

Abstracts are now open! We would love to hear your alternative solutions for undertaking and communicating polar research via a punchy 10 minute online powerpoint presentation, with 5 minutes for questions.

Extended abstract submission deadline: 11:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, Tuesday, 31 January 2017.

Each year we select expedition teams of 8-9 teenage girls and 3 instructors to spend 12 days exploring and learning about glaciers and the alpine or marine environment. Through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists, ecologists, artists, and mountaineers, you will build critical thinking skills, gain self-confidence, and make lasting friendships. One team explores Mount Baker, an ice-covered volcano in the North Cascades of Washington State. Another team sleeps under the midnight sun while exploring an Alaskan glacier. Our third team explores the connections between glacier and ocean by kayak in Resurrection Bay, near Seward, AK.

FOR ALL EXPEDITIONS, YOU MUST BE EITHER 16 OR 17 YEARS OLD ON JUNE 1, 2017.

To be fair to all girls, we do not make exceptions to the age limitations. We realize that there are very mature 15 year old girls who would do fine in the program or that by luck you might turn 18 just days before the deadline; however, we have decided it is only fair to be firm with the advertised age limits.

Follow the link above to learn more about the application process.

The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average, experienced rapid loss of sea ice, and collapse of warm season snow cover. These profound changes to the Arctic system have coincided with a period of ostensibly more frequent events of extreme weather across the mid-latitudes, including extreme heat and rainfall events and recent severe winters.

Join us in this workshop to explore the possible links between Arctic change and mid-latitude weather and climate​ that has spurred a rush of new observational and modeling studies.

The deadline to apply and submit an abstract is September 7.

Learn more by following the link above.

The workshop is co-sponsored by US CLIVAR, the NSF Arctic Natural Sciences Program, and the WWRP Polar Prediction Project.