Past Events

This conference will be the next event in the series of polar conferences organized by the German Society for Polar Research (DGP
e.V.) every 2.5 years.

We will welcome contributions in all fields of polar and high mountain research. It is also planned to address the interested public by evening lectures and further events.

The 27th International Polar Conference 2018 will be taken place at the University of Rostock being the oldest university in the Baltic region. Furthermore, the Hanseatic City of Rostock will hold its 800th anniversary in 2018.

For the First Circular please follow the link above.

Further details will be published on the DGP website and in the Second Circular by mid-June 2017.

The 2017 GRC on Polar Marine Science "Understanding Polar Ecosystem Change Through Time Series Observations, Technological Advances, and Biophysical Coupled Modeling" will bring together leading investigators in Antarctic and Arctic marine research. Using a tradition of excellence facilitated by the Gordon Research Conferences (GRC), participants will present and discuss cutting edge interdisciplinary polar science observations, technological advancements and biophysical modeling activities associated with polar time series studies. The unique GRC format incorporates invited science talks by experts working at both poles, which are moderated by discussion leaders, and are followed by in-depth open discussion periods. We will have a highlight session daily for the afternoon poster session. The format of the GRC inspires scientists from different disciplines to synthesize new ideas and to brainstorm about the ongoing status and change in the polar oceans.

In both the Antarctic and Arctic, ecosystem variables such as sea ice dynamics, atmospheric and ocean exchange, biogeochemical cycles, food web dynamics, and sediment proxies have in the past and are currently responding to climate and environmental change. How the ecosystem is responding to ongoing stressors in the marine environment and devising appropriate modeling approaches to predict future change are important foci for polar science. The 11th GRC on Polar Marine Science will primarily discuss new findings and uncertainties in observing marine time series data, the use of developing technology for collecting those observations, and successes and challenges emerging from time series observations and biophysical modeling that can be used to accurately forecast future ecosystem response.

A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will occur the weekend prior to the 2017 Polar GRC to provide a forum for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists to present their work and interface with their peers and experts in variable disciplines. The major focus at the 2017 GRS will be on innovative marine technology including autonomous and remotely operated instruments, camera systems, advanced laboratory techniques, and numerical modeling. The early career scientists will present data and discuss how these technological advances improve the physical-biological understanding of polar marine ecosystems. Financial support will be offered in priority to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows attending both the GRC and the preceding GRS.

Interested persons must apply to participate in the seminar and conference. Those wanting to attend both, the seminar and conference, must apply to each separately. Early application is recommended, as the events will likely reach capacity. Refer to the application instructions on the website for more details.

Seminar abstract submission deadline: 25 December 2016
Seminar application deadline: 25 February 2017
Conference application deadline: 26 February 2017

The workshop will take place 28 May – 1 June, 2017 in Yakutsk (Siberia), Russian Federation.

Changing climate conditions are driving the recent intensification of the high–latitude water cycle. Permafrost degradation leads to a transformation of landscape structure causing thermokarst development, enhancing the connectivity between surface and ground water, changing the regime of wetlands, lakes and aquifers, shifting streamflow seasonality and amplitude. New understanding of those processes is required for timely development of adaptation strategies and preventing threats to cold regions worldwide, including economically critical infrastructure.

The Workshop will address the following research topics:

• Observational evidence of change in coupled snow-frozen ground-hydrology-ecology system
• Present state and future projections of local, regional and pan-Arctic and Antarctic hydrology
• Modelling studies representing landscape evolution, dynamics of water storage and permafrost degradation
• Impacts of cold-region hydrology changes on ecology and local communities

Objectives:

• Build research capacity of early career scientists
• Create and develop research linkages between UK and Russian Federation

Fully funded places for early career researchers based in UK and Russia (travel, accommodation and meals) are available on competitive basis.

Applications open now to early career researchers. Deadline is 26 March 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.

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 British Antarctic Survey, working with the University of Leeds and Royal Holloway, University of London, will be hosting a workshop on the future of polar governance. The timing of the conference is not coincidental – sixty years ago, the International Geophysical Year (1957-58) initiated the promise of global scientific and political co-operation in the polar regions and their connection to planet Earth. The International Polar Year (2007-8) followed up on that promissory note. The promise of mineral resources in the Arctic also unleashed global speculation about a so-called ‘Scramble for the Arctic’ with fears that conflict, not co-operation, would prevail.

In our workshop, we wish to consider what and where might the future of polar governance lie? International organizations and forums such as the Arctic Council and Antarctic Treaty System are highly significant actors but they do not enjoy a monopoly on polar governance. Newer actors such as China, the European Parliament, the Arctic Circle, commercial operators and high value celebrities and philanthropists are also part of the equation along with indigenous, first nations and aboriginal peoples living in the Arctic for millennia. Historically, colonial and Cold War-era encounters and interventions have had a decisive impact on contemporary polar governance.

Science, resources, and geopolitics often worked together and sometimes against one another: as scientific networks and knowledge exchange came into contact with the national security and economic priorities of governments and the interests and wishes of communities. More recently, fears have been expressed about the role that ‘great powers’ such as Russia and China might play in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and the implications therein for consensus-based governance, resource management and international co-operation. It is also timely to explore the role of private actors in polar environmental governance given a rapidly changing climate, the vulnerability of polar ecosystems, the decline in Arctic summer sea ice, and increased economic activity in polar regions in areas such as tourism and resource development including biological prospecting. Indigenous peoples in the Arctic continue, meanwhile, to press for their cultural, legal and resource rights to be acknowledged and respected by all parties.

This is an interdisciplinary workshop. Proposals for contributions are welcomed from across the disciplines, and we particularly welcome contributions from PhD and early career scholars. The idea of the workshop is to encourage shorter presentations (in the format of 3 slides and 15 minute talks) in order to leave plenty of scope for discussion and interaction with participants. A web-based report will be produced following the workshop.

Possible topics could include:

• Polar governance and region-building
• Scales and site of polar governance: from the everyday to the global
• Climate change governance
• The science-policy interface
• Decolonizing polar governance and the role of indigenous/subaltern politics
• Nationalism and the role of polar environmental and physical sciences
• Environmental and resource governance regimes
• Private environmental governance
• Role of law in polar governance
• Asia and the Arctic/Antarctic
• Legacies of colonialism and/or Cold War
• Aesthetic and cultural engagements
• Celebrities and polar demands’
• The Polar Regions as global commons

Proposals of no more than 250 words should be sent to the William Davies (geo3wd [at] leeds.ac.uk) by the deadline of 31st January 2017. All submissions should include the name of the presenter, their institution, email address, a short biographical profile of the speaker, plus the title and 250-word summary of the proposed presentation. We are able to offer some travel bursary support to UK-based speakers attending the workshop.

There is also space for those who would like to attend the workshop without contributing a presentation. Please register your attendance with Eventbrite through the link above.

Deadline for registrations: Monday 6th March 2017.

Members of the SEARCH Permafrost Carbon Network (Christina Schädel, Trevor Keenan, and Abhishek Chatterjee) will be hosting a session at the 2017 North American Carbon Program Meeting.

Session Description: Critical regions of North America are areas with high carbon storage or carbon uptake that are highly vulnerable to climate change and human disturbance and hence play key roles in the North American and global carbon cycle. High latitudes store immense amounts of carbon in permanently frozen ground (permafrost). With a warming climate, permafrost degradation and subsequent microbial decomposition are likely to increase, thereby releasing large amounts of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere. Tropical forests represent the largest sink for anthropogenic emissions on land, but large uncertainties exist in regard to the impacts of drought and climate change. Although coastal wetlands occupy a small percentage of the North American land area, they sequester large amounts of carbon that is threatened by sea level rise and human development. Understanding the fates of carbon sources and sinks within these highly dynamic regions of North America is important to establish the North American carbon budget and to inform global carbon-cycle models.

This session invites submissions that contribute to the understanding of losses and gains of carbon in high latitudes, tropical ecosystems, and other critical regions of North America. Studies may range from the micro to the global scale, using a variety of measurements including laboratory analyses, field and satellite observations, ecosystem manipulation experiments and process-based modeling. Contributions identifying gaps and applying new methods or combining different approaches (experiments, observations, modeling) for monitoring and quantifying carbon dynamics in these ecosystems are particularly welcome.

The SIMIP Workshop occurs after the Polar Prediction Workshop (29th noon - 30th noon) and is devoted to discussions about the sea ice simulations from the upcoming CMIP6 experiments (SIMIP), with three distinct aims:

• To discuss and define best practices for the evaluation of sea-ice simulations against observations
• To identify and define new remote sensing and in situ sea ice observations that will allow for improved model evaluation and initialization
• To discuss and coordinate the analysis of CMIP6 sea ice simulations for improved understanding of sea ice processes and improved sea ice projections.

The SIMIP workshop will primarily be a discussion meeting with a few invited presentations to set the scene. The SIMIP workshop is organized by the WCRP-CliC Sea ice and Climate Modeling Forum.

To register and/or submit an abstract please follow the link above and scroll down to the SIMIP Meeting section.

The Science Symposium will address the three sub-themes: (a) Changes in the Arctic, (b) Global Implications of Arctic Changes and (c) Impacts of Global Change on the Arctic.

To facilitate the participation of early career scientists and indigenous peoples, the organizers recommend that each session proposal includes one early career scientist co-convener and/or one indigenous co-convener, if applicable. Session proposals should also consider the overall geographic and gender balance of the proposed co-conveners.

Conference dates & deadlines:
Business Sessions: March 31 to April 2 2017
Excursions, Day Off: April 3 2017
Scientific Sections: April 4 to April 7 2017
Abstract submission deadline 10 January 2017
Early bird registration closes 17 December
Abstract acceptance notification 3 February 2017

Any questions should be directed to info [at] assw2017.eu

Dates: 14-15 September 2017
Venue: St. Anne's College - University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

This workshop will bring together senior and early career scientists to gain insight into the rapidly changing pan-Arctic land surface and boundary layer. The workshop will review current representation of Arctic ecosystem, carbon, water and energy balance
processes in the land model component of Earth System Models, including land-atmosphere interactions, and the next steps to address knowledge gaps. The workshop will also focus on developing a pan-Arctic land model assessment that includes a broader range of models, and engage the data community to provide new validation products for the Arctic and sub-Arctic.

Core focus:

• Representation of Arctic terrestrial ecosystems in models
• Role of observations: calibration, validation, assimilation
• Water, nitrogen, carbon, and energy dynamics
• Land-atmosphere interactions and feedbacks across spatial and temporal scales
• Pan-Arctic land model assessment
• Arctic boundary layer processes
• Extreme/disturbance events
• Knowledge gaps

Deadline for abstract submission and registration extended until 31 March 2017

SEARCH leads will be attending and participating in ASSW 2017. Please visit them at the following sessions and presentations:

Tuesday, 4 April 16-17:30, Taurus

Session: Project management in the Arctic science – the unknown driver of changes II
Presenter: Robert Rich
Presentation Title: Model Project Management for Arctic Research and Decisionmaking: Critical Insights from the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States
More Info: https://www.czech-in.org/cmgateway/assw17/index.html?module=searchablep…

Thursday, 6 April, 14:00-15:30, Leo

Session: Building partnerships among multiple knowledge systems to enhance understanding of a dynamic Arctic
Session Chair: Robert Rich
More Info: https://www.czech-in.org/cmgateway/assw17/index.html?module=searchablep…

Thursday, 6 April 17:30-19:00, Poster Area

Session: 22. Building partnerships among multiple knowledge systems to enhance understanding of a dynamic Arctic
Presenter: Matthew Druckenmiller
Poster Title: Observing Coastal Sea-Ice Stability in Arctic Alaska: A Framework for Collaboration, Communication, and Prediction
More Info: https://www.czech-in.org/cmgateway/assw17/index.html?module=searchablep…

Friday, 7 April 11-12:30, Zenit + Nadir

Session: Progress on the Development of a Pan- Arctic Observing System
Presenter: Hajo Eicken
Presentation Title: Stakeholder engagement in sustained Arctic observations: Community-based observations, satellite remote sensing and participatory scenarios focusing on coastal sea ice
More Info: https://www.czech-in.org/cmgateway/assw17/index.html?module=searchablep…

Friday, 7 April 14:45-15:00, Zenit + Nadir

Session: Communicating Arctic Change - Successes and Challenges of Effective Science Communication from Multiple Perspectives
Presenter: Brendan P. Kelly
Presentation Title: Towards a Sustained Knowledge Exchange: Collaboratively Advancing Awareness and Understanding of the Impacts of Arctic Environmental Change
More Info: https://www.czech-in.org/cmgateway/assw17/index.html?module=searchablep…

The Journal Territorial and Maritime Studies (JTMS) is soliciting submissions for its Summer/Fall 2017 issue. In the interest of increasing submissions for this recently launched publication, JTMS is offering authors of articles successfully passing peer review and selected for publication in the Summer/Fall 2017 issue an honorarium of $1000. JTMS is an interdisciplinary Journal of research on territorial and maritime issues sponsored by the Northeast Asia History Foundation with editorial offices hosted by Yonsei University in South Korea. The Journal provides an academic medium for the announcement and dissemination of research results the fields of history, international law, international relations, geography, peace studies, and any other relevant discipline. The journal covers all continental areas across the world, and it discusses any territorial and maritime subjects through the various research methods from different perspectives; moreover, practical studies as well as theoretical works, which contribute to a better understanding of territorial and maritime issues, are encouraged.

Manuscript should be submitted electronically to: jtms [at] yonsei.ac.kr

Submitted papers should include four major sections: the title page, structured abstract, main body, and references. The title page should contain the title of the paper, the authors name, the institutional affiliation and keywords. Manuscripts should follow the JTMS style guide available on our website. A length of maximum 9,000 words is preferred for an article, including endnotes, and approximately 2,000 words for a review. Submissions wishing to be considered for the Summer/Fall issue must submit their manuscripts by no later than April 1st, 2016. Inquiries may be sent via the email address provided above.

Our style guide and other journal information may be found on our recently launched website (see link above).

The K.G. Jebsen Centre for the Law of the Sea (JCLOS) is arranging a summer course for PhD students in Tromsø, Norway.

The course covers methodological aspects of both legal and multi-/interdisciplinary research of relevance to doctoral research in the law of the sea.
The course will train the students on the sources of international law, their interpretation, and the relationship between formal sources of international law, such as the Law of the Sea Convention, and other normative instruments, such as the often non-legally binding decisions adopted by international organizations, like the IMO and OSPAR. Also covered are the relationship between the law of the sea and other branches of international law such as international environmental law and trade law, and the role of other disciplines in research related to the law of the sea.
The course covers topics that are of direct relevance to individual students’ doctoral projects and the students should be able to refine their research questions as well as develop the analytical framework for their research projects.

This is a two-day course with obligatory attendance which requires literature studies and the writing of a draft essay in advance. The draft essay must be presented during the course. Active participation is required, meaning that all students must try to link the various subjects discussed to their own projects, and give an account of this. During the course there are lectures, essay presentations and discussions.

The essay draft will be discussed during the course and must be finalized after the course
and handed in on a date set by the Faculty. The essay must focus on issues that are of relevance to the themes of the course.

The course is designed for students who have been admitted to the doctoral programme for legal science. There is a maximum of 20 seats.

The closing date for applications is Monday 3 April.

Background and objectives:

With support from NASA Applied Sciences Program, the Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC) is organizing an international workshop to advance remote sensing tools and data for operational and scientific applications by high northern latitude fire ecology and management communities. Participants will include interagency fire managers as well as scientists with an interest in remote sensing and a variety of disciplines.

Topics of interest include:

• Potential fire risk: Can remotely sensed data (e.g., daily snow extent, others) estimate spring soil moisture and surface and subsurface fuel moisture and fuel conditions, and thus provide critical inputs for fuel moisture indices used to predict fire danger and risk?
• Near real-time fire behavior: Which remotely sensed data are best and most timely for fire detection, plume tracking of fire emissions, fire behavior modeling, mapping of flaming fronts, fire intensity, active fire perimeters, and response for ongoing fires?
• Post-fire effects: Can we improve analytical methods for remotely sensed data to assess fire severity, consumption/CO2 balance, active-layer changes, and successional trajectories of high latitude vegetation communities?

The outcomes of this workshop will advance co-developed investigations into new management and scientific uses of remote sensing data, increasing the scientific foundation and operational efficiency of northern fire management; improving understanding of climate-induced changes in northern fire regimes and ecosystem components and potential feedbacks to the global climate system; and leading to expanded application and use of remotely sensed data for fire management and fire science in high latitudes.

AFSC will publish workshop proceedings, including presentation abstracts, results, and consensus recommendations. This project is a contribution to the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee’s Wildfire Collaboration Team.

Abstracts of up to 500 words for both oral and poster presentations are welcome.

Deadline for abstract submissions and travel support applications: Tuesday, 15 November 2016.

Limited funding is available to offset selected presenters' travel expenses, with priority given to students and other young investigators.

The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC, www.mosaic-expedition.org) has been designed by an international consortium of leading polar research institutes under the umbrella of IASC.

Rapid changes in the Arctic lead to an urgent need for reliable information about the state and evolution of the Arctic climate system. This requires more observations and improved modelling over various spatial and temporal scales, and across a wide variety of disciplines. The focus of MOSAiC lies on in-situ observations of the climate processes that couple atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, bio-geochemistry and ecosystem.

The main scientific goals of MOSAiC are improving the data assimilation for numerical weather prediction models, sea ice forecasts and climate models, ground truth for satellite remote sensing, energy budget and fluxes through interfaces, sources, sinks and cycles of chemical species, boundary layer processes, habitat conditions and primary productivity, interaction with indigenous communities, and stakeholder services.

MOSAiC will be the first year-around observation of the coupled Arctic climate system and the planned observations cut across many disciplines. Hence, a 2-day MOSAiC workshop on April 4th and 5th 2017 will be held to discuss the coordination of the complex observations and the implementation of measurement concepts to ensure the quality and continuity of critical measurements and to maximize the impact of these observations for coupled system studies. This includes the coordination of the modelling activities to improve the sea ice forecast, numerical weather prediction and the climate models.

On day one (April 4th 2017) we will have invited overview talks with respect to observations and modelling for the respective components of the coupled system. On day two (April 5th 2017) we will have breakout sessions with foci on different space and time scale as well as logistics. Selected chair persons will lead the breakout discussions on day two. Additional, we invite all participants to propose poster presentations, which will be presented during the two days.

Please submit poster abstracts here: www.mosaic-expedition.org/abstract.html

Abstract Deadline: 15 January, 2017

Registration for the 2017 AAG Annual Meeting is now open. The AAG accepts all submitted abstracts and organized sessions for presentation. Any topic relevant to geography is welcome at the AAG Annual Meeting.

As one of the largest geographic conferences in the world, the AAG Annual Meeting and Exhibition will host as many as 9,500 geographers, GIS specialists, and environmental scientists from around the world.

We would like to draw your attention to the third year of Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference that will take place in Brno, Czech Republic at the Department of Geography at Masaryk University.

If you are interested and would like to learn more about a program and how to contribute or take part, please see the announcement at the link above.

Do not hesitate to contact us in case of any uncertainties or questions by email (geopolarbrno [at] gmail.com), or you can also directly contact the main conference coordinator -lenkaondrackova [at] mail.muni.cz

Deadline for registration and abstract submission is April 7, 2017

The 13th annual Polar Technology Conference (PTC) will be hosted by Polar Field Services.

The PTC brings together polar scientists and technology developers to exchange information on research system operational needs and technology solutions for polar environments. This knowledge exchange helps scientists and engineers address issues of design, implementation, and deployment for systems that enable scientists and agencies to achieve their research goals in the polar regions. The PTC provides a space for those involved in polar technology challenges to “pop the hood” and discuss what works—and what does not.

Traditionally, participants hail from academia, state and federal agencies, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations. Presentations cover system requirements for proposed research along with descriptions of systems and approaches proven successful in polar deployments. Hardware and software topics include, for example, weather stations, robotics, power systems and storage, telemetry, and communications. Scale ranges from autonomous data collection towers to large scale research stations. Polar field sites include those under, on, and above the ice, tundra, or sea.
Discussions on intra- and international cooperation in site deployment and maintenance are encouraged. Informal breaks allow for networking and information exchange. A poster session is also included. Workshops have been held offering tutorial exchanges on specific technologies (e.g., power systems, Iridium). The PTC is pleased to have support from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs as an endorsement of the concept of bringing together providers and consumers of these technologies in hopes of benefiting from that synergy.

This is the third PEI (Polar Educators International) Workshop gathering teachers, educators and scientists working on polar subjects. The aim is to bring world class researchers together with educators interested in polar science and to present current research and share innovative lessons to transfer the scientific information to classrooms and other audiences. A broad goal is to give educators and researchers the tools to raise public awareness on the importance of the polar regions.

The workshop is open to a maximum of 40 registered participants selected in the order in which fees are received. If the maximum number of participants is reached, a waiting list will be created. The registration fee to attend the PEI2017 workshop is 50 € + 2 € transfer expenses (how to pay will be sent in a letter after your registration is received).

Applications will be reviewed and applicants will be notified of their acceptance via email within a week of submission. Registrations and fees received early will have first choice of reasonably priced hostel rooms.

For more information or questions, please contact peiworkshops [at] gmail.com

With speakers Crane Johnson and Rick Thoman of the National Weather Service.

Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) will present a brief overview of current conditions and provide our spring statewide flooding potential outlook for the 2017 spring break-up season. This will be followed by a comparison of historic breakup years and a spring/summer climate outlook.

Pre-registration for webinars is strongly encouraged. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer. For instructions on participating through your home office or at a satellite viewing location with others in your community, please follow the link above and find the webinar information page.