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In recent years the Arctic has become the focus of increasing activity and attention due to a wide range of environmental, political, economic, social, and security factors. A U.S. administration under the leadership of President-Elect Joe Biden, as well as potential changes to the composition of Congress, may have profound consequences for U.S. Arctic policy and, as a result, for America’s relationships with both Arctic and non-Arctic nations. How might U.S. Arctic policy and posture change as a result of the U.S. election and how are these potential changes viewed from abroad?

Please join Wilson Center scholars and colleagues in a virtual roundtable discussion on the impacts and implications of the 2020 US election in the Arctic region.

Speakers:

Ambassador David Balton
Senior Fellow, Polar Institute; Former Ambassador for Oceans and Fisheries, U.S. Department of State

Ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx
Former Ambassador for the European Union

Heather Exner-Pirot
Managing Editor, Arctic Yearbook

Ulf Sverdrup
Director, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Andrey Todorov
Research Fellow, Department for Disarmament and Conflict Resolution Studies, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russian Academy of Sciences

Moderator:

Michael Sfraga
Director, Polar Institute & Director, Global Risk and Resilience Program

The Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observation System (SIOS) announces the 6th webinar in their webinar series, An Anchor Point to a Drifting World.

The webinar will use the momentum of the SIOS Marine infrastructure Network Workshop and shed new light on the global and local perspective of marine science in Svalbard.

The program for the webinar will be as follows:

• 10:00-10:10: Welcome and introduction to the webinar (Shridhar Jawak, SIOS Remote Sensing Officer)
• 10:10-10:25: Ocean predictability, observations and links to UN Decade of Ocean (Mark Payne, Technical University of Denmark [DTU])
• 10:25-10:40: Observational networks in Europe (Alejandro Orfila, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies [IMEDEA])
• 10:40-10:55: Sea ice remote sensing (Anton Korosov, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center [NERSC])
• 5 min break
• 11:00-11:10: Information talk about the icebreaker Laura Bassi (characteristics of the ship and tentative logistical plans for 2021)
• 11:10-11:30: Panel Discussion on the outcomes of the SIOS marine infrastructure network workshop and the next steps for the network

Moderator:
Inger Jennings, SIOS Logistics and Access Officer

Panel:
Manuel Bensi, Arild Sundfjord, Frank Nilsen, and Agnieszka Beszynska-Möller

A further note: SIOS play a very active role in encouraging Early Career Researchers (ECRs) to attend, participate, and contribute to SIOS activities. These webinars are an excellent chance to discover the exciting science that is going on in and around the Svalbard region. In the future, organizers would also like to encourage ECRs to present at these webinars. Those interested should get in touch with organizers to learn more.

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.

International Glaciological Society Global Seminar:

Speaking: Daniel Shapero, University of Washington, "A Live Demo of the Glacier Flow Modeling Package Icepack".

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.

Scotland’s Shetland Archipelago is a mere 400 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Due in part to this proximity, Scotland is seeking to establish itself as a European gateway to the High North. Similar rural and demographic features mean that Scottish and Arctic communities share many present-day priorities, from strengthening rural resilience to improving connectivity and promoting sustainable economic growth.

Scotland’s engagement with the Arctic region has intensified steadily over recent years. Published in September 2019, the Scottish Government’s first Arctic policy framework sets out “Scotland’s offer to the Arctic,” a prospectus for cooperation and knowledge exchange around the issues and ambitions that Scotland has in common with the Arctic.

On November 24th, join us for a conversation on the future of cooperation between Scotland, Europe, and the Arctic.

Moderator:

• Ambassador David Balton, Senior Fellow, Polar Institute

Panelists:

• Cabinet Secretary Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs, Scottish Government
• Ambassador Marie-Anne Coninsx, Former Ambassador for the European Union
• Anu Fredrikson, Executive Director, Arctic Frontiers

The National Academies' Polar Research Board will meet November 13 and November 24. Those who register will receive updates on the meeting agenda, and links to join the meeting (by zoom or phone) as we get closer to the meeting date.

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.

UPDATE:

Despite our best wishes, we have to postpone the 3rd International Conference on 'Polar Climate and Environmental Change in the Last Millennium' once again.

The planned new dates are 30th August - 1st September 2021.

Our decision was made in response to the 2nd wave of COVID-19 crisis and guided by Nicolaus Copernicus University's internal safety policies.

Note: The 3rd International Conference on Polar Climate and Environmental Change in the Last Millennium was originally scheduled for 24-26 September 2020, and then 23-25 November 2020, but was moved again to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The aim of the conference is to present scientific achievements and to identify gaps in the field of the historical climatology of the polar regions based on early meteorological observations, history, dendroclimatology, paleolimnology, geophysics, geomorphology, and other sources.

The conference is supported by the Polish Geophysical Society, the Committee on Polar Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Polish Polar Consortium.

Important dates:

• 30 April 2021: Registration and abstract submission deadline for financial support
• 31 May 2021: Conference grantees notification
• 15 June 2021: Registration close
• 30 June 2021: Abstract submission deadline
• 30 June 2021: Conference fee deadline

Abstract:

This talk is about my first hand experience overwintering onboard RV Polarstern in the Central Arctic Ocean. In fall 2019 the largest Arctic research expedition set out to be trapped in the ice for an entire year to fill the data gaps. The MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) campaign onboard the German icebreaker POLARSTERN drifted across the Central Arctic Ocean so an international team from 20 countries could study atmospheric processes, ice and ocean physics, biogeochemical cycles and ecosystem changes. The winter leg from November to March was defined by low temperatures and constant darkness but also by lead openings and buildup of pressure ridges, demonstrating that the “New Arctic” is not just a concept anymore but that it is already a reality.

Bio:

Dr. Julia Grosse is a member of the Biological Oceanography Group in the Marine Biogeochemistry Division at GEOMAR and a postdoc in the Micro-ARC project. She is a phytoplankton ecologist/ biogeochemist interested in the drivers of phytoplankton productivity, the consequences on the cycling of organic matter (especially individual compounds such as amino acids and carbohydrates) and the repercussions for the microbial loop as well as food webs.

Sponsor:

This seminar is part of NOAA's EcoFOCI bi-annual seminar series focused on the ecosystems of the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea and U.S. Arctic to improve understanding of ecosystem dynamics and applications of that understanding to the management of living marine resources. Since Oct 21, 1986, the seminar has provided an opportunity for research scientists and practitioners to meet, present, develop their ideas and provoke conversations on subjects pertaining to fisheries-oceanography or regional issues in Alaska's marine ecosystems, including the US Arctic.Visit the EcoFOCI webpage for more information, http://www.ecofoci.noaa.gov

Seminar Contact:
Heather Tabisola (heather.tabisola [at] noaa.gov) and Jens Nielsen (jens.nielsen [at] noaa.gov)

Remote Access:

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/891851101

You can also dial in using your phone.
United States: +1 (872) 240-3311
Access Code: 891-851-101

NEW DATE: 08-09 May 2021

In order to engage with Arctic scientists and knowledge holders on multiple levels, the ASM3 organizers plan to engage researchers at the several science meetings throughout 2020. These meetings will give the research community an opportunity to shape and develop the science-to-policy process resulting in the Arctic Science Ministerial Joint Statement to be signed in Tokyo.

Since the last Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018, changes in the Arctic ecosystem and the resulting impacts locally and globally have been severely felt. While the reasons for these changes in climate largely stem from activities outside of the Arctic, the Arctic is warming at a rate of nearly double the global average.

The ASM3 organizers would like to hear directly from the research community about what matters most in international Arctic science collaboration.