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Live event from McMurdo Station in Antarctica with teacher Denise Hardoy and the team researching Antarctic Fish Development Under Future Ocean Conditions. Denise and researcher Anne Todgham will discuss their current fieldwork and observations related to their research.

We request that all participants pre-register to join PolarConnect live events. Anyone with an e-mail address can register, and registration and participation is free.

The Yellowknife Geoscience Forum provides an intimate setting for delegates from industry, academia, and government to exchange information on Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Mining Activities, and Geoscience Research in Canada’s North. The Forum consists of a trade show and a technical program.

We are pleased to announce that the Third Polar Data Forum (PDF III) will be hosted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute at thair Dynamicum campus in Helsinki. PDF III will be co-organized with regional partners including the INTAROS project in conjunction with the EU Arctic Cluster, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and other European organizations. The Forum will be co-convened by the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee, Southern Ocean Observing System, Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management, the World Data System and other organizations engaged in polar data management.

PDF III will be a two day conference style meeting in support of information exchange, with the remainder of the week using a “hackathon” approach that will build on the development work done in Boulder, Geneva and other related meetings.

Posters and presentations will be accepted on a wide variety of data, information and knowledge related issues. Abstracts will be reviewed primarily for their relevance or connection to the polar regions and polar activities. While talks or posters on general topics will be considered, priority will be given to abstracts focused on experiences, research, operations, projects, programs or topics that take place in or are about the polar regions. Of particular interest are talks that report on how broader, regional, disciplinary or global standards, protocols and methodologies are, or could be applied, to the polar domain (e.g. how does your polar work link to broader efforts to make data FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). In keeping with past community events, we see the polar data system as part of the broader global system.

Themes of interest include:

• Polar community and network building
• Data discovery and federated search
• All aspects of data interoperability (syntactical, structural, semantic, social)
• Standards and protocols to improve data access
• Analysis of user needs
• Enabling data reuse for multiple audiences
• Ethical utilization of data derived from Indigenous knowledge and community based monitoring
• Data management for polar social science and humanities
• Cloud computing and other advanced analytical methods and platforms (i.e. machine learning, AI)
• Sensor webs and observing systems
• Critical studies on polar data management (e.g. Science and Technology Studies)
• Recognition and attribution in data systems
• Data management for major projects (e.g. Southern Ocean Observing System, MOSAiC, Arctic Supersites etc.)
• Data policy
• Other themes related to polar data broadly defined (i.e. including information and knowledge)

Registration deadline: 18 October.

Abstract:

NGS's upcoming geopotential datum will require a dynamic geoid model to maintain centimeter-height accuracy. Geoid change is especially challenging to model in Alaska. Geophysical processes in Alaska, including rapid ice mass loss from mountain glaciers, contribute to geoid change rates of more than 2 centimeters per decade. This webinar presents research modeling geoid change in Alaska, past and present. This work combines satellite gravity data with airborne and satellite measurements of glacier elevation change to predict geoid rates with improved fidelity and spatial resolution. The wealth of existing geodetic and geophysical observations in Alaska also enables us to examine how the geoid has changed across the 20th century.

Please follow the link above for registration.

What is left of development in the Arctic? Is sustainable development a utopia in the Arctic? Is development in the Arctic more unsustainable than sustainable? Sustainable development, a popular idea of balanced, equal and participatory development, dominates the debates about the region. Even research about the region often takes sustainable development as a starting point. However, the progress towards reaching this goal seems slow and sustainable development unreachable. These observations make us ask: What makes development sustainable in the Arctic in different political, economic and social contexts? What kind of social and political imaginaries we have and should have for the Arctic? Do our imaginaries match our means and practices? Are there any attractive, viable alternatives for sustainable development? How do different imaginaries motivate or improve current policies and strategies? What kinds of missed voices and ideas there are about development in the Arctic? How do emotions of hope, fear and uncertainty relate to the Arctic future?

Papers and presentations covering different aspects of Arctic developments critically are welcome. The event will be organized in connection to the Arctic Spirit Conference 2019.

Keynote speaker:

Our keynote speaker will be professor Reetta Toivanen (HELSUS, University of Helsinki, Finland). The topic of her talk will be “European fantasies on the Arctic”.

Programme:

The programme will include a keynote talk, presentations by the participants and discussions on the basis of presentations. A symposium dinner will be organized.

Deadline for proposals:

Please send your abstract (max. 250-words) with your name, title, affiliation and contact information before September 15, 2019 by email to Monica Tennberg (monica.tennberg [at] ulapland.fi).

Deadline for registration:

If you prefer to participate to the symposium without presenting a paper, please register your participation before 31.10.2019. by sending an email to Monica Tennberg (monica.tennberg [at] ulapland.fI)

The Arctic Leaders’ Summit (ALS) is a unique, longstanding forum in which Indigenous Peoples from across the Arctic set their own priorities for discussion, bridge differences, and create common understanding particularly on matters related to the Arctic environment. In addition to the Permanent Participants, other prominent Arctic Indigenous leaders, Arctic States and Observers to the Arctic Council are invited to attend.

The Permanent Participants to the Arctic Council have organized five ALS since 1991 in Denmark, Norway, Russia and Canada. Each ALS has resulted in a declaration that can be found here.

In total, over 80 leaders are expected to attend. The 6th Arctic Leaders’ Summit (ALS6) will revolve around four themes:

1. A look back to the Arctic Leaders’ Summit history
2. Arctic Indigenous Languages and Environmental Changes
3. Why is Arctic still inhabited? Coping in the changing Arctic
4. Dialogue between Arctic Indigenous Peoples and the Arctic Council Observers

The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference, fourth in a series, focuses on climate change in the Arctic, especially from the point of view of young people. The conference wants the voices of the future generations to be heard.

We no longer need to prove that Arctic climate change is a fact. Instead, we need to talk about what it really means for the future. For this reason, young people have an important role in the conference, says Markku Heikkilä, Head of Science Communications of the Arctic Centre, who coordinates the event preparations.

The first conference day will feature expert speeches and panel discussions, and the second day will focus more on scientific presentations. The side events of the conference may also raise other themes.

The main organizers of the conference are the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland and the City of Rovaniemi. During the event, Arctic Centre will celebrate its 30th anniversary.

Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit has been organized in Rovaniemi every two years since 2013 and is the only regular international Arctic conference in Finland. The 2019 conference will bring continuity to Finland's Arctic activities after the end of Finland’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council.

Conference registration will open in May 2019.

Organizers of the Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit conference would like to invite papers and presentations covering one of the following themes:

• Climate change as a challenge for organizations in the Arctic
• Climate change and the rights of present and future generations
• Live, work or leave? Youth-wellbeing and the viability of Arctic towns and cities
• Polar regional change: physical, social-ecological and economic feedbacks
• Arctic entwinements of energy, climate and politics

Abstract should be sent before August 23, 2019 by email to rovaniemi.arcticspirit [at] ulapland.fi

The goal of the Graduate Climate Conference (GCC) is to provide a discussion forum for graduate students undertaking research on climate and climate change in an array of disciplines throughout the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The format is designed to encourage new climate researchers to become acquainted with the details of diverse areas of study and to place their own work in the broader context of the climate research community.

Historically, the responsibility for organizing the GCC has rotated between grad students from MIT and the University of Washington. This year’s conference will be a joint venture between students from the MIT Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Applications are now open. The deadline for abstract submission is June 15th. Food, lodging, and conference registration fees are provided by our generous sponsors; travel grants will be provided on an as-needed basis to as many participants as possible.

For more information, and a link to the application page, visit the official website at the link above. Feel free to contact the organizing committee with questions at gcc-2019 [at] mit.edu.

An international workshop on "Understanding and Responding to Global Health Security Risks from Microbial Threats in the Arctic" will be held in Hanover, Germany.

This activity is being planned as a cooperative effort among three boards of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [the Polar Research Board, the Board on Life Sciences, and Board on Global Health] in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership and the European Academies Science Advisory Council.

Motivation. A rapidly warming climate is leading to widespread thawing of permafrost and ice across Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. Among the many concerns this raises are growing questions about bacteria and viruses that could possibly emerge from these thawing environments, raising infectious microbial risks for animal and human populations. This interest grew in 2016, when Siberia's Yamal Peninsula saw an outbreak of anthrax that infected dozens of people and killed more than 2300 reindeer, which some speculated may have resulted from anthrax spores released from a thawing reindeer carcass. Also in recent years there have been numerous instances where researchers have recovered from permafrost soil samples various fragments of DNA/RNA from diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, and the 1918 influenza virus. This raises concerns, given that many currently or previously populated high-latitude regions contain buried remains of humans and animals that died from such diseases. Studies have shown that bacteria and viruses frozen in the environment can remain viable for thousands and even millions of years; and this raises questions about whether permafrost may harbor microbes that are human pathogens, and for which modern immune systems have no protection. Given the very limited studies to date, it is difficult to characterize the magnitude and nature of these potential risks; yet understanding and preparing for "low-probability, high-consequence" events is one of the hallmarks of a robust public health protection strategy.

Workshop Plans. This workshop will bring together an international, interdisciplinary group of experts to explore what is known, and what critical knowledge gaps remain, regarding existing and possible future risks of harmful infectious agents emerging from thawing Arctic environments.

The Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, with a location in the high Arctic and easy accessibility, represents a unique platform for high quality international research and education.

The Svalbard Science Forum, The Research Council of Norway and The Norwegian Polar Institute in cooperation with The Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) invite researchers, research managers and stakeholders to the second Svalbard Science conference. The conference will focus on Svalbard in a pan-Arctic setting, aspiring to enhance cooperation and quality within Svalbard research, build and strengthen interdisciplinary and international networks and consolidate Svalbard as an attractive platform for Arctic research.

Together with updates on the new strategies for research and education in Svalbard and inspirational talks from invited key notes, we invite participants to take an active role in the conference through presentations, poster sessions and group discussions. Registration and abstract submission will open in March 2019.