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The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) announces the next Arctic Research Seminar featuring Matthew Jull from the University of Virginia. The event will be held in the ARCUS D.C. office at 1201 New York Avenue, NW Washington D.C.

This seminar will also be available as a webinar live-stream for those unable to attend in person. Instructions for accessing the event online will be sent to webinar registrants prior to the event.

Registration is required for this event.

The ARCUS Arctic Research Seminar Series brings leading Arctic researchers to Washington, D.C. to share the latest findings and what they mean for decision-making. These seminars will be of interest to federal agency officials, congressional staff, non-governmental organizations, associations, and the public.

This seminar, titled Arctic Design Group - Mediating Environments, will present the works of the Arctic Design Group that foregrounds design in the act of framing and re-imagining the potential futures of the Arctic, while offering ways of re-engaging with environmental phenomena as malleable design media.

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

Communities in Alaska’s Arctic and Subarctic regions are at risk from environmental threats including flooding, erosion, and thawing permafrost. However, the character and relative magnitude of those risks can vary from community to community, and it is not always clear which environmental threats pose the greatest amount of risk. This presentation describes an ongoing project being conducted by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, and the US Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District. The project is sponsored by the Denali Commission. The purpose of the project is to use existing data to better characterize the threats to Alaska’s communities associated with flooding, erosion, and permafrost thaw, and develop a system by which stakeholders can evaluate the combined threat. The presentation will focus primarily upon consideration of the threats imposed by permafrost thaw, as that is the main focus of the UAF/CRREL component of the project.

Available in-person at: Room 407 in the Akasofu Building on the UAF Campus in Fairbanks.

The International Glaciological Society will hold an International Symposium on ‘Timescales, Processes and Glacier Dynamics’. The symposium will take place at the Lafayette Hotel in downtown Buffalo, New York, USA on 3–8 June 2018.

Theme:

The physical processes controlling glacier dynamics form the basis of modern glaciology. In spite of the rapid growth in observational data, the ultimate scientific challenge continues to be relating observations to processes. Time-series observational data are essential to understanding processes; however, their analysis often reveals processes operating on timescales ranging from diurnal to millennial. Individual processes may underpin long-term glacier stability, promote instability or drive natural variability in the glacier state. For example, gravitationally driven flow is among the most fundamental processes in glaciology and is controlled by ice-surface slope and thickness. The evolution of the ice surface, in turn, reveals processes related to the mechanical controls on ice flow, firn compaction, development of supraglacial meltwater flow networks, basal melt, isostasy and surface mass balance. Each of these processes alters the surface elevation and is characterized by a different timescale. Assessment of the processes producing changes over a particular time interval poses a major challenge. Hence, even routinely acquired data are difficult to reason about. Interpretation of other data, such as surface velocity, climatological data, radar stratigraphy, glacier history, ice core records, paleoclimate proxies and in situ observations, are also confounded by relations between processes and timescales.

Topics:

We seek papers and presentations that advance the understanding of ice sheets and glaciers and glacier dynamics on different timescales. Key focus areas include (but are not limited to):

1. Processes that control glacier dynamics and ice flow
2. Processes that reflect natural variability versus trends critical to glacier and ice-sheet stability
3. Processes that link climate and ocean changes with ice sheet and glacier evolution
4. Time-series data analysis of glacier and ice-sheet data
5. Process models for ice–ocean–atmosphere interactions, glacier–bedrock interactions, meltwater impacts, etc.
6. Processes and timescales associated with ice-sheet and glaciological hazards
7. Paleoclimate indicators of key-processes and changes in glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets and linking paleoclimatology to contemporary glacier studies.

Abstracts:

Participants who wish to present a paper (oral or poster) at the Symposium will be required to submit an abstract by 26 March 2018.

For more information, please follow the link above.

The cold regions of the Earth – Arctic, Antarctica and the high mountain ranges – are exposed to fundamental changes due to global warming and direct anthropogenic pressures. The Arctic sea ice as well as glaciers in Greenland and Alpine mountains are not only losing huge areas, but also habitats for many unique organisms depending on the cold habitats. The terrestrial permafrost is thawing leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions. However, these changes ranging from loss in cryospheric extent to coastal erosion or neobiota have many but yet unknown consequences for polar physico-chemical, biogeochemical and geological processes as well as for polar organisms and their ecosystems.

Contributions are welcome in the field of polar and high mountain research covering the following and related topics:

• Cryosphere – Glaciology, Sea Ice, Permafrost
• Geology and Geophysics
• Climate and Atmosphere
• Polar Oceans
• Biological Responses, Acclimation and Adaptation
• Biogeochemical Cycles and Food Webs
• Modern Methods in Polar Research
• Historical and Socio-Economic Aspects
• Report Colloquium of the DFG SPP 1158
• "Cool Classes“: Polar Topics at Schools

Deadline for registration and submission of abstracts: extended to 22 December 2017.

This NSF-sponsored workshop will assess economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and establish convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and capitalize on these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt will affect trade, fisheries, tourism, coastal ecology, air and water quality, animal migration, and demographics not only in the Arctic but also in lower latitude coastal regions such as New England. With profound changes on the horizon, this is a critical opportunity for New England to prepare for uncertain yet inevitable economic and environmental impacts of Arctic change.

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

Organizers invite registration for the International Tundra Experiment's (ITEX) 19th Open Science Meeting. This meeting will convene 25-27 April 2018 in Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom.

The main scientific themes of the meeting will include:

• Rates of change and whole‐ecosystem processes,
• Plant functional traits/"functional diversity change",
• Tundra data synthesis (e.g. including up‐scaling),
• Microbial ecology (including plant‐soil interactions);
• ITEX protocol development, and
• Other (to reflect submitted abstracts).

Poster submissions are welcome until the registration deadline.

Registration is open until 23 March, but is limited to 80 participants (due to the size of venues available) and is on a first-come-first-served basis.

For more information, including the conference program and registration, please follow the link above.

For questions, contact:
Philip Wookey
Email: philip.wookey1 [at] stir.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 1786 466967

Robert D. Hollister
Email: hollistr [at] gvsu.edu
Phone: 616-331-8582

The tools and techniques for making monthly and season scale climate forecasts are rapidly changing, with the potential to provide useful forecasts at the month and longer range. We will review recent climate conditions around Alaska, review some forecast tools and finish up the Climate Prediction Center's forecast for April and the late spring/early summer season. Feel free to bring your lunch and join the gathering in person or online to learn more about Alaska climate and weather.

Available in-person at: Room 407 in the Akasofu Building on the UAF Campus in Fairbanks.

The University of Utah’s Asia Center is hosting an interdisciplinary conference on Siberia, Central Asia, and the Russian Far East and North Pacific, organized around the theme of “Asia in the Russian Imagination.” The conference will be held at the University of Utah’s campus. Over the past three years, the Asia Center’s “Siberian Initiative” has sponsored talks on anthropology, environmental studies, history, film studies, and linguistics, and we are continuing this interdisciplinary approach to Russia in Asia/Asia in Russia at our conference.

We welcome proposals exploring political, economic, and socio-cultural interactions from a variety of fields and perspectives. We foresee extended discussions on Russian-Asian connections and networks, as well as policies, processes, and populations in “Russian Asia,” within the imperial, Soviet, or post-Soviet eras. We hope that this conference honors the interdisciplinary tradition established by the British Universities Siberian Studies Seminar, last held in 2007. Following the conference, the organizers intend to publish a selection of the essays either as a special issue of a journal or as an edited volume.

Please submit proposals for individual papers no later than 15 October 2017 to the Events Coordinator of Utah’s International Studies program, Rocío Torres rocio.torresmora [at] utah.edu. Please include a subject line of “Asia-Russia 2018” to make sure you receive full consideration. Submissions should include a 250-word abstract as well as a brief (1-2 page) C.V. The organizers will make their decisions by early December.

Advisory committee:

Jane Frances Hacking, University of Utah
Eric R. Laursen, University of Utah
Robert Argenbright, University of Utah
Marisa Karyl Franz, University of Toronto
Jessica Graybill, Colgate University
Lenore Grenoble, University of Chicago
Jeffrey F. Hardy, Brigham Young University
Matthew P. Romaniello, University of Hawaii
John Ziker, Boise State University

Cross-track Infrared Sounder/Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (CrIS/ATMS) soundings processed though the NOAA Unique Combined Atmospheric Processing System (NUCAPS) (i.e. NUCAPS Soundings) are currently available in AWIPS-II as vertical temperature and moisture profiles for forecasters to diagnose unique forecasting challenges. To further realize the potential of NUCAPS Soundings in the operational environment, a team of scientists and forecasters developed the capability to view 2-D gridded plan view and cross section displays of NUCAPS Soundings (i.e. Gridded NUCAPS) in AWIPS-II. The capability was initially developed in conjunction with the Anchorage, Alaska, Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) to diagnose layers of cold air aloft which are hazardous to aviation activities. This presentation highlights the collaboration with the CWSU, outlines additional applications, and explains recent activities to decrease the latency of NUCAPS data and baseline the Gridded NUCAPS in AWIPS.

Available in-person at: Room 407 in the Akasofu Building on the UAF Campus in Fairbanks.