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To register for the webinar, please fill out the form available at the link above.

Alaska experienced record-setting warmth during the 2015-16 cold season (October-April). Statewide average temperatures exceeded the period-of-record mean by more than 4°C over the seven-month cold season and by more than 6°C over the four-month late-winter period, January-April. The record warmth raises two questions: (1) Why was Alaska so warm during the 2015-16 cold season? (2) At what point in the future might this warmth become typical if greenhouse warming continues? On the basis of circulation analogs computed from sea level pressure and 850 hPa geopotential height fields, the atmospheric circulation explains less than half of the anomalous warmth. The warming signal forced by greenhouse gases in climate models accounts for about 1°C of the of the anomalous warmth. A factor that is consistent with the seasonal and spatial patterns of the warmth is the anomalous surface state, which 454. The surface anomalies include (1) above-normal ocean surface temperatures and below-normal sea ice coverage in the surrounding seas from which air advects into Alaska and (2) the deficient snowpack over Alaska itself. The location of the maximum of anomalous warmth over Alaska and the late-winter/early-spring increase of the anomalous warmth unexplained by the atmospheric circulation implicates snow cover and its albedo effect, which is supported by observational measurements in the boreal forest and tundra biomes. Climate model simulations indicate that warmth of this magnitude will become the norm by the 2050s if greenhouse gas emissions follow their present scenario.

The 16th International Scientific Conference for Students and Post-graduates “Problems of the Arctic Region” is devoted to scientific, environmental, technical, economic, and social aspects of the development of the Arctic. The conference will be divided into sections:

• Biology and Medicine
• Chemistry and Technology
• Ecology of the North
• Economical problems of Arctic development
• Education in the Arctic region
• Geology and Geophysics of the Arctic Region
• Hydrobiology
• Information Technologies and Mathematical Methods
• Marine biology
• Physical studies
• Humanitarian and Social problems

Suggestions on new topics are welcome. The conference will be introduced by a plenary report on one of burning issues of modern science.

Students and post-graduates interested in participating in the Conference are welcome to e-mail their registration forms and papers to the Steering Committee until 21 April 2016.

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

The methane committee is having their third meeting in Davis, California. Meeting agenda and registration can be found at the link above.

The Climate Change Education Partnership Alliance (CCEP) invites you to participate in its 2017 webinar series. This series will compliment the newly released Climate Change Education: Effective Practices for Working with Educators, Scientists, Decision Makers, and the Public guide.

Produced by the CCEP Alliance, this guide provides recommendations for effective education and communication practices when working with different types of audiences. While effective education has been traditionally defined as the acquisition of knowledge, Alliance programs maintain a broader definition of “effective” to include the acquisition and use of climate change knowledge to inform decision-making.

Please use the link above to register for one or more of the webinars in this series. Once registered, information on how to connect will be sent within a week of scheduled webinar. If you have any questions, please email agingras [at] uri.edu.

Working with Indigenous Communities

Presenters: Presenters: Corrin Barros (PCEP, PREL), Jessica Brunacini (PoLAR, Columbia University), Malinda Chase (PoLAR, AINE), Sharon Nelson-Barber (PCEP, WestEd), Emerson Odango (PCEP, PREL), Elizabeth Rechebei (PCEP, Commission on Education in Micronesia)

Indigenous environmental knowledge, developed over generations by managing natural resources through place-based solutions, has the potential to influence local and global responses to the changing climate. Western climate science, particularly impact assessments and projections of future change, may also help inform Indigenous community responses to climate change impacts. For the most part, these perspectives have not actively come together to benefit all. Collaborating in discussion and research about climate change offers rich opportunities for mutual learning among Indigenous ways of knowing and living, Western scientific knowledge, and technological advances, thereby benefitting communities’ responses at the frontlines. At the same time, this collaboration further informs formal and informal science education for Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. In this webinar, we will explore examples from the presenters’ work in which Indigenous and Western environmental knowledge intersect to benefit climate education in and for Indigenous Alaska Native and Pacific island communities.

This workshop will focus on the development of the West Antarctic Peninsula Working Group, including building the community, identifying existing activities and observational gaps, aligning data efforts, and articulation of an action plan moving forward. The workshop is sponsored by the British Antarctic Survey, SCAR and SOOS.

Follow the link above for more information.

The Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) will hold their spring meeting at the National Academy of Sciences building in Washington, DC. This meeting will feature an agency roundtable with representatives from NSF, EPA, NASA, DOE, ONR, and NOAA, as well as a session on Next Generation Computing for Weather, Climate, and Atmospheric Sciences.

To view the agenda and RSVP to attend, please follow the link above.

The Alaska Arctic Council Host Committee and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will co-host a "watch party" during the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting. Watch party attendees will be able to watch the proceedings of the Ministerial event while engaging in relevant discussion. Light refreshments will be provided during the watch party.

Discussion topics:

• Introduction to Arctic Council, history, and structure
• Review of issues to be addressed and geopolitical context
• Alaska's role in products from U.S. Chairmanship
• Alaska's plan for future engagement

Discussion moderated by:

• Dr. Larry Hinzman, University of Alaska Fairbanks
• Drue Pearce, Institute of the North

Attendance to the official Arctic Council Ministerial is restricted to official delegations of the eight Arctic States, Permanent Participants,
and Observers.

Ministerial agenda topics:

• Presentation of the accomplishments of the Arctic Council during the U.S. Chairmanship
• Presentation on Scientific Cooperation Agreement
• Statements from the Arctic States and from the Permanent Participants
• Adoption of the Senior Arctic Officials' Report to Ministers and the Fairbanks Declaration
• Presentation of the Finnish Chairmanship Program

Livestreaming of the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting will be available worldwide courtesy of the U.S. State Department.

To access the livestream broadcast, go to: www.state.gov

For questions, contact:
Nils Andreassen
Email: nandreassen [at] institutenorth.org
Phone: 907-351-4982

The U.S. State Department will host a celebration in honor of the 20th Anniversary of the Arctic Council, as well as the Ministerial meeting attended by foreign ministers of the 8 Arctic states and heads of delegation from Permanent Participants and Observers.

(Closed to the public)

This conference will take place in Trieste, Italy on 10-15 September, 2017.

The aim of the conference is to present recent results that address still open questions in understanding the sensitivity of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and its contribution to past and future sea level and climate change (http://www.scar.org/horizonscan Kennicutt M.C. Chown S. et al., Nature, 2014).

An important development in understanding and predicting Antarctic ice-sheet behaviour has been the validation and testing of ice sheet models on past climates with boundary conditions that are relevant to future projections.

While the focus of the conference will be on the latest developments in paleo-ice sheet and climate reconstructions using data and models, we also invite researchers and students from geodynamical, climatological, glaciological, oceanographic, ecosystem and ice cores communities, since their work is crucial for understanding the processes and dynamics of the integrated system.

All presentations will be in plenary oral and poster sessions, and each day will end with a plenary discussion to enable the maximum interaction of different groups and disciplines.

Abstract deadline: May 10th, 2017.

For more information please follow the conference's link above.

This workshop will focus on events that drive damage to Arctic vegetation, their causes, and consequences. With increasing frequency of
events causing damage to Arctic vegetation and an increasing appreciation of the diversity of different events that can cause browning, this workshop provides an opportunity to discuss Arctic browning drivers, subsequent consequences, prepare outputs, and develop future collaborations.

Events of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Extreme winter warming
• Icing
• Frost-drought
• Herbivore and pathogen outbreaks
• Tundra fire

The first part of the workshop will include presentations and discussions of Arctic browning caused by climatic and biological events.
The second part will include break-out groups to focus on workshop outputs, collaborations, and future opportunities.

Registration deadline: 8 March 2017.

To register, go to:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNibbE62n-gCZ-L8HCTwQCarht2Xw…