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After almost fifty-five years, the Antarctic Treaty continues to shine as a rare beacon of international cooperation. To celebrate this milestone of peace in our civilization with hope and inspiration for future generations – ANTARCTICA DAY is recognized to be December 1st -the day when the Antarctic Treaty was signed in 1959. As an annual event, Antarctica Day encourages participation from around the world.

Organizers announce a call for abstracts for a conference entitled "International Conference on Arctic Science: Bringing Knowledge to Action," organized by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). The conference will be held from 24-27 April 2017 in Reston, Virginia.

This conference builds on a previous conference from 2011 entitled "Arctic Messenger of Change Conference." The 2017 conference will provide updated scientific, decision-making, and policy-relevant information across a broad array of different Arctic issues and related scientific disciplines.

The topics that will be addressed are:

• The Arctic Cryosphere
• Pollution in the Arctic
• Human Health Aspects of Pollution and Climate Change
• Global and Arctic Systems Feedback Mechanisms
• Resilience within Arctic Ecosystems
• Science and Plicy Making
• Socio-Economic Drivers and Impacts of Arctic Change

Interested participants are invited to submit abstracts on research and findings relevant to the topics identified above including reports from observational, process-based research, and experimental and modeling studies or past, present, and future change in the Arctic.

To submit an abstract for either an oral or poster presentation (550 word maximum), send the abstract by email to:
2017Conference [at] amap.no

Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 December 2016.

For more information click on the "first announcement" pdf, follow the link above.

Join us for a special Antarctica Day event being held from McMurdo, Antarctica with PolarTREC teacher Tim Dwyer and the research team looking at Polar Gigantism in Antarctica.

Learn about the importance of the Antarctica Treaty and how it impacts research being conducted in Antarctica. This event is in celebration and coordination with ARCUS, APECS, and Our Spaces.

For additional Antarctica Day activities, check out this website:

http://www.ourspaces.org.uk/antarctica-day.html

The 4th Winter Field Course for Snow Measurement is a course for serious students of snow, whether engaged in modeling, measuring, or teaching about snow. The course will introduce students to standard and specialized quantitative and qualitative measurements of snowpack characteristics, as well as how to conduct safe and efficient snow field campaigns. Over three full days we will provide fundamental training to students in performing and analyzing snow measurements, including depth, density, snow water equivalence, grain size and shape, stratigraphy, temperature and hardness. Students completing this course will be able to perform high-quality fieldwork as well as design studies requiring snowpack measurements, including those required during snow remote sensing calibration and validation campaigns. Class credit will be offered through the University of Saskatchewan.

It will take place at Barrier Lake Field Station, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada (about 45 minutes west of Calgary) with field work at Fortress Mountain in the Canadian Rockies. See:

http://bgs.ucalgary.ca/facilities

The course is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, professionals and senior scientists, modelers and those who do snow remote sensing that will either need to make snow measurements as part of their research, or use snowpack data in their research. There are no prerequisites, but students will be selected from the pool of applicants based on applicability to their studies. Successful applicants will be notified by December 15, 2016. Students from any nation may apply.

Applications are due by December 1, 2016.

Instructors:

• Dr. Kelly Elder: US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
• Dr. Matthew Sturm: Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Dr. John Pomeroy, Director, Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan
• Dr. Jessica Lundquist, Mountain Hydrology Research, University of Washington
• Dr. Alexandre Langlois, Centre d’applications et de recherches en télédétection, Université de Sherbrooke
• Dr. Nicholas Kinar, Centre for Hydrology, University of Saskatchewan

Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm (EST)

The ARCUS Arctic Research Seminar Series brings some of the leading Arctic researchers to Washington, D.C. to share in person and via webinar the latest findings and what they mean for decision-making. The seminars are open, and will be of interest to Federal agency officials, Congressional staff, NGOs, associations, researchers, and the public.

Presentation Title:
Observations and Predictions for Arctic Sea-Ice Use: Perspectives from Coastal Alaska

Presentation Abstract:
The Arctic sea-ice cover is in the midst of a major transformation, with the Pacific Arctic sector and Alaska experiencing some of the most profound changes in ice cover anywhere in the Arctic. With impacts on Arctic coastal communities and increases in maritime activities, both observations of changes underway and predictions at the scale of less than a week to several months out are of importance to the research community and those living and operating in ice-covered seas. The presentation will explore key benefits or hazards deriving from sea ice, and explore the types of information and predictions most relevant to sea ice users, with a focus on Alaska coastal environments. Specifically, use of coastal land fast ice by Indigenous communities and industry serves to illustrate the importance of stakeholder input and guidance in defining the research problem and types of observations and predictions needed. The presentation will explore how the combination of surface-based observations, Indigenous and local knowledge and remote sensing is particularly effective in addressing a hierarchy of issues of deriving from rapid changes in coastal ice environments.

Speaker Details
Dr. Hajo Eicken is Professor of Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and Director of the International Arctic Research Center at UAF. His research focuses on sea ice geophysics and the importance of sea ice in Arctic social-environmental systems. He has helped build an integrated sea-ice observatory in northern Alaska as an interface between geophysical and local knowledge of ice conditions and hazards. He heads an effort at UAF to enhance use of scientific data by stakeholders, drawing on a number of different approaches, including scenarios development and analysis. As immediate-past Chair of the Science Steering Committee of the US Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH), he has worked towards the establishment of an observing network to improve understanding and responses to rapid Arctic change.

Registration
To register please visit: https://www.arcus.org/research-seminar-series
Registration is required for the live seminar as well as the webinar. We will be using the Adobe Connect platform for the webinar. Once you register for the webinar, you will receive a confirmation email giving you the link and directions on how to join.

The Alaska Ocean Acidification Network is hosting a 2-day workshop in Anchorage, inviting a broad audience across the state interested in ocean acidification issues.

The aim of this workshop is to educate the broader Alaska community on the processes and consequences of OA, create connections between researchers and stakeholders, and develop new ideas and partnerships to enhance monitoring and community engagement. A report on the state of the science in Alaska will be produced after the workshop, as well as a set of recommendations to help guide the Alaska OA Network.

Day 1 will be conducted in plenary format and is intended to engage a broad audience including fishermen, shellfish growers, resource managers, researchers, coastal residents and anyone interested in ocean acidification. This first day will provide the basics on OA and an overview of research, monitoring, trends, forecasts and strategies for adaptation. Day 2 will be more discussion-oriented and include breakout groups, a session for OA researchers, and a meeting of the Alaska OA Network steering committee.

This workshop is free and open to the public. Please register by Nov 14.

This will be a joint conference with IASC (International Arctic Science Committee), hosted by the Swiss Committee on Polar and High Altitude Research from 19-23 June 2018 in Davos, Switzerland. The Conference will include SCAR, IASC and other business and satellite meetings, an Open Science Conference and the SCAR Delegates' Meeting.

Organizers of the Open Science Conference are accepting proposals for sessions that cover a broad range of topics across the spectrum of Polar and high altitude research, such as, but not limited to, climate, glaciology, social and human sciences, ice sheets, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, biology, astronomy, geology, economic aspects, sustainable development, technology, and education. Session topics that encapsulate research conducted in both the Arctic and Antarctic are encouraged.

The conference will include oral and poster sessions, as well as e-poster sessions with a mini-oral session.

Tasks of the conveners include:

• Soliciting submissions for their session
• Reviewing abstracts submitted for their session
• Working with the International Scientific Organizing Committee to arrange the program of their session, including oral and poster presentations
• Chairing the session

Organizers welcome early career scientists and indigenous peoples as conveners and encourage diversity regarding conveners' nationalities and gender.

A template for submitting session proposals is available online.

Session proposal deadline: Wednesday, 30 November 2016.

For more information about session proposals, go to:
http://www.polar2018.org/call-for-sessions.html

For a proposal template or to submit a session proposal, go to:
http://www.polar2018.org/session-proposals.html

For questions, contact organizers at:
Email: polar2018 [at] slf.ch

The Seventh Symposium on Polar Science will be held at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), Tokyo, Japan. The NIPR is organizing this annual symposium to present and promote a wide variety of polar scientific research and interdisciplinary studies.

More details are available at the symposium web site (see link above).

The Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy (ACCAP) will host a National Weather Service Alaska Climate Briefing webinar for November 2016 entitled, "Dynamical Downscaling for Alaska: What is it and How to Use it?" The webinar will be presented by Rick Thoman of the National Weather Service.

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. Rick Thoman (Climate Science and Services Manager, Environmental and Scientific Services Division, National Weather Service Alaska Region) will review recent climate conditions around Alaska, review forecast tools and conclude with the Climate Prediction Center's forecast for the upcoming season.

Rick will also present a "Feature-of-the-Month" special addition in which he will highlight a topic relevant to the particular month. This will be a monthly series generally taking place the third Friday of each month.

For more information or to register online, go to the link above.

Participation in person is also available at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Akasofu Building, Room 407.

For questions, contact:
Tina Buxbaum
Email: tmbuxbaum [at] alaska.edu

The Alaska Fire Science Consortium (AFSC) announces a call for abstracts for an international workshop entitled "Opportunities to Apply Remote Sensing in Boreal/Arctic Wildfire Management and Science." The workshop will convene 4-6 April 2017 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, in Fairbanks, Alaska.

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.