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The Alaska Forum on the Environment (AFE) is Alaska's largest statewide gathering of environmental professionals from government agencies, non-profit and for-profit businesses, community leaders, Alaskan youth, conservationists, biologists and community elders. The diversity of attendees and comprehensive agenda sets this conference apart from any other.

Each year we offer over 80 technical breakout sessions and sensational Keynote Events. We will continue to offer the a full week of sessions on climate change, energy, environmental regulations, cleanup and remediation, fish & wildlife, solid waste, and of course much more. For our 17th year event in 2015, we will continue our expanded content on Marine Debris, Coastal Issues and Tsunami's in order to address the pressing concerns from Alaska rural coastal communities.

This is your opportunity to learn more about the environment and meet with other Alaskans that work in the environmental field. We encourage you to register online and join us February 9-13, 2015!

Notes:

• The entire event will be held at Anchorage's Dena'ina Convention Center.
• Technical breakout sessions developed specifically for the Indian General Assistance Program (GAP) are hosted from Monday - Friday concurrent with other breakout sessions within the full event agenda.

This course will provide training in the description and interpretation of quartz grains of sediments from a wide variety of environments, with particular focus on periglacial sediments. During the course the participants will be available two scanning electron microscopes (SEM).

The course includes practical exercises involving the analysis of samples in the SEM, lectures and discussion forums. Practical classes will be conducted in a maximum of 5 people groups.

Brief syllabus of the course:

• Series of lectures on the possibility of using quartz grains in environmental studies of periglacial conditions, including recording the intensity of frost weathering in sediments of different genesis and intensity Aeolian processes developing in periglacial conditions;
• Methodology of the analysis of the surface micromorphology of quartz grains in the SEM;
• Preparation of samples for SEM analysis;
• Analysis of samples in the SEM, both produced by operators, as well as its own participants;
• Discussion.

Registration deadline: 30.09.2014
Contact Alexandre Nieuwendam (alexandretn [at] gmail.com)

Location of the course: Cryo-SEM Laboratory, Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, ul. Żwirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warsaw

Participation fee: 300 Euro and includes: Course book, daily lunch, dinner at the end of the course and Public transportation weekly ticket

Conveners:
Barbara Woronko Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw; bworonko [at] uw.edu.pl;
Alexandre Nieuwendam – Center of Geographical Studies-IGOT, University of Lisbon; alexandretn [at] gmail.com

The cryosphere forms an integral part of the climate system of the Earth. The cryosphere contains up to 75-80 % of the freshwater supply and in the Northern Hemisphere, seasonal snow cover extends to 49% of the total land surface in midwinter. The cryosphere affects the climate system through its influence on surface energy balance, moisture flux and atmospheric circulation over both seas and land surfaces. Monitoring of seasonal snow cover properties is therefore essential in understanding interactions and feedback mechanisms related to the cryosphere.

However, as a complex and highly variable medium, many essential properties of seasonal snow cover have traditionally been difficult to measure. Applications in diverse fields such as hydrology, avalanche forecasting and Earth Observation from space would benefit from improved quantification of snow cover properties, in particular related to the snow microstructure. The past 10 years snow science has seen a rapid change from a semi-quantitative to a quantitative science. Understanding physical and chemical processes in the snowpack requires detailed measurements of the microstructure. The progress in quantitative measurements was recently solidified by the Snow Grain Size Intercomparison Workshop 2014.

The most important quantitative techniques are micro-tomography, BET gas adsorption, and applicable in the field, reflection measurements in the infrared spectrum, near-infrared photography and high-resolution penetrometry.

Target audience
Any graduate student or post-doc working on snow or in some snow related field is welcome to participate. Those fields may cover Glaciology, Hydrology, Oceanography, Geography, but also Biology or Chemistry as well as Engineering or Material Sciences.

Course structure
In this workshop we will teach the state-of-the-art snow measurement techniques. The focus of this workshop lies on field measurements, combined with theoretical lessons in the classroom.

Field measurements will be done in small groups of 3-4 students. Each group of students will have to prepare a report describing the methods, results and interpretation. The course corresponds to 3 ETCS-Points.

Location
Campus of the Arctic Research Center at Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI in Sodankylä, Finland. Accommodation is provided on campus of FMI, with direct access to the field sites.

Transport from Rovaniemi to Sodankylä by bus. Rovaniemi is best reached by plane (e.g Finnair) from Helsinki. Details on travel will be provided soon.

Course cost
200 Euro including

Full accommodation at FMI Sodankylä and Saariselkä (with breakfast, field lunch and dinner) from Sunday, Feb. 8 - Saturday, Feb. 14 2015
Bus transport Sodankylä - Saariselkä and Saariselkä - Rovaniemi
Travel to tundra field site
Rental ski gear for field trip

Registration
Registration is closed. For questions send an Email to snowschool [at] slf.ch

Organization
Sodankylä is located in northern Finland in the boreal and sub-Arctic zone. Temperatures in February may drop to -30°C, and the snow cover is on average 50-70 cm deep. In the Alpine tundra of Saariselkä high wind speed are possible as well. As the course is to a great extent based on field work and excursions, proper clothing is essential. Participants should:

• bring their own winter gear (warm and wind-proof clothing such as warm down jacket, snow boots, thick gloves/mittens, warm underwear etc)
• be healthy enough to undertake the extended field day in the Alpine tundra of Saariselkä
• have a valid travel insurance

Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI

• Juha Lemmetyinen (Juha.Lemmetyinen@fmi),
• Leena Leppänen (Leena.Leppanen [at] fmi.fi),
• Anna Kontu (Anna.Kontu [at] fmi.fi)

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF

• Martin Schneebeli (Schneebeli [at] slf.ch),
• Martin Proksch (Proksch [at] slf.ch)

Lecturers

• Martin Schneebeli, WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
• Juha Lemmetyinen, Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI, Finland
• Chris Derksen, Environment Canada
• Jean-Charles Gallet, Norwegian Polar Institute NPI, Norway
• Alex Langlois, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
• Martin Proksch, WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF
• Anna Kontu, Finnish Meteorological Institute FMI, Finland
• Isabelle Gouttevin, IRSTEA, Lyon, France
• Sveta Stuefer, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA

Contact information:
snowschool [at] slf.ch

Preliminary program
Sunday: Arrival
Monday: Lectures & classroom practice with field equipment; social event (ice breaker)
Tuesday: Lectures and basic field experiment techniques
Wednesday: Lectures and basic field experiment techniques
Thursday: Lectures and basic field experiment techniques; wrap up session
Friday: Extended field experiment: Saariselkä tundra site
Saturday: Departure

Travel Information
Transport to the 1st European Snow Science Winter School in Sodankylä, Finland, will be provided from Rovaniemi airport & town centre to Sodankylä and back by bus. Rovaniemi is best reached by plane (e.g Finnair or Norwegian) from Helsinki, but an overnight train is also possible.

The Symposium acts partly as final symposium of the inter-disciplinary TEMPS-project (The evolution of mountain permafrost in Switzerland) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The main objective of TEMPS and the above symposium is an improved understanding of the vulnerability of mountain regions to permafrost changes and to assess the current and future impacts on populated mountain regions such as the European Alps. The 2-day symposium will include invited lectures on mountain permafrost research, the presentation of the main project results, and a specific practitioner’s day (German/French) to strengthen the relation between science and practice. All permafrost interested practitioners and scientists are cordially invited to join the symposium.

A poster session and exhibition will complement the program on the first and second day, and poster submission is open to everyone (has to be stated upon registration). An excursion to the nearby Swiss Alps is organized for the two last days.

Deadline for registration is the 9th of January 2015 and can be conducted via the symposium’s webpage.

More info and the complete program can be found under: http://www.temps-symposium.ch/program.php?language=en

Six consecutive free public science lectures will be given by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. in the Westmark, Fairbanks, Gold Room. February 3rd, Michael Castellini will present "Polar Adventures: The Voyages of the Research Vessel Sikuliaq". This is an all ages event.

Randi Jandt of the Alaska Fire Science Consortium will talk about the evolution of Alaska firefighting practices--field and management--over the past 50 years. We are starting to be aware of the changes in climate and in Alaskan forests: is the wildfire "problem" the same one we faced a half-century ago? Have our management approaches and thinking about wildfire changed during that time? She will combine her background in land and fire management agencies with input from long-term observers to discuss which changes might be a response to changing weather, climate, & fire regimes in Alaska.

Pre-registration for webinars is strongly encouraged. The audio portion of the call is through a toll-free phone line and the slide presentation is streamed via computer. For instructions on participating through your home office or at a satellite viewing location with others in your community, please see the webinar information page: https://accap.uaf.edu/?q=webinars.

You and your colleagues are invited to attend the CESM Land Ice and Polar Climate Working Group Winter Meetings, Monday-Wednesday, February 2-4, 2015. This meetings will be held in Boulder, Colorado at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Laboratory. The Land Ice Working Group (LIWG) will meet Feb. 2-3, and the Polar Climate Working Group (PCWG) will meet Feb. 3-4. The afternoon of Feb. 3 will be a joint LIWG/PCWG session.

Please attend! We welcome all topics! If you would like to give a short presentation about your work, please send a title to njeffery [at] lanl.gov, jennifer.e.kay [at] colorado.edu, lipscomb [at] lanl.gov, or jesse.johnson [at] mso.umt.edu. We will organize the agendas around the topics you send.

Looking forward to seeing you in Boulder!

For further information about the Polar Climate Working Group, please go to:
http://www2.cesm.ucar.edu/working_groups/pcwg

For further information about the Land Ice Working Group, please go to:
https://www2.cesm.ucar.edu/working-groups/liwg

or contact:
David A Bailey
National Center for Atmospheric Research
E-Mail: dbailey [at] ucar.edu

William Lipscomb
Los Alamos National Laboratory
E-Mail: lipscomb [at] lanl.gov

The second annual Arctic Encounter Symposium will challenge participants to tackle the shared interests and concerns of the United States and the global community as we look north to the last emerging frontier – the Arctic. Leading experts, CEO's, and thought leaders from the science, technology, maritime, and energy sectors, will gather to challenge the status quo dialogue, critically address challenges to realizing the Arctic's full potential and collaborate on solutions. Participants will include key industry leaders, policy makers, and regional stakeholders. This year's Symposium will focus on the role of the U.S. as an Arctic nation and the challenges it will confront in its upcoming chairmanship of the Arctic Council, including: climate change, natural resources, investment opportunities, and international relations. The goal of the 2015 Arctic Encounter is to facilitate a creative environment for the development of a proactive agenda, short and long-term domestic and international priorities, and a strategic execution plan. The two-day program will take place at the University of Washington with a dinner reception on January 30, 2015 at the Museum of History and Industry.

For more information, please visit the symposium website.

This symposium will explore the effectiveness of existing governance in the Arctic region, strategies for improving effective implementation, and possible alternative governance regimes. A segment of the presented papers will be published in the UCI Law Review as a symposium.

Presenters include:

• Betsy Baker,
• Michael Byers,
• Joseph DiMento,
• Tore Henriksen,
• Brian Israel,
• Timo Koivurova,
• Tullio Scovazzi, and
• Oran Young

For more information, please visit the symposium website.

Six consecutive free public science lectures will be given by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. in the Westmark, Fairbanks, Gold Room. January 27th, Michael West will present "The Next Big Earthquake." This is an all ages event.