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The 4th European Marine Board Forum will bring together Arctic stakeholders from multiple sectors (science, industry, policy & governance, NGOs, etc.) to:

• Discuss current trends and patterns of change in Arctic Ocean ecosystems, including human activity;
• Identify possible “2050” scenarios for Arctic Change and the corresponding implications for human health and well-being;
• Highlight key research gaps, needs and challenges in support of understanding, mitigating against, or adapting to Arctic change;
• Stimulate dialogue across sectors to aid common understanding, collaborative actions and sustainability targets;
• Promote the need for a sustainable ecosystem-based management of the Arctic Ocean.

This workshop on 12 March will focus on the risks from operating in ice with a particular focus on the gap between the different rules and regulations of the IACS Polar Class Rules, the (draft) IMO Polar Code and the lack of a pan-Arctic benchmark for determining when different ice class requirements apply. In this workshop, the world’s leading marine, insurance and ice experts will try to come to a consensus to highlight these issues. A recommendation will be drafted with a request to fill the knowledge gap and create a viable cross jurisdictional ice regime that will enable the IMO Polar Code and IACS Polar Class classifications to work efficiently. The objective is in other words, to support the sustainable development of the Arctic.

To register, reply to ud.registration.11march [at] gov.se no later than 4 March.

Climate change is complicating the variables that Alaskans consider when planning for the future. Communities, agencies and other entities have begun to grapple with both the information that they need to adapt to a changing climate and how the processes and practices of science should change to make science more useful. We reviewed and coded sixty-three documents that expressed practical research needs related to climate change in Alaska. Our goals were to document stakeholder-defined research needs, assess whether there are spatial or topic-related gaps in needs assessment, and understand what stakeholders suggest about how science might be more relevant and useful in a changing climate. Overarching themes include the need for more baseline data to understand change, an interest in the social impacts of climate change, and a need to incorporate local perspectives. Research needs that were most frequently mentioned related to infrastructure, economics costs of climate change, adaptation planning, policy, and impacts to subsistence. Gaps included inadequate engagement of local perspectives and few examples of community-level assessments. Documents nearly unanimously expressed that science, as it is currently practiced, is unable to meet the challenges of climate change. They call for processes that are more transparent, collaborative, and accessible. They recommend changed practices including maintaining accessible data-sharing archives, building networks for knowledge sharing, and creating place-based long-term partnerships with communities. This review complements the climate-change literature by providing concrete suggestions about stakeholder relevant research needs as well as how to increase the utility of science from a region that is experiencing some of the most dramatic climatic change on the planet.

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 our webinar information page.

With the melting of Arctic sea ice, the predictions for the shipping sector in the Arctic have radically changed. The Northern Sea Route and the North West Passage could become major trading routes in the near future. Transports between Europe and Asia could be cut by up to 40 % in costs and time. The Arctic maritime traffic will most likely be dominated by transit shipping of natural resources from the Arctic region to the world market. But is the Arctic prepared for this increase in Arctic shipping? Are the shipping routes, lighthouses, radar systems and Search and Rescue capacities in order for increased shipping activities? How are the ice conditions and how do they change over time? How much of the investments shall be covered by the states and how much could the contribution of the companies operating in the Arctic be? Could the maritime sector agree on an Arctic Marine Best Practice Declaration to make the future of the Arctic shipping more sustainable? With the aim to come closer on how to shape sustainable shipping in the Arctic, join us for a one day conference 11 March 2014.

The 5th Arctic Business Forum in March 2014 introduces the Rising Business Potential in the Arctic Vast natural resources and melting of arctic sea ice have led the arctic regions to become an interesting new destination for investments. Only this decade the European High North region hold ongoing and planned investments worth of over more than 100 billion euro. The 5th Arctic Business Forum conference will be held at Rovaniemi, Finland from March 11th to 13th, 2014. The annual conference introduces the latest business development and future prospects of the rising arctic economy as a vital part of worldwide developments. Two days of world class presentations by invited speakers, a trade show and a high class social program in the very heart of Lapland Finland make the event an excellent opportunity for anyone interested in the arctic business development in terms of business opportunities and networking, exchanging ideas, insight and learning experience.
The following current issues will be featured by the presentations:

• What effects climate change has on arctic business
• Arctic sea routes and the influence on other transport methods
• Shale gas developments and effects on arctic oil & gas industry
• Raw material prices – is mining still profitable and sustainable
• Best practices - how do SME’s get in and part of the large scale projects

Additional information with program and registration details are available on the conference website. The conference is organized by Lapland Chamber of Commerce, Finland.

The International Glaciological Society will hold an International Symposium on Sea Ice in a Changing Environment in 2014. The symposium will be held in Hobart, Australia from 10 to 14 March 2014. This will be the fourth IGS symposium dedicated to sea-ice research.

Topics are to include:

• Pole to pole: Large-scale change and variability in sea ice and climate, including: regional to hemispheric response, teleconnections, attribution of change (including large-scale atmospheric and oceanic circulation changes and feedback mechanisms), and possible extreme events
• Seymour Laxon and Katharine Giles celebration session: Advances in sea- ice analysis using remotely sensed data, including: hemispheric and global assessment, sea-ice thickness and volume, algorithm development and validation, accuracy of retrieved parameters, multisensor synergies, new technologies
• Advances in instrumentation and observation methods, including: non-destructive observations, autonomous observatories (including underwater and aerial platforms), new analytical methods
• The challenge of melding sea-ice modelling with observations, including: sea-ice and coupled model validation, advances in numerical parameterizations, current gaps, translating observations into models, IPCC-AR5 ensemble synthesis
• A new regime for sea-ice growth and decay?, including: New observations of sea-ice growth and decay processes and of the characteristics of the sea-ice matrix, including the contribution of snow to sea-ice formation and decay (e.g. snow–ice and melt-pond formation), microphysical properties
• Snow on sea ice, including: snow thickness, density, characteristics and processes, gas exchange, surface radiation budget and remote sensing considerations
• Interactions between sea-ice drift & deformation and sea-ice morphology, including: ice kinematics, dynamics and mechanics, linkage to floe-size distribution and ice concentration, and dynamic effects on the sea-ice matrix
• Ocean–ice–atmosphere interactions, including: boundary-layer processes, waves, tides, drag coefficients, synoptic scale forcing
• The marginal ice zone, including: processes at the outer ice–ocean boundary, numerical and experimental advances in wave–ice interaction, wave attenuation, and floe-size modification
• Sea-ice interaction with ice sheets, ice shelves and icebergs, including: fast ice, polynyas, basal melt and refreeze, water-mass modification, freshwater balance, oceanic heat content, and possible linkage to ice-shelf stability
• The role of sea ice in ecosystems dynamics, including: sea-ice biota, primary productivity, microorganisms, microbial food webs, trophic levels
• Sea-ice biogeochemical properties and processes in a world of change, including: gas fluxes, nutrients, trace elements, carbon and oxygen cycling, brine composition and nutrients
• Palaeo and pre-satellite sea ice distribution, including: historical records and observations, reconstructions from ice core records and deep-sea sediments.

Information will be updated on the conference website as it becomes available.

The Intercomparison of Snow Grain Size Measurements Workshop will take place from March 9-14, 2014 in Davos, Switzerland, and a follow-up workshop from August 4-5, 2014 in Reading, UK. It was motivated by the "IACS Snow Grain Size Workshop - Measurements and Applications" held April 2013 in Grenoble.

The workshop goal is to compare all currently used direct and indirect methods of measuring snow “grain size”. The following instruments are currently on our partial list to compare:

• Tomography
• BET adsorption methods
• Casting methods
• Stereology and sectioning
• Spectroscopic methods (e.g. using 1030 nm absorption feature)
• Near-infrared photography
• Direct optical methods (e.g. based on 1300 nm reflectance)
• High-resolution penetrometry (e.g. SnowMicroPen)
• Traditional grain size

The measurements will be conducted in the cold laboratories of the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and on a dedicated field site near Davos. Homogenous snow samples will be prepared by the SLF.

There will be a follow-up workshop from August 4-5, 2014 in Reading, UK - detailed announcement will follow.

Presenter: Dr. David A. Robinson - Rutgers University, Department of Geography

Abstract:
Annual snow cover extent (SCE) over Northern Hemisphere (NH) lands averages 25.8 million square kilometers. It ranges from an average of 47.1 million sq. km. in January to 3.0 million sq. km. (mostly atop the Greenland Ice Sheet) in August. SCE is calculated at the Rutgers Global Snow Lab from daily SCE maps produced by meteorologists at the National Ice Center, who rely primarily on visible satellite imagery to construct the maps.

Annual SCE over NH lands has averaged lower since the late 1980s than earlier in the satellite era that began in the late 1960s. This is most evident from late winter through spring, and in the past decade has been exceedingly pronounced at high latitudes in May and June. The most recent four Mays have had four of the five lowest NH SCEs on record, with Eurasian (Eur) SCE at a record low in 2013. North American (NA) SCE achieved a record minimum in May 2010, but of late has not been as consistently low as over Eur. The past six Junes have seen record minimum SCEs over the NH and Eur, with five of these six Junes the lowest over NA. The recent early timing of arctic snowmelt appears to be occurring at an equivalent if not greater pace than the loss of summer Arctic sea ice extent.

While when projecting snow melt discharge it is much preferable to know the water equivalent of a snowpack (SWE) rather than its extent, the response of streamflow to seasonal SCE changes has been found to be significant within large basins in Siberia and the North American arctic. Along with an overview of continenal SCE kinematic, this hydrological relationship will be examined in this presentation, along with results looking at satellite microwave derived SWE and discharge, which also show promising results on a large scale.

The 18th Alpine Glaciology Meeting (AGM) will take place in Innsbruck, Austria, on February 27-28, 2014.

The AGM is an informal platform where young and senior researchers can meet in a relaxed atmosphere and we very much look forward to provide this setting also for the 18th AGM in Innsbruck. Contributions (oral and poster presentations) addressing all kind of cryospheric topics are welcome and no registration fee is required.

For organizational reasons, we would like to ask you to send us an intend-to participate e-mail (to irmgard.juen [at] uibk.ac.at) by October 30, 2013.

A call for titles of your intended presentations will reach you in January, 2014.

More information on travel and accommodation will be posted as it becomes available.

Organizers of the 5th Polar Shipping Summit announce a call for registration. The summit will convene 26-27 February 2014 in London, United Kingdom.

The goal of the Polar Shipping Summit is to create awareness of international commercial shipping to the North American region and promote understanding of international polar shipping activities. The summit will address key developments in transport and regulation in the Arctic as well as commercial, communication, and safety issues. Particular emphasis will be put on evaluating potential opportunities in the region.

To download a brochure and agenda, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/PolarShippingSummit.

For questions, please contact:
Mohammad Ahsan
Email: mahsan [at] acieu.net
Phone: +44(0)-207-981-2503