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The International Glaciological Society will hold an International Symposium on ‘Snow’ in 2022. The symposium will be held at the Davos Congress Centre,
Davos, Switzerland.

Snow is a complex material, transient and of singular beauty. While our understanding has improved over the recent decades, it still offers numerous scientific challenges.The snow cover plays a crucial role in the climate of cold regions – from high latitudes to high elevations – and impacts societies and their activities. Because of its high climate sensitivity, snow is declining, with far-reaching consequences for the environment and humanity.

Given these prospects and improvements in advanced technologies for monitoring and modelling, we announce a symposium focused on understanding snow and its impacts on the environment, people and infrastructure. Snow will be examined at all scales – from the microscale of snow structure to the
global scale.

This meeting seeks to address various challenges by bringing together scientists from diverse communities engaged in research on snow. The organizers welcome snow-related contributions, including ground-based observations, remote sensing, laboratory experiments, numerical modelling, data compilations and analyses, risk management, water resources, climate and social impact assessment.

Suggested Topics

These include (but are not limited to):

1. Observing and modelling of snow and its changes at different scales
2. Snow physics and chemistry
3. Snow as a component of climate
4. Remote sensing of seasonal snow and avalanches
5. Snow in motion and snow engineering
6. Snow and biosphere
7. Snow hydrology

Abstract and Paper Publication

Participants who wish to present a paper (oral or poster) at the Symposium will be required to submit an abstract by 30 June 2022. Accepted abstracts will be posted on the Symposium’s website. The Council of the IGS will publish a thematic issue of the Annals of Glaciology on topics consistent with the Symposium themes. Participants are encouraged to submit manuscripts for this Annals volume.

The Permafrost Discovery Gateway hosts a monthly webinar series on the second Thursday of each month at 9:00 am Alaska time, raising topics of interest to the permafrost community. The webinar aims to 1) connect the international science community interested in big data remote sensing of permafrost landscapes, and 2) provide the Permafrost Discovery Gateway development team with end-user stories (by the presenter and webinar participants), such as exploring tools the community needs to create and explore big data.

Abstract

Commercial satellite sensors of Maxar Technologies have imaged the entire Arctic multiple times at sub- meter resolution over the last few decades. The pan-Arctic Maxar data set (> 2 PB) is freely accessible to the NSF-funded Arctic research community via the Polar Geospatial Center (PGC). High-resolution multispectral images enable transformational opportunities to characterize different permafrost landforms and to monitor micro-topographic transitions/disturbances occurring in the Arctic permafrost landscapes at finer granularity without compromising the geographical extent. Despite the unprecedented opportunities, the image repositories at PGC are largely underutilized and imagery- derived pan-Arctic science products are yet rare. Traditional remote sensing image analysis methods fail to grapple the sheer data volume and semantic complexities of image scenes, thus, limit the scalability of mapping applications. Knowledge discovery through AI, big imagery, high-performance computing (HPC) is just starting to be realized in Arctic permafrost science. We have developed a novel high- performance image analysis framework – Mapping application for Arctic Permafrost Land Environment (MAPLE) that enables the integration of operational-scale GeoAI capabilities into Arctic permafrost modeling. Interoperability across heterogeneous HPC systems, optimal usage of computational resource, and extensibility of mapping workflows are some of the key design goals of MAPLE. We have recently deployed MAPLE across the Arctic tundra to map ice-wedge polygons from thousands of Maxar imagery. Our mapping exercise has produced the first pan-Arctic ice-wedge polygon map, which consists of more than one billion individual ice-wedge polygons.

The U.S. Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (USAPECS) will be hosting a “Get to Know Us & Listening Session” webinar. Join to hear what the USAPECS is planning for the upcoming year and to share your ideas about what they can do in the future. USAPECS focuses on activities geared toward the Early Career Polar and Alpine research community but all those interested are welcome to attend. Please register ahead of time as space is limited.

The Institute of Arctic Studies in the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College announces their upcoming webinar, titled Empowering Arctic Indigenous Peoples: Our Role in Addressing Climate Change.

Abstract

The latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report tells us that we need global, coordinated, and immediate efforts to mitigate climate change if we are to keep temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels for our planet and people. Arctic Indigenous Peoples have been stewards of these northern regions for tens of thousands of years.

In this talk, Dr. Dorough will discuss the global leadership roles, perspectives, and knowledge that Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous Peoples bring to climate change solutions and decision-making within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Climate Agreement, and the IPCC. Dr. Dorough will also discuss the importance of Indigenous-led climate solutions in the future of Arctic research and planning.

Bio

Dr. Dalee Dorough Sambo (Iñupiat), is the past International Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), serving from 2018-2022 and representing approximately 180,000 Inuit from Canada, Greenland, Russia, and the United States on the Arctic Council and diverse United Nations fora. Currently a Senior Scholar and Advisor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, she has also served as an expert member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, is former co-Chair of the International Law Association Committee on Implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and was recently appointed to the Expert Panel on the Future of Arctic and Northern Research in Canada. She is also co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Arctic Health and the recipient of the 2022 International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) Medal for outstanding achievements in advocacy for the rights of Indigenous peoples, service to Arctic communities, and influence as a legal scholar.

The NSF GEO wide P4CLIMATE (Paleo Perspectives of Present and Projected Climate) will host two virtual office hours on Tuesday 20 September and Wednesday 28 September from 2:00-5:00 pm EDT.

P4CLIMATE program directors will present a brief overview of this new solicitation and will be available to answer solicitation-specific questions, such as expectations for the research themes and topics supported by P4CLIMATE.

Registration is required in advance for this meeting.

A U.S. House Science and Technology Committee Hearing will take place at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC and online via Zoom.

With the Arctic warming two to four times faster than the rest of the planet, the purpose of this hearing is to discuss the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee’s Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026, which is informed by the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. The hearing will explore gaps in research and analysis, needed improvements to federal science capabilities, research vessels and infrastructure, and barriers to strengthening our response to local and global climate change impacts, such as carbon and methane emissions released from permafrost thaw. Additionally, this hearing will discuss gaps in Arctic system monitoring, observing, modeling, and prediction efforts. Importantly, this hearing will examine the role of traditional knowledge holders and equitable practices in the coproduction of research, especially in critical areas such as food security and biodiversity. Finally, the hearing will be an opportunity to discuss the impact of geopolitical tensions on science diplomacy in the Arctic and challenges for future international collaboration in key research including boreal forest fires, sea ice melt and land ice loss, particularly the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Witnesses:

• Dr. Larry Hinzman, Assistant Director of Polar Sciences, Office of Science and Technology Policy and Executive Director, Interagency Arctic Research and Policy Committee
• Dr. Mike Sfraga, Chair, U.S. Arctic Research Commission
• Ms. Vera Kingeekuk Metcalf, Executive Director, Eskimo Walrus Commission
• Dr. Susan Natali, Arctic Program Director, Woodwell Climate Research Center

Overarching Questions:

1. How did IARPC identify the priorities in the latest 5-year research plan? Why is the two-year implementation plan necessary? What discussions are taking place to consider longer-term research planning for the Arctic?
2. What outstanding research questions remain to be answered to improve our understanding of climate change impacts in the Arctic? What research infrastructure, vessels, capabilities, and partnerships are necessary to support this work? What is the status of the U.S. Arctic Observing Network?
3. What guidelines exist to help researchers improve communication and collaboration in Arctic communities when carrying out field work? How is the science community addressing barriers to coproduction of knowledge?
4. How are geopolitical tensions from Russia’s war on Ukraine impacting domestic Arctic research under IARPC and international research through the Arctic Council? What are the future considerations for scientific collaboration in the Arctic?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) invites proposals for funding through their Ideas Lab: Engineering Technologies to Advance Underwater Sciences (ETAUS) solicitation. NSF’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP), along with other Directorates and Offices, are seeking proposals aimed to advance underwater sciences through the Ideas Lab.

An Ideas Lab is an intensive meeting that brings together multiple diverse perspectives to focus on finding innovative cross-disciplinary solutions to a grand challenge problem. The aim of this Ideas Lab is to bring together experts from diverse scientific and engineering backgrounds to develop innovative engineering technologies and solutions that will enable real-time and reliable sensing, communications, localization, navigation, and mapping of aquatic environments, including glaciers, rivers, lakes, and oceans, for scientific research and economic development in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner.

This Ideas Lab will seek and prioritize proposals which will measurably increase the diversity and participation of underrepresented minorities in STEM.

The "preliminary proposal" is simple - two pages primarily about the applicant and how they might work with a team during the Ideas Lab.

Preliminary Proposal deadline (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): 19 September 2022.

Full Proposal Deadline(s) (due by 5 p.m. submitter's local time): March 01, 2023.

Hosted every three years, the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) All Scientists' Meeting is a rare opportunity for researchers from all 28 LTER sites to explore wide ranging research questions. The focus is on research conducted in and with the LTER Network, but the meeting is open to all interested participants.

Rather than the more typical 15-minute talks, the All-Scientists’ Meeting is structured around 90-minute workshop blocks, which can take many different forms. Often, a block will kick off with a few short talks followed by in-depth discussion. Other times, the entire block is focused on a training-type activity or a scoping or planning discussion for future activities or proposals.

LTER ASM Workshops can be great ways to float ideas for collaborative projects, receive feedback, and find collaborators. They can also be effective in bringing group problem-solving approaches to common challenges. There are many ways to contribute to the meeting program this year.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising an Earth Observation (EO) training course in collaboration with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The training is designed to promote and disseminate EO data and information-based solutions focussing on Arctic Methane and Permafrost. The programme will provide theoretical information followed by practical exercises and will feature the use of Satellite data from different missions together with airborne and ground based data together with process modelling.

The course is intended for researchers, students, PhD students and young professionals who use EO technology within their research or work and want to improve their knowledge of remote sensing.

Main Topics

• Introduction to the ESA NASA Arctic Methane & Permafrost challenge - AMPAC
• Arctic ecosystem science
• SAR & optical data focusing on permafrost regions
• Active & passive remote sensing of the atmosphere
• Synthesing Remote sensing, modelling and in situ observations
• Arctic Process Modelling
• Science Communication

Important Dates

• Registrations: 10 June – 15 July 2022
• Application deadline: 15 July 2022

Update: Following the outbreak of COVID19, this event was postponed to 19 to 30 September 2022. (The original dates were 20 to 31 July 2020.)

This two-week workshop at the Isaac Newton Institute (INI) will build on the successful scientific programme SIP’17 with a similar title that took place at the INI from 21/08/2017 to 20/12/2017. This programme stimulated new areas of enquiry and consolidation of existing work that is continuing. The aims of the present workshop are to support these advances, to give an extra impulse to new research on the mathematics of sea ice, and to review the progress achieved after the SIP’17 programme. The continuing changes in the Earth’s polar sea-ice covers under global warming make advances in the mathematics of sea ice timelier than ever.

Recognizing this urgency and the need for succession planning, the follow-on workshop will include a Summer School for early career researchers with lectures on ice models, ice physics and research challenges. An Industrial Day and a half-day colloquium with the British Antarctic Survey are also planned. Topics of the talks and discussions during the proposed workshop will include but are not limited to:

• Large-scale ice models for offshore engineering and shipping, environmental or climate modelling
• Multi-scale ice modelling through several scales
• Quantification of uncertainties in ice modelling
• Parsimonious models of continuous and broken ice

This event will also be livestreamed using Zoom.