News Archive

The Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) announces a call for informal and early season contributions to the 2015 Sea Ice Outlook (SIO). This call offers a forum for sharing information on sea ice parameters other than extent and/or for other time periods than are included in the regular monthly reports. It is in addition to the calls for contributions to the regular SIO monthly reports in June, July, and August.

Final report for the Joint Antarctic School Expedition (JASE) pilot program. The program goal was to advance polar science education and understanding by students from the U.S. and Chile through hands-­on field experiences.

The Board of Directors of ARCUS announced today the selection of Robert H. Rich, PhD, CAE as its Executive Director. He will assume the duties of leading the Consortium's staff on 18 May 2015. Rich earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, a Master's degree from Harvard University, and a Bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Most recently, Dr. Rich served as Director, Strategy Development for the American Chemical Society (ACS), where he served for 16 years in a variety of roles including career development, research grants, membership, and strategy. Prior to joining the ACS, he worked in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Research Competitiveness Program and at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in fundamental research and in the Office of Science Policy.

The archive is now available for the 5 May 2015 Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) webinar "Observations of Arctic Snow and Sea Ice Thickness from Satellite and Airborne Surveys" presented by Nathan Kurtz, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The archive includes a video of the webinar, the presentation slides, and a list of webinar participants.

PolarTREC is proud to share two new videos highlighting PolarTREC alumnus John Wood and Susan Steiner. These videos showcase the teachers' PolarTREC experience and how working with scientists impacts them personally as well as their students in the classroom.

Watch John Wood Video

Watch Susan Steiner Video

Learn more about PolarTREC!

The Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) will host an open webinar entitled "Observations of Arctic Snow and Sea Ice Thickness from Satellite and Airborne Surveys." The presentation, given by Nathan Kurtz of NASA's Cryospheric Sciences Lab at Goddard, will focus on the current state and availability of snow and sea ice thickness data from NASA's Operation IceBridge airborne surveys and the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite mission. The accuracy and limitations of these operational data sets will also be discussed to place the utility of the data in context for use in a variety of study areas.

This one-hour webinar is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. AKDT (11:00 a.m. PDT, 12:00 p.m. MDT, 1:00 p.m. CDT, and 2:00 EDT) on Tuesday, 5 May 2015.

More information about the webinar is available here.

NSIDC announces availability of the MASIE-AMSR2 (MASAM2) daily 4 km sea ice concentration, which is a prototype concentration product offering greater accuracy and higher resolution in ice concentration fields used to initialize an operational sea ice forecast model. MASAM2 is a blend of two other daily sea ice data products: ice coverage from the Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent (MASIE) product, at a 4 km grid cell size, and ice concentrations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) at a 10 km grid cell size. This prototype MASAM2 product currently covers July 2012 through mid-November 2014, but it will become a daily product if there is demand for such a product.

The 2015 Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO) is in full swing! Reports will be released each Friday from now until the end of the summer ice season.

SIWO is a collaboration between weather and ice forecasters, climate scientists and sea-ice researchers, and Alaska Native sea-ice experts. It focuses on the ice conditions in the northern Bering and southern Chukchi Seas, and produces weekly reports on ice and weather conditions for Alaska Native subsistence hunters, coastal communities, and anyone interested in sea ice and walrus.

ARCUS seeks nominations for the Organizing Committee of the Arctic Observing Open Science Meeting that will convene for 2.5 days during the week of 16 November 2015 in Seattle, Washington. The conference will bring together individuals and teams involved in the collection, processing, analysis, and use of observations in the Arctic. Submission deadline: Friday, 27 March 2015.

On Thursday, 5 March 2015 Cecilia Bitz provided the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee with testimony about Arctic research opportunities. Her comments featured the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) as an example of exciting new work that could deliver even more relevant information to policy makers with further investments. Her comments are recorded from 1:26 to 1:31 in the archived video.

The archive is now available for the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) webinar on "Sea Ice Modeling: Characteristics and Processes Critical for the Radiation Budget," presented by Elizabeth Hunke, Los Alamos National Laboratory. The archive includes video of the webinar, the presentation slides, and a list of webinar participants.

Reminder: Webinar today, Tuesday, 3 March 2015, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. AKST. on "Sea Ice Modeling: Characteristics and Processes Critical for the Radiation Budget." The speaker is Elizabeth Hunke, Los Alamos National Laboratory. This webinar is designed for the sea ice research community and others interested in learning about sea ice modeling from the global climate model perspective.

The Winter 2015 issue of Witness the Arctic is now published online. We are pleased with our new graphic-friendly format for email delivery of the newsletter. This issue includes information about the SEARCH program and related activities, Arctic Research Support and Logistics program updates, news from ACADIS, information related to an Executive Order to coordinate Arctic-related activities, new communication and collaboration tools from IARPC, an overview of NOAA's 2014 Arctic Report Card, updates on upcoming international meetings (ICARP III and ASSW 2016), and a profile of ARCUS board member Mark Ivey.

The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) seeks nominations of candidates for the SEARCH Science Steering Committee (SSC) that are broad and cross-disciplinary thinkers, good communicators and consensus-builders, and have a strong commitment to the SEARCH vision. While we welcome nominations from all disciplines and research backgrounds, to complement existing strengths we are particularly interested in members with expertise in the social sciences (including economics), human dimensions, science-policy linkages, and those with expertise in partnering with stakeholders outside the academic and US federal scientific communities. Nominations are due Monday, 9 March.

A complete archive of the webinar on "International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) III: Integrating Arctic Research—A Roadmap for the Future,” with presentations from Volker Rachold (Executive Secretary, International Arctic Science Committee) and Larry Hinzman (Director, International Arctic Research Center), is now available. Archived files include the presentation as a PDF, the participant list, and audio and video recordings.

Registration is now available for a SIPN webinar entitled "Sea Ice Modeling: Characteristics and Processes Critical for the Radiation Budget." The speaker is Elizabeth Hunke, Los Alamos National Laboratory. This webinar is designed for the sea ice research community and others interested in learning about sea ice modeling from the global climate model perspective. It is scheduled for Tuesday, 3 March 2015 from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. AKST. For more information, contact Betsy Turner-Bogren at ARCUS (betsy [at] arcus.org).

The Polar Climate Predictability Initiative (PCPI) announces a call for abstracts and registration for the Sea Ice Prediction Workshop 2015. This workshop will discuss polar climate variability and predictability on seasonal to decadal timescales. Presentations on understanding the causes of of inter-annual polar climate variability, as well as idealised predictability studies, and operational forecasts are welcome. The workshop will convene 8-10 April 2015 at the University of Reading, United Kingdom. For more information contact Ed Hawkins (e.hawkins [at] reading.ac.uk).

ICARP III: Integrating Arctic Research: a Roadmap for the Future
Wednesday, 18 February 2015 at 8:00 a.m. AKST

The International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP) III aims at engaging all partners in shaping the future of Arctic research needs. The goal of the webinar is to provide information on ICARP III organization and activities.

This is a great time for experienced professionals interested in the Arctic! The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs' Arctic Sciences Section. This grant will support a new structure and suite of activities, including new positions of SEARCH Executive Director, a Project Manager, and a Communicator/Facilitator.

The PolarTREC team begins 2015 with two teachers' deployments in Antarctica as well as upcoming meetings on teacher-researcher partnerships and polar STEM education workshops with the National Science Teachers Association. Keep up with expeditions and events that connect students and the public to polar science at www.polartrec.com.

The Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) announces the 2014 Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) Post-Season Report! The SIO provides an open forum for researchers and others to share and discuss predictions of Arctic sea ice through monthly reports in the summer and a post-season analysis. The post-season report includes analysis of the relative skill of various Arctic sea ice prediction models and methods and an expanded focus this year on the spatial pattern, probability, and ice-free dates for specific regions.

The Fall 2014 issue of Witness the Arctic is now available. This issue includes information about the new SEARCH program structure and program updates; news of NSF-funded projects in Arctic natural sciences, social sciences, science education, and Polar Cyberinfrastructure; a perspective on recommendations from the Arctic Biodiversity Assessment; updates from ACADIS and USARC; profiles of two ARCUS board members; and a welcome to the five new members of the ARCUS Board of Directors.

A Town Hall on the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) will be held at the AGU Fall meeting in San Francisco. The Town Hall is scheduled for Monday, 15 December 2014 at 12:30-1:30 PM PST in Moscone West, Room 2005. Members of the Arctic science, education, and policy communities are invited to attend. We encourage students and early career investigators to participate. Light refreshments will be provided.

There will be a Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) Modeling Meeting on Wednesday, 17 December from 12:30-2:00 pm during the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meetings. This year's meeting will focus on issues related to predicting sea ice with methods that are sensitive to initial conditions. Specifically, the goal of this meeting is to set up a common protocol for experiments to test sensitivity to initial conditions in sea ice forecasts of summer 2015. We will also discuss metrics that are responsive to stakeholder needs. The meeting is open, and all SIPN and Sea Ice Outlook participants who use initial conditions in a model are invited. The meeting will convene in the Foothill E room on the 2nd floor of the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

Lunch will be provided to folks who RSVP by 10:00 am (AKST) Monday, 8 December. For more information or to RSVP, contact Betsy (betsy [at] arcus.org).

Request for Input: Draft Post-Season Report. The 2014 Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) Action Team invites community comment on its draft post-season report. This draft includes the main post-season analysis and discussion points. Following input, further development, and editing the SIO Action Team aims to share a final draft with the larger community during the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall Meetings 14-19 December. Comments from the Arctic sea ice community on the analysis and discussion sections as well as suggestions on how to help improve sea-ice forecasts are welcome. Please send comments to Betsy Turner-Bogren (betsy [at] arcus.org) by Wednesday, 3 December 2014. The report is online and available to be downloaded as a PDF or Microsoft Word document here.