Polar and Alpine Community News

The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is now soliciting applications to be the next Secretary for our Atmosphere Working Group (AWG). 

Being an IASC Working Group Secretary provides a unique experience to support and gain insight into international and interdisciplinary science cooperation, as well as a leg up in building an international Arctic research network. We hope that applicants will see this as a unique professional development opportunity.

Annoucement of a (southern hemisphere) summer school taking place 5-15 December in La Serena and La Laguna, Chile: The course will focus on combining satellite observations, close-range remote sensing techniques, and field-mapping to study glaciers and rock glaciers in a region where the cryosphere plays a significant role in local water resources. The course is organised by CHESS (Research school on changing climates in the coupled earth system), the University of Bergen, and CEAZA.

Polar Education Conference: Improving JEDI for students interested in Polar STEM Careers

July 28-30, 2022 – Juneau, Alaska, USA (and Zoom)

Join faculty, researchers, and education professionals in a 3-day Polar STEM conference.  The driving goal of this conference is to develop strategies that engage under-represented students in Polar STEM and provide them with a better understanding of field and non-field career pathways in Polar STEM.

The Ocean Practices programme is seeking Early Career Ocean Professional (ECOP) ambassadors who are passionate and enthusiastic about global interoperability, regional capabilities and ocean best practices, and are willing to play an important role in advocating for best practices, promoting the communication for the needs of best practices, their development and implementation. Specifically, Ocean Practices is looking for at least one ECOP representative for each global region (i.e., French Africa, English Africa, Australasia, Asia, India, Europe, North America, South America), as regional practices can diverge, and thus have different requirements for key stakeholder involvement, consideration of resources and capabilities, and communication strategies.

The goals of the Ocean Best Practices System Workshop VI, held online, are to guide the development of best practices and operating practices, to promote their documentation, and to share them widely using the Ocean Best Practices System (OBPS). The workshop will consist of plenaries and working groups. For the Plenaries there will be two general themes:

1) Guiding technology evolution and use, and
2) Capacity development/sharing, with an emphasis on developing countries.

On May 27 from 12:00-14:00, the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), Greenpeace Germany, UNLESS, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, Fridays for Future Deutschland, Scientists For Future, and AWI's for Future - will come together at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to stand up for Antarctic conservation while country delegates gather for the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (23 May - 2 June).

Interested in learning more about ice cores? Involved in outreach activities about ice core sciences?

Check out these new infographics on ice core sciences, made within the EU project DEEPICE, by Cirenia Sketches. A great introduction to ice core science for non-expert audiences.

Studying paleoclimates is key to better understand climate mechanisms and better predict future climate changes. Ice cores is one the natural archive scientists can analysis to reconstruct past climates.

The Antarctic geological Boundary Conditions (ABC) component of the SCAR-INSTANT programme is (finally) ‘launching’ by having an online meeting to discuss community priorities around understanding Antarctic boundary conditions (e.g. geology, geomorphology, bed etc.) and their links with the overlying modern and past ice sheet (see registration link below for info on areas for discussion).

We have planned a 1.5-2 hour online meeting (repeated twice to enable those in different time zones to contribute at less antisocial times) in which we will outline ABC and then have a series of discussions around possible work packages. Here, we are hopeful that the community will come together and tell us what they either are doing, or what they want to do, and in doing so, we hope to populate some workpackages with scientists of all career stages. There is no need to prepare before the meeting – just turn up (see below) and get involved even if you have never been involved in SCAR activities before.

The Working Group on Integrated Assessment for the Norwegian Sea (WGINOR) at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is inviting for new membership.

WGINOR aims to conduct and further develop Integrated Ecosystem Assessments for the Norwegian Sea as a step towards implementing the ecosystem approach.
For this purpose, WGINOR:

• performs integrated assessment of the pelagic ecosystem in the Norwegian Sea and develops a framework for identifying important signals for management,
• utilises multi-species and ecosystem models to evaluate effects of single and multi-species harvest control rules on fishing yield and ecosystem state of the pelagic ecosystem in the Norwegian Sea
• develops forecast products (1-5 years) for ocean climate and for other ecosystem components in the Norwegian Sea
• maintains a two-way dialogue with relevant stakeholders and managers in Norway, Faroe Island, and Iceland
• regularly updates the ICES Norwegian Sea ecosystem overview