Polar and Alpine Community News

The deadline for Visiting Scholar applications has been extended to 25 November. In recognition of the current travel restrictions as there will be significant flexibility with regard to the timing of completion of the visits. We also welcome applications that are planned to be completed virtually. Full details and how to apply on SCAR`s Visiting Scholar Scheme page.

For a special Issue of the Polar Record journal, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University Press, papers on the topic of Arctic Science Diplomacy in the Rapidly Changing World: From Regional to Global Scales are welcomed. We invite research papers from scientists and experts in this field. For more information please visit the journal website.

The Journal of Marine Science and Engineering invites manuscript submissions for a special issue titled, The Ice-Ocean Boundary. Editors welcome contributions from a broad range of theoretical, modeling, field, and laboratory research into processes that affect this boundary region. Submissions are welcomed until 31 March 2021.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) has opened the call-for-data for the observation period 2018/19. We are compiling standardized data on glacier front variations, glaciological mass balances (at point and glacier-wide level) as well as glacier changes in area, thickness, and volume from geodetic surveys. Furthermore, we are interested in special events such as related to glacier surges, avalanches, or lake outburst floods. For more information, data submission guidelines and forms please check our website. Data submission deadline is December 1, 2020.

The EGU General Assembly 2021, traditionally held each spring in Vienna, Austria, will take place entirely online. In its place, EGU will host vEGU21: Gather Online (#vEGU21), a completely virtual event that will take place from 19–30 April and bring together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. With this call for abstracts, all scientific sessions are open to receive your contribution. The deadline for abstract submission is 13 January 2021, 13:00 CET. You are kindly invited to find a session for your abstract here. 

The Antarctic Environments Portal provides ready access to high-level summary information on Antarctic issues, based on the best available scientific knowledge. SCAR’s primary aim in hosting the Portal is to fulfil its remit of providing objective and independent scientific advice to the Antarctic Treaty System on issues of science and conservation affecting the management of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. We are excited to have launched a ‘new look’ Portal website which has been redesigned to make it easier for users to find the information they want and to access additional resources. The Portal’s Information Summaries have also been designed to make them more user-friendly.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks offers a free online course on 'Remote Sensing of Wildfires' starting 2 November 2020. Learn how satellite imagery and the science of remote sensing allows us to detect wildfires, help manage their spread, and guide ecological restoration. It's a self-paced 4-week course and the content is tailored for a broad audience (high school to University students).

Course Link: https://www.edx.org/course/remote-sensing-of-wildfires

Quantarctica is a collection of Antarctic geographical datasets for research, education, operations and environment management that works on free GIS software QGIS. To respond to the strong desire of the community and to take the full benefits of rapidly growing knowledge base in Antarctica and Southern Ocean, Norwegian Polar Institute is currently developing a plan to make a major update to Quantarctica version 4. We would like to start this process with a community survey to hear about datasets, data categories, and functions you want to see in QA4. We need your feedback by the end of November. The survey takes 5-10 minutes.

We would like to draw your attention to the extension of the deadline to submit your manuscript to the Focus Section on Arctic and Antarctic Seismology, to be published in the July 2021 volume of Seismological Research Letters. The new deadline is December 28, 2020. Please visit this website for a detailed scope and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. Kind regards and stay safe, Myrto Pirli & Peter Voss (Guest Editors)