News Archive

Registration is now open for the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Dr. Sandra Starkweather, Executive Director for the US Arctic Observing Network. The presentation will discuss the capabilities of the new US AON initiative and how they are being mobilized. The event will be held Friday, 21 July from 12:00-1:00pm EDT. Registration is required for both the live event, held at the ARCUS D.C. office, and the online webinar.

The Spring 2017 issue of Witness the Arctic is now published online. This issue includes summaries on: SEARCH program activities; the Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook; the Sea Ice Prediction Network; a study of water security in rural Alaska; Anchorage Arctic Research Day; the IARPC 5-year Research Plan; the USARC Report on Goals and Objectives for Arctic Research 2017-2018, the National Academies review of a the Draft Climate Science Special Report; an international suicide prevention initiative; a highlight of ARCUS member organization, ABR, Inc.; and comments from ARCUS board members and ARCUS Executive Director, Robert Rich.

The Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO) provides information on spring sea ice, weather, and walrus to support safety and food security for Alaska Native subsistence hunters and coastal communities. The final outlook of the 11-week 2017 season was published on Friday, 9 June following unusually early sea ice retreat. Local observers in Wales, Shishmaref, Nome, Gambell, and Savoonga provided weekly observations and photos. SIWO is managed by ARCUS and produced with information from local observers, the National Weather Service, and other sources.

On Tuesday June 20th, join us for a PolarTREC live event with teacher Steve Kirsche and the research team from Summit Station, Greenland. It will take place at 8:00 AM AKDT [9AM PDT, 10AM MDT, 11AM CDT, 12PM EDT]. This event will focus a research project based out of Summit Station in Greenland. The team is looking at the firn (granular snow, especially on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice) to get a better interpretation of paleoclimate from air that becomes trapped within the firn. More information and journals related to this expedition and the science can be found here.

The Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) announces the call for contributions for the 2017 Sea Ice Outlook June report based on May data. The Sea Ice Outlook provides an open process for those interested in Arctic sea ice to share ideas. The monthly reports contain a variety of perspectives—from advanced numerical models to qualitative perspectives from citizen scientists. Detailed guidelines for a new submission process of pan-Arctic, Alaska regional outlooks, and pan-Antarctic contributions, as well as submitting figures and gridded data for other regional contributions, are available online. Submission deadline: 6:00 p.m. (AKDT) on Monday, 12 June 2017.

A final report from SEARCH's International Workshop to Reconcile Methane Budgets in the Northern Permafrost Region has been released. The report details near-term and longer-term priorities for addressing questions about methane dynamics in the northern permafrost region.

Brendan Kelly, SEARCH's Executive Director, reflects on the importance of the new agreement on international Arctic scientific cooperation and the urgent need to communicate the global significance of Arctic change with decision-makers in today's new Eos article.

A recording is now available of the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Robert Corell (GETF). Robert's presentation discusses why changes in the Earth’s climate system in and across the Arctic are important both for Northern peoples and for the rest of the world.

SEARCH's Permafrost Action Team is developing scientific resources to answer key questions about permafrost in the Arctic. The Team invites feedback as well as assistance identifying the articles, reports, and publications needed to support the tiers of each knowledge pyramid.

Loss of sea ice, thawing permafrost, reduced snow cover, and rising sea level are reducing hunting and fishing opportunities and degrading infrastructure for rural Arctic communities. SEARCH's Arctic Answers has more information about this issue, why it matters, and the current state of our science.

SEARCH announces a call for Science Steering Committee (SSC) member nominations. SEARCH seeks candidates that are cross-disciplinary thinkers, good communicators and consensus-builders, strongly committed to the SEARCH vision. Nominations are due Sunday, 4 June 2017.

The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) program announces a call for Science Steering Committee (SSC) member nominations. SEARCH seeks nominations of candidates that are broad and cross-disciplinary thinkers, are good communicators and consensus-builders, and have a strong commitment to the SEARCH vision. Nominations are due Sunday, 4 June 2017.

The Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) is pleased to release the premiere issue of Witness Community Highlights—an online publication created to highlight one or two Arctic research efforts, other timely items of interest to our readers, and complement the regular publications of Witness the Arctic. The first issue includes news about the 2017 Week of the Arctic, contributed by Larry Hinzman, and results from a 2016 survey to asses U.S. public knowledge about the Arctic, contributed by Lawrence Hamilton and project colleagues. Editors welcome ideas for future articles. If you have a suggestion, or a question about this publication, please contact Betsy Turner-Bogren at betsy [at] arcus.org.

The 2015 Arctic Observing Open Science Meeting (AOOSM), held in Seattle, WA, 17–19 November, provided the research community with a forum to discuss the advances supported by sustained, broad, contemporaneous observations in the Arctic and to identify areas for integration into an Interagency Arctic Observing Network. The meeting was structured to include keynote presentations, an agency panel discussion on achieving an interagency Arctic observing network, disciplinary parallel sessions, and a poster session. The meeting was attended by 206 participants and included 99 parallel session presentations and 42 posters. All products from AOOSM are now available on the ARCUS website. Meeting products include the final AOOSM report, full parallel discussion summaries, brief summary report slides, speaker abstracts, presentations, and more.

A recording is now available of the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Mia Bennett (UCLA & Cryopolitics). Mia's presentation discusses the the social and economic impacts of Arctic transportation infrastructure.

Join teacher Adeena Teres and Project Manager John Woods for a PolarConnect event live from Kangerlussuaq, Greenland on Monday, 24 April 2017 at 9:00am AKDT, 1:00pm EDT. They will be discussing Operation IceBridge and their 2017 Arctic campaign. Operation IceBridge is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever conducted. IceBridge uses a highly specialized fleet of research aircraft and the most sophisticated science instruments ever assembled to characterize yearly changes in thickness of sea ice, glaciers, and ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic. Register Today!

Join "Team Squirrel" for two upcoming PolarConnect events with teacher Jennifer Baldacci and the Arctic Ground Squirrel Study team. One event will be held on Tuesday, 25 April 2017 at 10:15pm AKDT (Wednesday, 26 April at 8:15am Swiss time). The timing for this event coordinates with the European school day (Jennifer Baldacci teaches in Basel, Switzerland). The second event will be held on Thursday, 27 April at 7:00am AKDT (8:00am PDT, 9:00am MDT, 10:00am CDT, 11:00am EDT). Both of these events will be broadcast live from Toolik Field Station in Alaska. Register today!

The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) would like to know what questions are important to you concerning environmental change in the Arctic. Please share your thoughts with us via the survey link below.

The first Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO), which provides information on spring sea ice, weather and walrus for Alaska Native subsistence hunters and coastal communities was published on Friday, 31 March. SIWO is managed by ARCUS and produced with information from local hunters, the National Weather Service, and other sources. This week’s outlook includes observations from local observers in Wales, Shishmaref, Nome, and Gambell along with a summary of the state of the ice at season’s start. Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/seaiceforwalrus/.

ARCUS is pleased to provide travel support, funded by the National Science Foundation, for several teachers to attend the Polar Educators International conference, “Education Meets Science – Bringing Polar Research into the Classroom”. The conference will be held in Italy, 11-14 April 2017, with over 50 educators and scientists participating. ARCUS staff will present at the conference about the PolarTREC program. There are a number of sessions that are being streamed during the conference.

The 2017 Joint NACP and AmeriFlux Principal Investigators Meeting will take place March 27-30, 2017 in North Bethesda, MD. The Permafrost Carbon Network is co-chairing the session ‘9. Critical regions as global carbon hotspots’ on Monday, March 27, 3-4 pm. In addition, Sue Natali and Marguerite Mauritz will lead the breakout discussion 'Carbon Flux Synthesis across the North American Arctic and Boreal Permafrost Ecosystems' on Tuesday, March 28, 1.45-3.15 pm.

SEARCH leads will be in attendance at the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW2017), 31 March - 7 April 2017 in Prague, Czech Republic. Please connect with us at one of our presentations or sessions!

Registration is now open for the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar “Development on Ice: Social and Economic Impacts of Arctic Transportation Infrastructure”. Featuring Cryopolitics' editor, Mia Bennett, the presentation will discuss the mechanisms connecting northern communities to regional and global transportation networks. The event will be held Friday, 14 April from 12:00-1:00pm EDT. Registration is required for both the live event, held at the ARCUS D.C. office, and the online webinar.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) announced that on 7 March 2017 the sea ice extent over the Arctic Ocean reached 14.42 million square kilometers (5.57 million square miles), then gradually began its decline with the start of the melt season. The sea ice maximum refers to the point at which sea ice is at its highest seasonal extent. According to scientists at NSIDC, Arctic sea ice was at a record low maximum extent for the third straight year.

The SEARCH Sea Ice Action Team’s First Knowledge Exchange Workshop on the Impacts of Arctic Sea-Ice Loss took place over two days in Washington, DC during September 2016. Over 30 scientific experts, representatives from government and non-governmental organizations, arctic residents, and other stakeholders defined and addressed important societal questions raised by sea-ice loss, and explored new approaches and partnerships for advancing awareness and understanding of the associated impacts. The workshop exchanged best practices and opportunities for communicating with various audiences—policymakers, the media, local arctic residents and stakeholders, and other science disciplines. Participants discussed the state of scientific knowledge and engagement across three themes related to arctic sea-ice loss: arctic marine ecosystems, lower latitude weather, and human activities in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas. Participants agreed that the newly initiated Sea Ice Action Network, supported by SEARCH and guided by the Sea Ice Action Team, will provide a promising collaborative approach to communicating the implications of arctic sea-ice loss, sharing diverse perspectives, and facilitating more sophisticated discussions on effective responses.