News Archive

ARCUS announces the availability of community meeting space at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), held 11-15 December 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Arctic Community Meeting Rooms are hosted by ARCUS to encourage collaboration and to facilitate face-to-face meetings of opportunity, and is funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Polar Programs. Meeting space is available in one or two-hour blocks for groups working on Arctic research and/or education activities.

Connect to the Antarctic! Join us for an upcoming PolarConnect event with George Hademenos and the Antarctic Automatic Weather Stations on Thursday, 9 November 2017 at 9:00am AKST (10am PST, 11am MST, 12pm CST, 1pm EST) This event will be broadcast live from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Register today!

The Interagency Arctic Research Committee (IARPC) and the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) will host a joint Town Hall event at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting on Thursday, 14 December 2017 from 12:30-1:30 p.m (Central Time) in Room 252-254 of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA.

Recognizing the importance of science that is actionable by stakeholders, this Town Hall will engage the community in discussions of effective practices and new approaches. Examples of Arctic research addressing stakeholder needs will serve as test cases to examine: how are needs identified; how are questions appropriately framed to meet stakeholder needs; and what promotes and constrains research addressing those needs? The executive directors of SEARCH and IARPC will moderate discussion among SEARCH and IARPC teams and the broader community. Discussion questions will include:

• IARPC & SEARCH focus on different stakeholder audiences; what audiences are left out?
• Who is/should be targeting those other audiences?
• How might your efforts to engage stakeholders amplify—or be amplified by—the efforts of IARPC and SEARCH?
• What are effective approaches for communicating with diverse audiences?

Light refreshments will be provided.

For more information, contact:

Martin Jeffries
Executive Director
Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee
Martin_O_Jeffries [at] ostp.eop.gov

Brendan P. Kelly
Executive Director
Study of Environmental Arctic Change
bpkelly [at] alaska.edu

The October 2017 issue of Witness Community Highlights is now available. This online publication highlights Arctic research efforts and other timely items of interest to our readers. The October issue includes an article discussing the legally binding "Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation” signed by the eight member states of the Arctic Council on 11 May 2017 at the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Fairbanks, Alaska. The goal of this science agreement is to facilitate access, whether to territory and research areas, platforms, infrastructure, facilities, materials, samples, data, or equipment.

Registration is now available for the next ARCUS Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Courtney Carothers (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Laura Zanotti (Purdue University). The presentation will discuss the co-production of knowledge and community-researcher relationships in the Leadership and Strength Project in Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska. The event will be held Thursday, 30 November from 12:00-1:00pm EDT. Registration is required for both the live event, held at the ARCUS D.C. office, and online webinar.

Join PolarTREC for an upcoming event with teacher Dave Jones and researcher Mike DeGrandpre who will discuss the research carried out aboard the CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent on CO2 and pH studies in the Beaufort Sea. This live event will be held on Wednesday, 1 November 2017 at 1:00pm AKDT (2pm PDT, 3pm MDT, 4pm CDT, 5pm EDT). Register for this free event today!

ARCUS announces a call for nominations for our 2017 Board of Directors election. There are a possible four seats up for election in a vote of the ARCUS membership expected to take place in December 2017. We seek nominations of candidates with enthusiasm and time to dedicate to ARCUS, who are willing and able to help ARCUS fulfill its vision and mission, and achieve its organizational goals and objectives (see https://www.arcus.org/arcus). We particularly invite nominations of individuals with experience in and connections to industry, foundations, or Arctic Indigenous groups.

Nomination submission deadline: Wednesday, 1 November 2017

SEARCH leads joined a science panel discussing Arctic Environmental Futures as part of a Polar Initiative event at The Wilson Center on 29 September 2017. A recording of the event is now available.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, released a 2017 Projected onset of sea ice freeze-up on the Chukchi Sea continental shelf northwest of Icy Cape will begin near the end of November to the first week of December. This is approximately 36 days later than the long-term mean (1981-2016). The metric is defined by sea-ice concentration reaching 30% as determined by passive microwave observation.

Connect to the the Antarctic! Join PolarTREC for an upcoming event with Jennifer Bault and the team working on Seasonal Ice Production in the Ross Sea on Thursday, 2 November 2017 at 6:30am AKDT (7:30am PDT, 8:30am MDT, 9:30am CDT, 10:30am EDT). This event will be broadcast live from McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Register today for this free event!

A special issue of the journal Remote Sensing is currently being developed with a focus on the Remote Sensing of Dynamic Permafrost Regions. The guest editors for the issue are Permafrost Carbon Network collaborators Benjamin Jones, Annett Bartsch, and Guido Grosse. The deadline for manuscript submissions is 1 March 2018.

The Permafrost Carbon Network's all scientist meeting will take place this year on Sunday, 10 December 2017, 9-5pm in New Orleans, LA (just before the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting begins). This event is free and open for all researchers working on Permafrost Carbon topics to attend. The meeting agenda will be accessible via the SEARCH website later in October. The deadline to register is Friday, 17 November 2017.

SEARCH has released a number of new 1-2 page science briefs addressing stakeholder questions about Arctic environmental change. These are great resources for short and up to date summaries of the current state of knowledge surrounding diverse topics.

ARCUS announces availability of a new web resource, Conducting Research with Northern Communities – Documented Practices and Resources for Productive, Respectful Relationships Between Researchers and Community Members. Scientific research in the Arctic necessitates good communication and cooperation with northern communities. This new webpage is a compilation of resources, recommendations, and documented practices from a variety of organizations on working with northern communities. Resources include practices from across the north, relevant information from outside the Arctic, and resources specific to community-based monitoring.

The September 2017 issue of Witness Community Highlights is now available. This online publication, a companion to the regular publications of Witness the Arctic, highlights Arctic research efforts and other timely items of interest to our readers. This issue includes an article discussing the indication, based on analysis of oxygen-18 isotopes sequestered in Pacific cod ear bones from contemporary and archaeological sites on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula, that ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska today are about 3 degrees celsius warmer than they were during the late Little Ice Age (LIA) two centuries ago.

A recording is now available of the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Dr. Peter Pulsifer of the National Snow & Ice Data Center. The presentation explores how current Arctic data systems can be mediated and transformed to better meet the needs of different user communities.

ARCUS invites applications for the position of Community Development Manager. This non-exempt, half-time position will be home-based as a part of the geographically distributed ARCUS team. The successful candidate will manage membership recruitment, retention, and engagement activities; lead support for the Membership Committee; provide volunteer engagement and support; and facilitate connections between and among ARCUS members, activities, and the broader research and education communities.

Applications will be reviewed beginning 1 October 2017. The position will remain open until filled.

Washington, DC - The Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) organized a panel of Arctic scientists at AAAS Headquarters on Wednesday, 27 September 2017 to discuss global lessons from a thawing Arctic with the media. A recording of the discussion is now available for anyone unable to attend the live event.

On 27 September 2017, SEARCH convened a panel of Arctic researchers at AAAS Headquarters in Washington D.C. to discuss the global implications of a thawing Arctic with the media. A recording of that discussion is now available for anyone who was unable to attend the live event.

A recording is now available of the ARCUS D.C. Arctic Research seminar/webinar featuring Dr. Betsy Baker, Executive Director for the North Pacific Research Board (NPRB). The presentation discusses NPRB's support for fisheries and integrated ecosystem information needs in the Arctic, Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.

Connect to the Arctic! Join us for an upcoming PolarConnect event with teacher Lisa Seff and the research team studying Upwelling and Ecology in the Beaufort Sea on Thursday, 14 September 2017 at 5:00am Alaska Daylight Savings Time. This event will be broadcast live aboard the Research Vessel Sikuliaq somewhere in the Beaufort Sea, Alaska. Register today!

PolarTREC is currently accepting applications from teachers and informal educators for a field-based research experience in the polar regions. For 2018-2019, we will be accepting applications from both U.S. informal science educators as well as formal U.S. classroom teachers (teaching in grades 6-12). Applications will be to participate in field research learning experiences during the 2018 (usually Arctic) or 2018-19 (usually Antarctic) field seasons. The Teacher application deadline is Monday, 2 October 2017.

The August 2017 issue of Witness Community Highlights is now available. This online publication, a companion to the regular publications of Witness the Arctic, highlights Arctic research efforts and other timely items of interest to our readers. This issue includes two articles: news about U.S. Naval Academy participation in NASA’s IceBridge operation during spring 2017 and news about the inaugural Fulbright Arctic Initiative program of 2015-2017 and the launch of the second Fulbright Arctic Initiative, which will run from spring 2018 through fall 2019.

The August report for the 2017 Sea Ice Outlook (SIO) is now available online. The goal of the SIO is to improve Arctic sea ice prediction on seasonal time-scales. The organizers thank the groups that contributed to the 2017 June, July, and August reports. For August, 37 contributions for pan-Arctic extent predictions were received with the median Arctic Outlook value for September 2017 sea ice extent of 4.5 million square kilometers. Nine of the 37 also contributed Alaska regional extent predictions and 10 also contributed for Antarctica. Additionally, two contributions for Antarctica only and two descriptive regional contributions were received. The August report includes analysis of the contributions, discussion of projected sea ice probability, first ice-free days, current sea ice and atmospheric conditions, Alaska regional ice extent, and discussion and analysis of the Antarctic contributions.

Connect to the Arctic! Join us for an upcoming event with teacher Ruth Rodriguez live from Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska on 8 August at 9:00am AKDT (10:00am PDT, 11:00am MDT, 12:00pm CDT, 1:00pm EDT).

Researcher Vanessa Lougheed will join Ruth to discuss the projects being run by University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) students as part of the Research Opportunities in the Arctic for Minorities (ROAM2) program. You can read more about Ruth’s adventures in the Arctic on their expedition webpage Please join us!