| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today no Arctic-science events are scheduled.
|
Draft: A Ten-Year Projection of Maritime Activity in the US Arctic Region, 2020-2030. The Arctic is undergoing unprecedented change on multiple fronts, including the region's growing maritime traffic. In the last decade, the number of vessels operating in waters north of the Bering Strait has increased by 128% or 2.3 times larger than the number of ships passing through the region in 2008. These vessels have been engaged with a variety of activities, including natural resource exploration and extraction, commercial shipping, oceanographic research, and tourism in waters which previously were plied only by ships resupplying remote communities along the sparsely populated coastlines of western and northern Alaska. This report by the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) U.S. Arctic Marine Transportation Integrated Action Team (Arctic IAT) is an update to the 2015 CMTS report, "A 10- Year Projection of Maritime Activity in the U.S. Arctic". This report is an overview of past and current vessel activity patterns in the U.S. Arctic and surrounding waters and also projects how much vessel activity will change over the next decade.
US Committee on the Marine Transportation System
Arctic Ice Reveals 1500 Years of Progress and Pollution. Lead concentrations trapped in Arctic ice cores parallel periods of growth and technological progress across centuries and give insights into the pollution produced by industrial activities. The ice cores show that lead pollution escalated 250- to 300-fold from the Early Middle Ages to the 1970s, when it started dropping after the US Clean Air Act and other environmental initiatives were enacted. Since then, lead levels in the ice cores have fallen more than 80% - but they are still about 60 times higher than they were at the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Cosmos Magazine
 Emergency Declared for Public Safety in Alaska. U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr declared an emergency for public safety in rural Alaska on Friday and announced that the Department of Justice will provide more than $10 million in emergency funds as part of a sweeping plan to support law enforcement in Alaska Native villages. The department's Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Program will immediately provide $6 million to the state to hire, equip and train rural police, and for mobile holding cells. Another $4.5 million will support 20 officer positions and be provided to Alaska Native organizations by the end of July.
The Arctic Sounder
A Holistic EU Arctic Strategy. This year marks 20 years of EU engagement with the Arctic region. The EU's latest Arctic Joint Communication, published in 2016, strikes a delicate balance between the EU's three priorities in dealing with the Arctic: responding to climate change and safeguarding the environment; promoting sustainable development in and around the region as well as international cooperation. In addition, "research, science and innovation [...] will play a key role across all three priority areas."
The Parliament Magazine
Lead Pollution in Arctic Ice Show Economic Impact of Wars and Plagues for Past 1,500 Years. How did events like the Black Death plague impact the economy of Medieval Europe? Particles of lead trapped deep in Arctic ice can tell us. Commercial and industrial processes have emitted lead into the atmosphere for thousands of years, from the mining and smelting of silver ores to make currency for ancient Rome to the burning of fossil fuels today. This lead pollution travels on wind currents through the atmosphere, eventually settling on places like the ice sheet in Greenland and other parts of the Arctic.
Phys.org
 Alaska Budget Cuts Could Hurt Arctic, Environmental Research. The University of Alaska's Arctic research faces an uncertain future as it waits for the final word on a possible $135 million cut to state funding for this fiscal year. Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) vetoed $130 million from university funding, along with 181 other budget line items, on June 28, just days before the fiscal year began. The state Legislature previously approved a $5 million reduction in university funding earlier in the year.
Bloomberg Environment
University of Alaska Faces Budget Crisis. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy's decision to slash the state's funding for the University of Alaska by nearly 41% has the academic and research community up in arms. They are waging a nail-biter campaign to convince the state legislature to override what they say will be devastating and long-lasting damage to the university and the state, as well as to world-class research about the Arctic, climate change, and a host of other disciplines. Dunleavy's "draconian cut" of $130 million is "really stunning," University of Alaska president James Johnsen told Eos.
EOS
 Available Positions: Arctic Council. The Arctic Council Secretariat is currently looking to fill the following positions in Tromsø, Norway: Executive secretary for ACAP; Executive secretary for EPPR; Communications - Public relations officer; and, Communications - Web and digital media officer. For more information see
here.
|
|
Future Events
** New this week **
Satellite Hydrological Products and their Utility in the Alaska Region, July 17, 2019 (Fairbanks, Alaska USA and via webinar). Passive microwave sensors on low earth orbiting satellites have the ability to monitor several parameters associated with the Earth's hydrological cycle - falling precipitation, snow and ice parameters, soil moisture, etc. These observations are particularly useful for high latitude locations where geostationary satellites have limited coverage. In this presentation, a review of the methodology used to retrieve this information will be given, then followed by several practical applications for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
Over 80 confirmed speakers including:
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski
- Sen. Angus King
- Vice Commandant Charles Ray, US Coast Guard
- RDML Tim Gallaudet, PhD, USN Ret., Deputy NOAA Admin.
- Sen. Dan Sullivan
- USARC Commissioner Jackie Richter-Menge
- AMB Kåre Aas, Norway
- Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette, Dept. of Energy
- Hon. Fran Ulmer, Chair, USARC
- AMB Ken Yalowitz (State Dept. retired), Wilson Center
- AMB Harri Mäki-Reinikka, Finland
- AMB Marie-Anne Coninsx, EU Ambassador at Large for the Arctic
- Presidents and CEOs of four Arctic Alaska Native Regional Corps.: Rex Rock, ASRC, Wayne Westlake, NANA, Gail Schubert, BSRC, and Aaron Schutt, Doyon
- VADM Dan Abel, USCG
- Dr. Alysson Azzara, MARAD
- Dr. Rebecca Pincus, US Naval War College
- Dr. Peter Winsor, World Wildlife Foundation, Arctic Program
- Lt. Gen. Thomas Bussiere, Commander, Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Command Region, North American Aerospace Defense Command; Commander, Alaskan Command, US Northern Command, etc.
- Dr. Atsushi Sunami, Pres., Ocean Policy Res. Inst., Sasakawa Peace Foundation
- Liz Cravalho, Kotzebue, Alaska
- Mellisa Heflin, Bering Sea region, Alaska
Mark your calendars to attend IDA-8, which some have called one of the best Arctic gatherings around. Historically, this biennial symposium was co-hosted by U.S. National/Naval Ice Center (NIC) and the US Arctic Research Commission (USARC). In 2019, these partners will join forces with the Wilson Center's Polar Institute, the Arctic Domain Awareness Center at the Univ. of Alaska, and the Patuxent Defense Forum (run by the Patuxent Partnership), and St. Mary's College of Maryland as co-hosts.
a. Title of your poster presentation
b. Full name of lead author, and author's email address
c. List of co-authors, if any
The 2-day symposium will be held in the Ronald Reagan Building Amphitheater, in Washington, DC. The event will focus on a broad cross-section of naval and maritime operations and issues in an ice-diminishing Arctic. The symposium brings together nationally and internationally recognized experts on Arctic governance, geopolitics, marine operations, infrastructure, science, and environmental observations, from the local, regional, and pan-Arctic scale. Information on prior symposia, including lists of speakers, video clips, and copies of presentations, is here. Attendance is free, and registration is now open, here
.
The event will be webcast live, and video recorded.
2019 Sea Ice Symposium, August 18-23, 2019 (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada). IGS co-hosts a sea ice symposium every 5 years. The Centre for Earth Observation Science (University of Manitoba) is excited to be hosting the first IGS event to be held in Canada. The symposium will include oral and poster sessions, and will provide a friendly and intellectually stimulating environment to facilitate face-to-face interactions and networking. Additional activities will include an opening reception, a banquet dinner and a mid-symposium afternoon excursion.
Bridging Science, Art, and Community in the New Arctic, Sept. 23-25, 2019, (University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia USA).
The University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville, VA, is hosting a conference and workshop entitled "Bridging Science, Art, and Community in the New Arctic" from Sept. 23-25, 2019, sponsored by the National Science Foundation Navigating the New Arctic program, with additional support from UVA's Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures, and Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation. The UVA Environmental Resilience Institute's Arctic CoLab is organizing the event, with assistance from the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS).
EU Arctic Forum, October 3-4, 2019 (
Umeå, Sweden).
The European Commission, the European External Action Service, and the Government of Sweden will jointly organize a high-level EU Arctic Forum
.
The EU Arctic Forum will bring together key Arctic players and stakeholders to assess recent developments in the region and to discuss the new challenges ahead.
The EU Arctic Forum will include several keynote addresses and two high-level panel sessions on the morning of 3 October. Foreign ministers from EU member states as well as the Arctic Council will be invited to participate.
** New this week **
2019 Arctic Circle Assembly, October 10-13, 2019 (Reykjavík, Iceland). The annual Arctic Circle Assembly is the largest annual international gathering on the Arctic, attended by more than 2000 participants from 60 countries. It is attended by heads of states and governments, ministers, members of parliaments, officials, experts, scientists, entrepreneurs, business leaders, indigenous representatives, environmentalists, students, activists and others from the growing international community of partners and participants interested in the future of the Arctic.
Registration now open...
Large-scale Volcanism in the Arctic: The Role of the Mantle and Tectonics, October 13-18, 2019 (Selfoss, Iceland).
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) Chapman Conference will focus on the diversity of Arctic magmatism and tectonics from the Paleozoic to present-day. The conveners are Owen Anfinson, Bernard Coakley, Carmen Gaina, and Grace Shephard. The program will focus on five themes including: Theme I: pre-breakup and rifting;Theme II: seafloor spreading;Theme III: mantle-derived heterogeneity (including plumes and large-igneous provinces);Theme IV: subduction related volcanism, and, Theme V: HALIP and environmental effects.
The website (link above) is open for abstract submission until June 19th and for meeting registration until September 9th. Funding is available for travel support, particularly for early career scientists. Travel support will be awarded on the basis of submitted abstracts and to promote diversity among attendees.
IX International Forum "Arctic: Today and the Future," December 5-7, 2019 (St. Petersburg, Russia). Save the date for Arctic: Today and the Future. More information to follow.
|
| 
  
4350 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 510
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
External links in this publication, and on the USARC's World Wide Web site (
www.arctic.gov) do not constitute endorsement by the US Arctic Research Commission of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the USARC does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this newsletter and the USARC Web site.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
