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No Arctic-science events are scheduled for today.
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 Why Does the Arctic Have More Plastic Than Most Places on Earth? On an ice floe in the Greenland Sea, high above the Arctic Circle, Ingeborg Hallanger is vacuuming up plastic. We're standing on a patch of "fast ice," so called because it's held fast in a jumble of icebergs stuck on the shallow shelf off Greenland's northeast coast. A rumpled white tabletop, pocked by blue meltwater pools and webbed with cracks, stretches to the horizon. Greenland's glaciers shimmer in the distance.
National Geographic
Abrupt Shifts in Arctic Climate Projected. Researchers from McGill University project that as the permafrost continues to degrade, the climate in various regions of the Arctic could potentially change abruptly, in the relatively near future. Their research, which was published today in Nature Climate Change, also suggests that as the permafrost degrades, the severity of wildfires will double from one year to the next and remain at the new and higher rate for regions in the Northwestern Territories and the Yukon.
Phys.org
 Senate Bill Would Create New Department of Defense Regional Center in the Arctic. Legislation that would create a new Department of Defense Regional Center in the Arctic was introduced in the U.S. Senate this week. The center, the Ted Stevens Arctic Center for Security Studies, would be named after the longtime Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. The Defense Department has five academic Regional Centers for Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Near East-South Asia, and the Northern Hemisphere. The centers support defense strategy objectives and policy priorities through a unique academic forum. The centers are designed to foster research and outreach and develop relationships among security practitioners throughout the region.
Homeland Preparedness News
S. Korea Ratifies Int'l Deal to Prevent Commercial Fishing in the High Arctic Seas. South Korea has ratified an international moratorium on commercial fishing in the high Arctic seas, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday, in a move to protect marine resources in one of world's rapidly-warming places. Five countries with Arctic shorelines -- the United States, Russia, Canada, Denmark and Norway -- and five other parties -- South Korea, China, Japan, Iceland and the European Union -- reached a final agreement to prevent unregulated fishing in the high seas portion of the central Arctic Ocean in October last year.
Yonhap News Agency
 NOAA Declares Unusual Mortality Event for Arctic Ice Seals. Bearded, ringed, and spotted seals are dying at unprecedented rates in the Bering and Chukchi seas, leading the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration to declare an Unusual Mortality Event for the animals. Subsistence hunters, community observers, and scientists reported 285 total strandings between June 1, 2018 and Sept. 30, 2019. This is five times the average annual stranding rate for ice seals in northern Alaskan seas, according to NOAA.
KTUU
This Mysterious Arctic Tree Stump Could Reveal Ancient Secrets. His hunting party had set out under a muted sky from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, on the day Naikak Hakongak spotted something almost never seen on the Arctic tundra. The group of six, some with rifles slung over their backs, had been crossing the rocky landscape in a caravan of all-terrain vehicles. Only a skiff of snow covered the ground that first Saturday in October-less than usual for the time of year.
Maclean's
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Future Events
Fulbright Arctic Initiative: Research and Policy Findings for Sustainable Arctic Communities and Economies, October 31, 2019 (Washington, DC USA). The Arctic faces critical policy challenges on many issues including climate change response, public health and healthcare infrastructure, energy, environmental protection, sustainable management of the Arctic Ocean, infrastructure, Indigenous rights, and governance. This symposium reports on research findings and selected policy recommendations from the Fulbright Arctic Initiative thematic research teams.
Svalbard Science Conference 2019, November 5-6, 2019 (Oslo, Norway). The Svalbard Science Forum, The Research Council of Norway and The Norwegian Polar Institute in cooperation with The Ny-Ålesund Science Managers Committee (NySMAC) invite researchers, research managers and stakeholders to the second Svalbard Science conference. The conference will focus on Svalbard in a pan-Arctic setting, aspiring to enhance cooperation and quality within Svalbard research, build and strengthen interdisciplinary and international networks and consolidate Svalbard as an attractive platform for Arctic research.
** New this week **
AAS19 Arctic Symposium, November 13-15, 2019 (Fairbanks, AK USA).
The Arctic Domain Awareness Center, a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, will host this event along with the University of Alaska and the US Coast Guard. The principal outcome sought in AAS19 is to improve understanding of the challenges in the complicated risk environment that describes the new circumpolar north. Symposium planners seek AAS19 to create thoughtful discussions in order to gain needed solutions to address and potentially reduce the associated defense and security risks.
Greenland Science Week, December 1-5, 2019 (Nuuk, Greenland).
Greenland Science Week builds bridges between science and the Greenlandic society, business community and government, and creates a networking and cooperation platform for the Greenlandic and international science community around research in the Arctic.
ASM2019 Annual Scientific Meeting, December 2-5, 2019 (Halifax, NS Canada). Canada's North is experiencing unprecedented change in its sea and terrestrial ice, permafrost and ecosystems under the triple pressures of climate change, industrialization and modernization. The impacts of these pressures can be seen on food and energy security, shipping, sovereignty, northern community health and well-being, and sustainable development and resource exploitation. All these issues have brought the North to the forefront of national and international agendas.
With a focus on networking events, this gathering of
leading Arctic researchers, graduate students, Northern community representatives, government and industry partners and stakeholders from all field
s will provide all with
valuable connections where innovative ideas and initiatives
can
develop
in
support of health
and sound
governance in the Arctic.
Greenland Science Week, December 2-5, 2019 (Nuuk, Greenland). The Arctic research conference, Polar Research Day, will be held in Nuuk on December 4, 2019. Alongside the one-day conference, several additional science events are planned and organized, so that the conference, a public outreach day, themed workshops, seminars and networking activities will be part of Greenland Science Week. The event will include opportunities to meet and network with a broad range of researchers, business community, government employees and society in an Arctic context, and the organizers anticipate participants from all disciplines in discussions of Arctic science in relation to Greenland. Greenland Science Week is organized by Ilisimatusarfik, AAU Arctic, Sermersooq Municipality and Greenland Perspective.
** New this week **
Greenland Conference 2019, December 4, 2019 (Copenhagen, Denmark). Connectivity in the Arctic is the key for further business development and this year's topic at the Greenland Conference 2019 in Copenhagen.Companies on land, in the air and at sea will present their role in connecting Greenland locally and to the rest of the world. Greenland Venture present their work, and a Greenlandic tech start-up present their product.
** New this week **
9th Annual Meeting of the Permafrost Carbon Network, December 8, 2019 (San Francisco, CA USA). The 9th annual meeting of the Permafrost Carbon Network will take place prior to the Fall 2019 American Geophysical Union meeting. Bringing together the international community of permafrost researchers, the program for the day will feature a series of presentations and speed talks to introduce break-out topics. Meeting participants will then have the opportunity to split into smaller break-out groups to discuss the Permafrost Carbon Network's ongoing and new synthesis products. The meeting is open to all members of the scientific community with an interest in permafrost research synthesis.
Arctic Frontiers, January 26-30, 2020 (Tromso, Norway).
Arctic Frontiers is a global scientific conference on economic, societal, and environmental sustainable growth. This year's theme will be "The Power of Knowledge," with a pan-arctic emphasis, and
builds new partnerships across nations, generations and ethnic groups.
Arctic Frontiers provides a forum for dialogue and communication between science, government and industry in the Arctic. The
plenary program will have five main sessions with the following working titles: State of the Arctic, The power of knowledge, Robust and resilient Arctic communities, Powered by knowledge, Arctic oceans - distant connections, Sustainable business development. An abstract-driven science program will address Arctic Food Security, Local or Global Arctic? Multi-scaled considerations of connections and remoteness in climate-impacted, Disruptive Technologies and Knowledge-based Development in the Arctic.
ISAR-6: Arctic Research: the Decade Past and the Decade Future, March 2-6, 2020 (Tokyo, Japan). Rapid changes are taking place in the Arctic that impact regional human and natural systems, and affect the global environment. The International Symposium on Arctic Research (ISAR) will meet for the sixth time since its first symposium in 2008 to identify changes in the Arctic environment and society, and to discuss possible future sustainable development. The hosts invite all researchers with interests in the Arctic to participate in this multidisciplinary symposium and share their insights, their challenges, and to explore the possible futures of the Arctic.
Arctic Science Summit Week and the 5th Arctic Observing Summit. March 27 to April 2, 2020, (Akureyri, Iceland).
The Arctic Observing Summit (AOS) is a high-level biennial summit that provides a platform to address urgent and broadly recognized needs of Arctic observing across all components of the Arctic system. The theme of AOS 2020 is Observing for Action. AOS 2020 will be held in Akureyri, Iceland (March 31-April 2) and will focus on pressing issues related to the use, design, optimization and implementation of the observing system. To that end, submissions in the form of white papers, short statements and poster abstracts are requested that address any and all aspects of the overarching theme and sub-themes. Currently seeking submissions to the AOS. See link for additional information.
 ** New this week**
The 7th Annual Arctic Encounter, April 16-17, 2020 (Seattle, WA USA).
The 2019 Arctic Encounter Seattle drew over 300 participants from over 20 nations, including over 80 speakers, 27 sponsors, 17 media partners, northern fashion and photography installations, 13 guest performers, the second annual Far North fashion show, and artist exhibitors. The 2020 Arctic Encounter Seattle expects to increase engagement in new sectors and engage participants through policy debates, research presentations, performances, and more. The Arctic Encounter is the largest annual Arctic policy and business conference convening in the United States, with partnerships and convening efforts worldwide.
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