Climate Experts Predict Warmer-Than-Normal Fall, Continuing 10-Year 'Quite Strong Trend.' National Weather Service climate expert Rick Thoman says there's a good chance that all of Alaska will be warmer than normal in August and the next couple of months. But he says there's near-certainty that coastal areas along the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering and Beaufort seas will be warm through October. Thoman says the computer models and array of sensors that he and other climate experts use to develop long-term forecasts suggest there's a 45 percent chance that the eastern and central Interior will be warmer than normal through October. He says that's a statewide trend that's developed in recent years. KUAC

 

Revelations of Floating University May Add to Arctic Soil Map. The data received during work of the Arctic Floating University will help scientists in verifying the maps of soils and sea streams in the Russian Arctic and to understand the climate change processes in the Arctic area, a participant of the expedition, an expert of the Russia Academy of Sciences' Institute of Geography Sergei Goryachkin told TASS. The Arctic Floating University is a joint project of the Lomonosov Northern (Arctic) Federal University, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring and the Arkhangelsk branch of the Russian Geographical Society. The University's ninth expedition to high latitudes was on July 8-28 in the waters of the Barents and White Seas, at the Franz-Joseph archipelago and the northern part of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. The expedition featured 58 people, including 25 from Switzerland, Cuba, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, France and the Netherlands. TASS

 

GN Ponders Options for Nunavut Additions Treatment: RFP Seeks Consultant to Research the Issue. The possibility of a residential addictions treatment center for Nunavut is back on the table, with the release of a new government request for proposals that seeks someone to research options for offering such a service. According to an RFP issued July 7, the Government of Nunavut wants to contract a consultant to develop options for addictions and trauma treatment for Nunavummiut. One of the options in the study is to explore the feasibility of a residential addictions and trauma treatment center within the territory-something that hasn't existed within Nunavut since 1998. Nunatsiaq Online

Canadian Military Developing Surveillance System to Monitor Arctic Waters. Department of National Defense scientists arrived this week on Devon Island, Nunavut, to work on a new system to monitor Arctic waters. "It's important from a sovereignty perspective; if Canada has sovereignty over this part of the world, we need to know who's there," said Dr. Dan Hutt, of Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC). "This is part of that solution." CBC News

What Russia's New Navy Strategy Says About the Arctic. The policy document, which was signed by President Putin on 20th July, includes high ambitions for the country's naval forces. The Russian Federation will not allow significant superiority of other countries' navies over its fleet and will be committed to strengthen its position as the second most combat capable in the world, the strategy reads. The adoption of the policy document comes as military and navy investments over the last years have surged. And more is to come. The Barents Observer

 

To Understand the Elusive Musk Ox, Researchers Must Become Its Worst Fear. Joel Berger is on the hunt. Crouching on a snow-covered hillside, the conservation biologist sports a full-length cape of brown faux fur and what looks to be an oversized teddy bear head perched on a stake. Holding the head aloft in one hand, he begins creeping over the hill's crest toward his target: a herd of huddling musk oxen. It's all part of a plan that Berger, who is the wildlife conservation chair at Colorado State University, has devised to help protect the enigmatic animal that roams the Alaskan wilderness. He slowly approaches the unsuspecting herd and makes note of how the musk oxen react. At what distance do they look his way? Do they run away, or stand their ground and face him? Do they charge? Each of their reactions will give him vital clues to the behavior of what has been a notoriously elusive study subject.  Smithsonian