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September 2, 2020

No Arctic-science events are scheduled for today.
Media

Arctic Matters: Sino-Russian Dynamics. As the Arctic ice recedes, interest in resource extraction and promising trade routes increases, argue Maria Shagina and Benno Zogg in this CSS Analysis. Two actors in particular will have a strong impact on the region: China and Russia. Both are bound by an intricate dynamic of cooperation and competition, particularly in the energy sphere. As their interests do not always overlap, tensions and asymmetries between them may increase. CSS
 
russian flag Russia's 'Slow-Motion Chernobyl' at Sea. By tradition, Russians always bring an odd number of flowers to a living person and an even number to a grave or memorial. But every other day, 83-year-old Raisa Lappa places three roses or gladiolas by the plaque to her son Sergei in their hometown Rubtsovsk, as if he hadn't gone down with his submarine during an ill-fated towing operation in the Arctic Ocean in 2003. "I have episodes where I'm not normal, I go crazy, and it seems that he's alive, so I bring an odd number," she says. "They should raise the boat, so we mothers could put our sons' remains in the ground, and I could maybe have a little more peace." BBC News
 
UN Agency Laments Summer's 'Deep Wound' to Earth's Ice Cover. The United Nations weather agency says this summer will go down for leaving a "deep wound" in the cryosphere - the planet's frozen parts - amid a heat wave in the Arctic, shrinking sea ice and the collapse of a leading Canadian ice shelf. The World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday that temperatures in the Arctic are rising twice as fast as the global average, provoking what spokeswoman Clare Nullis called a "vicious circle." "The rapid decline of sea ice in turn contributes to more warming, and so the circle goes on and the consequences do not stay in the Arctic," Nullis said during a regular UN briefing in Geneva. CBC News
 
Heat From Ocean's Interior Impacting Formation of Winter Sea Ice: Study. Heat from the eastern Arctic Ocean's interior is having an increasing influence on the formation of winter sea ice in the region, suggests a recent international study. "In the past, when weighing the contribution of atmosphere and ocean to melting sea ice in the Eurasian Basin, the atmosphere led," said Igor Polyakov, an oceanographer at Univeristy of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) International Arctic Research Center and Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and the study's lead author. "Now for the first time, ocean leads. That's a big change." Radio Canada International

Call for Information on Recent Arctic Research ActivitiesThe Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) is beginning its yearly effort to gather information on relevant research activities that have occurred over the last fiscal year. We hope this provides you an opportunity to share the work you have been doing during FY2020 with the wider research community. We welcome all to contribute information on recent work that is relevant to the Arctic Research Plan by September 4. Learn how to submit your work on IARPC's website.
Future Events

** New this week ** Building Arctic Educator-Researcher Collaborations, 1:00 PM EDT on September 9, 2020 (virtual). In this webinar led by Jennifer Chavez-Miller, you will learn how to reach out and partner with educators on public programming, how to foster effective educator-researcher collaborations, and how you can improve your communication skills for younger audiences. Jennifer will share her expertise of collaborations from over 18 years as a public school educator, including research trips to Svalbard and Finland, and a recent National Geographic funded education project. You will leave this webinar with next steps you can take to begin meaningful outreach to interest students in your field and create a path to participation. This webinar is supported by the Migration in Harmony Research Coordination Network.
  
** New this week ** Planned Relocations in the Arctic: Lessons Learned in Environmental Displacement, 1:00 PM EDT on September 24, 2020 (virtual). Join the Migration in Harmony Research Coordination Network for this webinar to learn what support is, and is not available, to communities are relocating away from environmental hazards. Migration experts Dr. Elizabeth Ferris, Sanjula Weerasinghe, and Erica Bower will share their experiences working with the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Bank to create international guidance and toolkits for planned community relocations, and discuss lessons learned for future relocations in a climate changed world.

Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) Annual Meeting, October 29, 2020 (virtual) The ARCUS Annual Meeting serves as an important opportunity for for the Council of ARCUS Institutional Member RepresentativesARCUS Individual Members, and other members of the broader Arctic research community to connect with one another, the ARCUS Board of Directors, and staff. The meeting will be open to all interested participants and there is no cost to attend.

AGU Fall Meeting, December 7-11, 2020 (San Francisco, California USA). Fall Meeting is the largest gathering of Earth and space scientists in the world. More information will be available at the link.

** New this week ** 2021 Alaska Marine Science Symposium, January 26-28, 2021 (virtual). The Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS) has been bringing together scientists, educators, resource managers, students, and interested public for over twenty years to discuss the latest marine research being conducted in Alaskan waters. Over 700 people attend this 4-day long conference held annually during the month of January. Each day of the conference highlights important Alaskan marine ecosystems: Gulf of Alaska (Tuesday), Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands (Wednesday), and the Arctic (Thursday). Research topics discussed range from ocean physics, fishes and invertebrates, seabirds, marine mammals, to local traditional knowledge. Since its inception, NPRB has been a proud sponsor and one of the leading organizers of AMSS.

Arctic Science Summit Week, March 20-26, 2021 (Lisbon, Portugal). The Portuguese Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Local Organizing Committee will host the Arctic Science Summit Week 2021. The Conference is organized by FCT, Ciência Viva, AIR Center, the Portuguese Arctic Community and by IASC and partners. Framed by the overarching theme for the Science Conference "The Arctic: Regional Changes, Global Impacts," Lisbon invites International experts on the Arctic and Indigenous Peoples to discuss the "New Arctic" and also its impacts and interactions to and with the lower latitudes.

Save the Date: 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses, May 3-6, 2021 (Hanko, Finland). Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2021. This symposium will bring together molecular microbial ecologists specializing in different organism groups to share our latest results and discuss methodological problems, as well as future prospects in the field, including practical international collaborations. The environmental focus will be on cryospheric environments including sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and permafrost, but excellent research in other polar environments is also invited. The methods to be discussed will focus on 'omics' techniques, ranging from single cells to metagenomes, but research using additional methods is encouraged as well.

3rd Arctic Science Ministerial, May 8-9, 2021 (Toyko, Japan). The Japanese and Icelandic organizers of this ministerial continue to plan for an in-person ministerial, in Tokyo, but have moved the dates from November 21-22, 2020 to May 8-9, 2021 because of Covid-19. Since the last Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018, changes in the Arctic ecosystem and the resulting impacts locally and globally have been severely felt. Considering the need for climate change mitigation, adaptation, and repair measures, the relevance of an international Arctic Science Ministerial has never been greater. It is necessary to strengthen scientific cooperation and collaboration among both Arctic and non-Arctic States in order to develop our understanding of the rapid changes impacting the Arctic. The First Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM1) was hosted by the United States in 2016, and two years later, the Second Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM2) was co-hosted by Germany, Finland, and the European Commission. ASM3 will be co-hosted by Iceland and Japan.
 

2021 Regional Conference on Permafrost/ 19th International Conference Cold Regions Engineering, July 11-16, 2021 (Boulder, Colorado USA). For the first time a Regional Conference on Permafrost will be combined with the bi-annual 19th International Conference on Cold Regions Engineering. This conference is hosted by the US Permafrost Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Permafrost Association, the Permafrost Young Researchers Network, and the University of Colorado Boulder. A complete list of planned sessions is available here.

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