Arctic Science at Risk as University of Alaska Braces for Draconian Budget Cuts. University of Alaska (UA) administrators are scrambling to decide how to impose deep mandatory spending cuts that could hobble research programs at one of the world's premier Arctic science institutions. The UA Board of Regents this week began to consider declaring a "financial exigency" that would allow officials to take extraordinary cost-cutting measures, which are expected to include laying off some tenured faculty and unionized staff, as well as eliminating or downsizing campuses and departments. The discussion followed a 28 June decision by Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) to reject a proposed $8.7 billion state operating budget and insist on a reduction of $444 million, including a $136 million cut to the UA system. Science Magazine  

 

Understanding the Terrestrial Effects of Arctic Sea Ice Decline. The ongoing loss of Arctic sea ice is likely to have wide-ranging effects on northern lands. The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) has responded to the urgent need for an improved understanding of these effects by initiating the circumpolar project Terrestrial Multidisciplinary distributed Observatories for the Study of Arctic Connections (T_MOSAiC). This project, which is linked to the IASC oceanographic project Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), addresses the question, What are the implications of changing sea ice, oceanography, and climate of Arctic seas for the surrounding land-based geosystems, ecosystems, and human systems? EOS

 

Indiga Port Construction to Begin in 2020- Roman Trotsenko. The construction of Indiga, a deep-water port on the Northern Sea Route, is expected to begin in 2020, CEO and owner of AEON Corporation, Roman Trotsenko, told reporters. In November 2018, Trotsenko claimed that his company was ready to invest 60 billion rubles in the construction project, saying that terminals for coal, general cargo, timber and potassium fertilizers could be built at the port alongside other facilities. The Arctic

 

In Swedish Lapland, Drone Deliveries May Soon Expand Rural Heath Services. Swedish officials say they are prepared to begin real-world tests using drones to ferry medicine and medical samples between hospitals and rural communities in Swedish Lapland. After wrapping up testing of the specially designed drones on closed courses in the Västerbotten region in May, the next phase will be to conduct test flights between a hospital in the town of Storuman and a health clinic in the village of Slussfors, some 40 miles (60 kilometers away). Arctic Today

 

Tracking Down Climate Change with Radar Eyes. Over the past 22 years, sea levels in the Arctic have risen an average of 2.2 millimeters per year. This is the conclusion of a Danish-German research team after evaluating 1.5 billion radar measurements of various satellites using specially developed algorithms. "The Arctic is a hotspot of climate change," explains Prof. Florian Seitz of the German Geodetic Research Institute at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). "Due to rising temperatures, the glaciers of Greenland are receding. Science Daily

Most Northern Tip of Canadian Arctic Shatters Heat Record. The small community of Alert, Nunavut is the most northern permanently inhabited region on the planet and they have officially entered uncharted waters. On July 14 Alert shattered their previous record high temperature when they reached 21°C, which is one degree higher than their previous record of 20°C in 1956. For reference, high temperatures in July are typically only a few degrees above freezing for this region (5-6°C), with nighttime lows hovering near the freezing mark. The Weather Network