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Arctic Reading for the Quarantine:
If you find yourself looking for a good read, consider boosting your Arctic knowledge with these reports.
(Congressional Research Service) Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress, May 22, 2020. The diminishment of Arctic sea ice has led to increased human activities in the Arctic, and has heightened interest in, and concerns about, the region's future. The United States, by virtue of Alaska, is an Arctic country and has substantial interests in the region. The seven other Arctic states are Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark (by virtue of Greenland), and Russia. The Arctic Research and Policy Act (ARPA) of 1984 (Title I of P.L. 98-373 of July 31, 1984) "provide[s] for a comprehensive national policy dealing with national research needs and objectives in the Arctic."
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 Ice Arch Persists Despite Warm Arctic. A structure in the Nares Strait known as an "ice arch" was still intact in late May 2020 when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image. But check it out while you still can. This natural gatekeeper-which prevents sea ice from exiting the Arctic Ocean and drifting southward into Baffin Bay-typically breaks up each year by June or July. The Arctic Ocean is considered a semi-enclosed ocean, as it is surrounded almost entirely by land. The northern coastlines of these land masses-Eurasia, North America, Greenland-and some scattered islands keep most of the sea ice penned up, making it less mobile than sea ice that forms around Antarctica.
NASA Earth Observatory
Some Arctic Research to Continue, Thanks to Local Partnerships. For some researchers who work in the Arctic, the COVID-19 pandemic ended their upcoming field season before it began, but for others, it's going ahead on some level thanks to local partnerships. "It's an unintended benefit of community-led research," said Chris Debicki, the vice-president of policy development and counsel at Oceans North.
Nunatsiaq Online
Arctic River Will Take Decades to Recover From Fuel Spill: Russian Official. Russia's state fishing agency said on Tuesday an Arctic river would need decades to recover after 20,000 tons of oil products spilled out of a power station in the industrial city of Norilsk last week. A fuel tank at the power station lost pressure on May 29 and leaked out fuel and lubricants, causing a fire and spreading across an area of 350 square meters, the Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said.
CBC News
Herds of Moss Balls Mysteriously Roam the Arctic Together. In parts of Alaska and Iceland, glacier mice roam wild. While glacier mice look small and fluffy, they aren't rodents or even animals-they're lumps of moss about the size of a flattened softball. Their name comes from a 1951 report in the Journal of Glaciology, when an Icelandic researcher referred to them as jökla-mýs, glacier mice. Now, new research takes a close look at moss ball locomotion.
Smithsonian Magazine
Small Arctic Coastal Waterbodies, With Big Carbon Release. Arctic coastal watersheds are some of the most threatened regions on Earth, having undergone substantial climatic, physical and biological changes with the warming of the Earth, scientists have found. Now, researchers at the National Science Foundation Beaufort Lagoon Ecosystems Long-Term Ecological Research site have discovered that small coastal waterbodies in the Arctic, especially ponds, are releasing carbon to the atmosphere due to increasing water temperatures and microbial activity.
Mirage News
 Killer Whale Predation of Nunavut Narwhals on the Rise as Arctic Warms. Watch out narwhals: the occurrence of hungry killer whales, known as arluut in Inuktitut, in the Canadian Arctic is on the rise, and it is likely that their use of the region will only increase as the ice cover decreases. The current number of killer whales in the region, under 200 animals, could already be eating as many as 1,504 narwhals during their yearly forays into north Baffin, says a new research paper, called "Killer whale abundance and predicted narwhal consumption in the Canadian Arctic."
Nunatsiaq Online
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Future Events
** New this week **
Ground Truth Briefing: A Stronger International Regime for the Arctic Ocean? June 4, 2020 (Virtual). As the Arctic Ocean becomes more accessible due to climate change, governments and Arctic stakeholders are scrambling to keep up with increasing human activities in that region. Nations concerned have taken several steps to manage these activities, but current international arrangements will likely prove to be insufficient as the Arctic Ocean continues to change in profound ways.The Wilson Center's Polar Institute and the Russian International Affairs Council, with the support of WWF, will host this discussion with Ambassador Balton and Dr. Zagorski to consider these matters.
ICESAT-2 Cryospheric Science Hackweek, June 15-19, 2020 (Virtual). ICESat-2 Cryospheric Science Hackweek is a 5-day hackweek to be held at the University of Washington. Participants will learn about technologies used to access and process ICESat-2 data with a focus on the cryosphere. Mornings will consist of interactive lectures, and afternoon sessions will involve facilitated exploration of datasets and hands-on software development.
 ** New this week **
Alaska Electric Vehicle Workshop, June 16-17, 2020 (Virtual)
.
The first virtual Alaska Electric Vehicle Workshop co-hosted by the
Alaska Center for Energy and Power
and the
U.S. Arctic Research Commission is to be held
June 16-17, 2020 (9 am to 1 pm AKDT)
.
The goal of the workshop is to connect stakeholders and help develop a clearer vision of electric vehicle research and policy priorities for Alaska and the Arctic.
Local, national, and international speakers will engage with each other, as well as  audience members, on topics including vehicle charging behavior,
cold weather performance, electrical grid impacts and policy opportunities.
Registration and workshop details can be found at
here
.
 ** New this week **
Arctic Science Storytelling Webinar With Film Michael Snyder, June 24, 2020 (Virtual). Great stories can change the world, and you have one to tell! Join the Migration in Harmony NSF-Research Coordination Network and our collaborator, award-winning filmmaker Mike Snyder, in this virtual workshop to learn how you should think about your research topics and experiences in the context of a story, how to develop photographer and videographer partnerships, and how to pitch your work to different outlets. The event is hosted by Migration in Harmony. Migration in Harmony: An Interdisciplinary Network in Littoral Species, Settlements, and Cultures on the Move (MiH-RCN) is an international, cross-disciplinary network of Arctic migration researchers funded by the National Science Foundation.
Arctic Circle Assembly, October 8-11, 2020 (Reykjavik, 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.
3rd Arctic Science Ministerial, November 21-22, 2020 (Toyko, Japan). Since the last Arctic Science Ministerial in 2018, changes in the Arctic ecosystem and the resulting impacts locally and globally have been severely felt. While the reasons for these changes in climate largely stem from activities outside of the Arctic, the Arctic is warming at a rate of nearly double the global average. 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. The Third Arctic Science Ministerial will be co-hosted by Iceland and Japan.
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.
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