The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The European Commission and the European External Action Service will organize a high-level EU Arctic Forum and the Annual Arctic Indigenous Peoples’ Dialogue. The EU Arctic Forum will bring together key Arctic players and stakeholders to assess recent developments in the region and discuss challenges ahead. The event will provide a strategic outlook for the updated EU Arctic policy and delve into topics that are of particular significance for the Arctic’s inhabitants.

For the first time since the 1970s, silence descended on the tiny, isolated village of Old Crow in Canada’s Arctic in August. For generations, the community of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation in the Yukon, about 100 kilometres east of the Alaskan border, had suffered the incessant drone of diesel-powered generators to meet its electricity needs.

Shippers on the Northern Sea Route all know the characteristic 36 meter high lighthouse that stands on the desolate island of Vilkitsky. It is one of the harshest parts of the Arctic shipping route, and the light from the guiding lamp has saved many sailors through the icy strait that separates the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea. The Vilkitsky lighthouse is built in the early 1950s and is likely to shine for many more years. But that might not be the case with several of the 21 other lighthouses, as well as more than 1000 navigation markers, that are scattered along the vast Russian Arctic coast.

After eight great years of observations and research, a Sandia National Laboratories-operated atmospheric measurement facility moved from Oliktok Point, on the North Slope of Alaska, this summer. The mobile facility will be relocating to the southeastern United States; the exact location is still being decided.

The Norwegian government will allocate about 10 million kroner, which is over 1 million euros, to its Arctic Ocean exploration program. The funds will go to GoNorth, a program to gain more knowledge about the Arctic Ocean. The program brings together scientists from several Norwegian universities and research centers, including the Norwegian Polar Institute, the University Center in Svalbard, the Nansen Center and the Arctic University of Norway. The research will be carried out by three expeditions, the first of which is to take place in October-November of 2022.

During 2021, scientists from ADF&G, USFWS, and UAF joined the latest NOAA surface trawl survey. This survey monitored marine life; including salmon and other ocean-going fishes, seabirds, shrimp, and zooplankton in the northern Bering Sea. These surveys help improve understanding of the current status of the regional ecosystem in order to prepare communities, researchers, and fisheries for changes in our marine resources.

Jim Murphy is a research biologist with the Salmon Ocean Ecology and Bycatch Analysis group at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Juneau, AK. 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://tinyurl.com/7f9eydtb

Meeting ID: 835 1553 6100, Passcode: 1

Or call: 1-253-215-8782

The PRB Fall Meeting will take place as a series of online sessions. This session of the PRB fall meeting will include discussions with select federal agency polar program leaders about their current priorities, opportunities, and challenges. 

November 15th: This session of the PRB fall meeting will include discussions with select federal agency polar program leaders about their current priorities, opportunities, and challenges. There will be updates on developments in international polar science cooperation through IASC and SCAR. Additionally, there will be an overview of recent/current NASEM activities of relevance to polar science

November 19th: This session of the PRB fall meeting will explore current developments, and possible opportunities for new PRB efforts related to assessment of health risks/concerns for Arctic-region populations and prospects for expanding science cooperation in the Russian Arctic.

November 30th: There will be a joint session with the Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC) and Ocean Studies Board (OSB) on “Tipping Points in the Climate System.” Participants will consider the scientific advances that have been made since the last major NASEM study related to thresholds/abrupt changes in the climate system (in 2013) and explore how a new Academies activity could make value contributions on this topic.

Museums in and of the North are leading the way in creative conversations about how museums and collections can generate new narratives with old objects. Join us for a virtual roundtable discussion with Arctic museum curators and scholars speaking about museums as engines of Indigenous cultural renewal, community knowledge, decolonial efforts, creative innovation, and more.

The New England Arctic Network (NEAN) will host its 2021 meeting at the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Additional information will be published soon. 

The Wilson Center's Polar Institute is pleased to co-sponsor the 14th Polar Law Symposium, which will be a hybrid event co-hosted by the Polar Cooperation Research Centre (Kobe University, Japan), Polar Law Institute (University of Akureyri, Iceland), Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law – Arctic Centre (University of Lapland, Finland), University of the Arctic and its Arctic Law Thematic Network (Finland).

Hosted entirely online the ArcticNet Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2021 (ASM2021) is a hub for Arctic research in Canada. The ASM2021 brings together researchers from the natural, health, and social sciences to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing Arctic region, shaped by climate change and modernization. This conference will push the boundaries of our collective understanding of the Arctic and strengthen our ability to address the Arctic issues of today and tomorrow.

The National Academies’ Polar Research Board is convening the following session at the Fall AGU meeting.

Arctic Symposium 2022 continues momentum in Arctic defense and security collaboration established in prior ALCOM-hosted events. AAS22 seeks to address the challenges faced by the U.S. military and our allies and partners in understanding and responding to our respective national interests. AAS22 is planned and organized by the Arctic Domain Awareness Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) in support and in compliance to guidance from Alaskan Command (ALCOM) Staff and Commander. More information available soon.

The participants in the forum will focus on improving the living standards in the Arctic region, preserving its unique ecological potential, ensuring sustainable socioeconomic development in polar territories, and strengthening international cooperation to this end. The IAF is a unique space for constructive cooperation with international and regional organizations and an opportunity to focus on Russian and international priorities, including climate change, the environment, economic cooperation in the Arctic, sustainable development of transport infrastructure, and human capital development.

Organizers announce, that due to the coronavirus outbreak, the 2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses has been postponed to 2022. 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.