Tackling Dumped Nuclear Waste Gets Priority in Russia's Arctic Council Leadership | |
Russia’s Foreign Ministry invites international experts from the other Arctic nations to a June 2022 conference on how to recover the sunken radioactive and hazardous objects dumped by the Soviet Union on the seafloor east of Novaya Zemlya. No other places in the world’s oceans have more radioactive and nuclear waste than the Kara Sea. | |
In Sweden's Far North, a Space Complex Takes Shape | |
The path to the reindeer herder’s spring home took him across four frozen lakes and countless snowy hilltops. Arriving to a light dusting of snow, the herder, Aslak Allas, switched off his snowmobile, and the overwhelming silence of Sweden’s Arctic settled in. His reindeer, thousands of them, were nowhere to be seen. “They are very scared of noise,” Mr. Allas explained, pointing to his vehicle. | |
First Flights Begin to Count the Polar Bear Population | |
The Master of the Arctic program’s first flights to count the population of polar bears have begun. An L-410 aircraft took off over Tiksi Bay and flew along one of 10 planned routes. For four hours, the team made observations at an altitude of 200–250 meters at a speed of 250–260 kilometers per hour. | |
Airborne Radar Reveals Groundwater Beneath Glacier | |
Melting glaciers and polar ice sheets are among the dominant sources of sea-level rise, yet until now, the water beneath them has remained hidden from airborne ice-penetrating radar. With the detection of groundwater beneath Hiawatha Glacier in Greenland, researchers have opened the possibility that water can be identified under other glaciers from the air at a continental scale and help improve sea-level rise projections. | |
1:00 pm EDT on MAY 26, 2021 | Virtual
American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) Inside Diplomacy: Arctic Diplomacy
| The warming of the Arctic region is opening a host of new diplomatic challenges and opportunities. What does this mean for U.S. diplomacy and for our Foreign Service? This latest event in AFSA's Inside Diplomacy series will feature guest James DeHart, U.S. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, for a discussion about the increased need for U.S. diplomacy and leadership in a region that is seeing significant climate and geopolitical changes. Hosted by AFSA President Ambassador Rubin. | |
June 2-3, 2021 | VIRTUAL
The Arctic Domain Awareness Center Program Year 7 Annual Meeting
| ADAC will conduct the Center's Program Year 7 Annual meeting to focus on U.S. Coast Guard Project Champions, key stakeholders and the community of Arctic science and technology researchers. Included in the Program Year 7 Annual meeting are planned guest speakers from HQ U.S. Coast Guard, DHS S&T and senior Arctic Research leadership in Washington D.C. | |
3:00 PM on June 2, 2021 | VIRTUAL
Draft Arctic Research Plan 2022-2026 Information Session: Focus on Implementation
| IARPC has released a draft of the next five-year Arctic Research Plan, which will span from 2022-2026. We are now asking the public to comment on the draft plan by June 11, 2021. To provide additional information about the draft plan contents and development, the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee is hosting a series of one-hour information sessions. | |
1:00 PM on June 3, 2021 | VIRTUAL
IARPC Public Webinar Series: Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples- A Historical Perspective
| Join IARPC on Thursday, June 3 at 9am AKT / 1pm ET for a webinar with Dr. Sarah Aarons, Assistant Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Aarons will provide a brief introduction to the historical context of colonialism in the Arctic, focused on Alaska, and its relationship to climate change impacts on Arctic Indigenous Peoples. For researchers working in the Arctic, this webinar will provide insight into the ways that relationships, resource extraction, compensation, and infrastructure building have been predominantly one-sided, and how climate change is now impacting Indigenous communities. | |
JUNE 2021 | ARKHANGELSK, RUSSIA
10th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS X) Arctic Generations: Looking Back and Looking Forward
| |
1:00 pm UTC on JUNE 9, 2021 | VIRTUAL
Third Arctic Science Ministerial (ASM3):
Closing Webinar
| This meeting is part of the ASM3 webinar series and will focus on the post-ministerial review: joint statement actions. | |
NEW THIS WEEK | 2:30- 5:00 pm (CET) on June 17, 2021 | VIRTUAL
The EU's Arctic Influence: Presentation of a Report on the EU Actions Affecting the Arctic
| The seminar will present a report prepared in relation to the project “Overview of EU actions in the Arctic and their impact.” The study considers a broad range of ways in which EU policies affect the Arctic and influence the EU’s environmental footprint and economic presence in the region. During the study the EU’s environmental and economic Arctic impact has been considered, relevant policies have been identified and analysed as well as policy options for strengthening the EU Arctic approach have been proposed. The report has been written by a team of experts led by Prof. Timo Koivurova. The seminar will include the presentation of the study, commentaries from Arctic stakeholders as well as insights into the current stage of developing the new EU’s policy towards the Arctic, to which the report is to contribute. | |
|
OCTOBER 24–29, 2021 | BOULDER, COLORADO, USA
2021 Regional Conference on Permafrost/19th International Conference Cold Regions Engineering
| |
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. | |
MAY 9-12, 2022 | HANKO, FINLAND
2nd Symposium on Polar Microbes and Viruses
| 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. | |
External links in this publication, and on the USARC's World Wide Web site (www.arctic.gov) do not constitute an endorsement by the US Arctic Research Commission of external Web sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the USARC does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this newsletter and the USARC website. | | | | |