Bulletin 08/09 Understanding of the Arctic Region and Its Role in the Earth System
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[IASC] · INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC SCIENCE COMMITTEE The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is a non-governmental, international scientific organization established to encourage, facilitate and IASC promote leading-edge multi-disciplinary research to foster a greater scientific Bulletin 08/09 Bulletin understanding of the arctic region and its role in the Earth system. TO ACHIVE THIS MISSION IASC: • Initiates, coordinates and promotes scientific activities at a circumarctic or international level; • Provides mechanisms and instruments to support science development; • Provides objective and independent scienti!c advice on issues of science in the Arctic and communicates scienti!c information to the public; • Seeks to ensure that scienti!c data and information from the Arctic are safeguarded, freely exchangeable and accessible; • Promotes international access to all geographic areas and the sharing of knowledge, logistics and other resources; • Provides for the freedom and ethical conduct of science; • Promotes and involves the next generation of scientists working in the Arctic; and • Promotes bipolar cooperation through interaction IASC 08/09 with relevant science organizations. BULLETIN The IASC Secretariat implements decisions of the Executive Committee and Council, manages IASC !nances, conducts outreach activities and maintains international communication. IASC Bulletin 08/09 ISSN: 1654-7594, ISBN: 978-3-9813637-0-8 Telegrafenberg A43 - 14473 Potsdam , Germany INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC SCIENCE COMMITTEE Phone: +49-331-2882214 | E-mail: [email protected] | www.iasc.info Telegrafenberg A43 ,DE - 14473 Potsdam, Germany www.iasc.info INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC SCIENCE COMMITTEE [IASC] · STRUCTURE Representatives of national scientific organizations from all 19 member countries form the IASC Council. The President of IASC is elected by Council, which also elects 4 Vice-Presidents to serve on the Executive Committee. Council usually meets once a year during the Arctic Science Summit Week, ASSW. IASC Executive Committee operates as a board of directors and manages the activities of IASC between Council meetings. The Chair is the President of IASC. IASC MEMBER COUNTRIES Canada Canadian Polar Commission www.polarcom.gc.ca China Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration www.chinare.gov.cn Denmark/Greenland The Commission for Scientific Research in www.fi.dk Greenland Finland Delegation of the Finnish Academies of www.tsv.fi/international/ Science and Letters akatemiat/ France Institut Polaire Français www.institut-polaire.fr Germany Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft www.dfg.de Iceland RANNÍS, The Icelandic Centre for Research www.rannis.is Italy National Research Council of Italy www.cnr.it Japan Science Council of Japan, National Institute www.nipr.ac.jp of Polar Research The Netherlands Netherlands Organisation for Scientific www.nwo.nl Research Norway The Research Council of Norway www.forskningsradet.no Poland Polish Academy of Sciences, Committee on www.polish.polar.pan.pl Polar Research Russia The Russian Academy of Sciences www.ras.ru Republic of Korea Korea Polar Research Institute www.kopri.re.kr Spain Comité Polar Español www.micinn.es Sweden The Swedish Research Council www.vr.se Switzerland Swiss Committee on Polar Research www.polar-research.ch United Kingdom Natural Environment Research Council www.nerc.ac.uk USA Polar Research Board www.dels.nas.edu/prb/ PHOTO: OLAF JUSCHUS The drilling platform Russian GLAD 800 on Lake El´gygytgyn, northeastern Russia. Between October 2008 and May 2009, an international team of scientists from Russia, Germany, the USA and Austria staged scientific drilling operations at Lake El´gygytgyn, located in a 3.6 Million year old impact crater. The retrieved cores will provide new insights into the millennial-scale climate evolution of the Arctic, the formation of the impact crater, and the history of the permafrost. The completion of the project marked the end of years of challenging logistical planning and the development of international partnerships to share in the scientific goals. IASC 08/09 BULLETIN INTERNATIONAL ARCTIC SCIENCE COMMITTEE [IMPRINT] International Arctic Science Committee Telegrafenberg A43 DE-14473 Potsdam, GERMANY Phone: +49 331 288 2214 Fax: +49 331 288 2215 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.iasc.info © International Arctic Science Committee 2010 Editors: Volker Rachold, Sara Bowden and Mare Pit Production and Layout: www.redpear.de Printing: www.druckereiarnold.de ISSN: 1654-7594 ISBN: 978-3-9813637-0-8 COVERPHOTO: MARTIN FORTIER Scientists are sampling newly formed pancake sea ice in the Beaufort Sea. The scientists are lowered in a cage from the research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen as part of ArcticNet‘s annual expedition to the coastal Canadian Arctic. [CONTENT] PREFACE 1 IASC Internal 4 Major International Development Science Initiatives Organization ................................... 10 Sustaining Arctic Observing IASC in Transition . 11 Networks (SAON) ............................. 70 Membership News ............................. 12 Climate Change and the Arctic Cryosphere: Secretariat ...................................... 16 Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) ........................................ 73 International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 . 77 2 Relationship to Other Organizations IASC Networks Introduction .................................... 20 5 Network on Arctic Glaciology (NAG) . 84 New Partnership Agreements . 21 Polar Archeology Network (PAN) . 88 Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB) . 24 Arctic Palaeoclimate and its International Arctic Social Sciences Extremes (APEX) .............................. 90 Association (IASSA) ............................. 28 Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) . 95 World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) .......................... 30 International Association of Cryospheric Early Career Development Sciences (IASC) .................................. 31 6 IASC Stimulates Early Career Scientists . 100 Scienti!c Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) .............................. 32 Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) . 103 3 Arctic Science Summit ANNEX Week 2009 Annex 1 Introduction .................................... 38 Merger between AOSB and IASC . 104 Open Science Symposium . 39 Annex 2 Keynote Speakers ......................... 39 Letter of Agreement (LoA) between the Sessions Reports . 49 Paci!c arctic group (PAG) and IASC . 105 Summary of the Business Meetings . 62 Annex 3 Forum of Arctic Research Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Operators (FARO) ........................... 62 between the International Permafrost Paci!c Arctic Group (PAG) . 63 Assoziation (IPA), Scienti!c Committee on European Polar Board (EPB) . 65 Antarctic Research, (SCAR) and IASC . 108 Arctic Science Summit Week Annex 4 2010 and 2011 ................................. 67 List of Acronyms and Abbreviations . 111 [PREFACE] The purpose of this yearbook, the IASC Bulletin 08/09, involved in the Arctic Council project “Climate Change is to distribute IASC information to the arctic research and the Cryosphere: Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in community. The IASC Bulletin generally covers the the Arctic (SWIPA)”, which is coordinated by the Arctic period between two Arctic Science Summit Weeks Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), the (ASSW), ending with a report of the latter. Climate and Cryosphere Project (CliC), the Internatio- nal Polar Year International Programme O#ce (IPY IPO) The reporting period for this third IASC yearbook falls and the International Arctic Social Sciences Association within the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 and (IASSA). The !rst component of the SWIPA project, the its aftermath, which had a tremendous e"ect on the “Greenland Ice Sheet in a Changing Climate” report arctic science community, including arctic science was recently presented at the UNFCCC COP15 meeting organizations involved in planning and coordination in Copenhagen in December 2009. of international arctic research, such as IASC. A collec- tive volume summarizing the IPY activities is currently To further enhance scienti!c cooperation in the Arctic, being prepared by the IPY Joint Committee. IASC is a IASC continues to strengthen its cooperation with major contributor to this IPY summary report, which other arctic science organizations and recently signed is envisioned to become the lead reference source formal agreements with the Paci!c Arctic Group (PAG) on the origin, planning, and implementation of IPY and the International Permafrost Association (IPA). The 2007–2008. latter was jointly signed with SCAR. After the success of the mid-term IPY Conference The ASSW 2009 in Bergen (Norway) was the !rst annual that was jointly organized by IASC and its Southern gathering of the arctic science organizations that inclu- Hemisphere partner organization, the Scienti!c Com- ded a Science Symposium. This major event attracted mittee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), in St. Petersburg over 300 scientists, students, policy makers and other (Russia) in July 2008, IASC, with its partners, began professionals. Following the success of the Bergen planning the next two IPY Conferences: the IPY 2010 meeting, IASC and its partner organizations involved Oslo and the IPY 2012 Montreal Conferences. in the ASSW have decided to arrange such a Science Symposium every second year. The next one will be The IPY o#cially ended in February 2009, but it left held at the ASSW 2011 in Seoul, Korea. an enormous legacy, which needs to be conserved and