4 November 2016: Contributed by Aleks Terauds

Although relatively rare and small in extent, Antarctica’s terrestrial geothermal environments are of high scientific value to a wide range of disciplines. Recent evidence suggests that these environments support unique and diverse biological communities, and that they have played an important role as biological refugia for a range of species. However, these ecosystems are vulnerable to disturbance and at risk from introduced species, ground disturbance, or other damage by human activity.

In recognition of the high scientific interest, and in light of the potential for disturbance, a multi-stakeholder workshop was held in 2014 to identify and develop a strategy for managing and protecting these unique environments. Based on this consultation and with advice from SCAR, a Code of Conduct for Activity within Terrestrial Geothermal Environments in Antarctica was developed to establish principles and to provide practical guidance on field procedures and protocols to help maintain the unique environmental and scientific values of terrestrial geothermal sites across the continent.

4 November 2016:

The International Workshop "Airborne Geodesy and Geophysics with Focus on Polar Application" to be held in Dresden from 19 to 21 April 2017.

The 1st Circular with the complete announcement can be downloaded at this link: https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/geo/ipg/gef/die-professur/news/international-workshop-on-polar-airborne-geodesy-and-geophysics?set_language=en

In succession to previous workshops held 2009 in Dresden (“Aerogravimetry: Technology and Application”) and 2012 in Potsdam (“Geodesy and Geophysics on Airborne Platforms, in particular HALO”) we would like to invite you to the International Workshop “Airborne Geodesy and Geophysics with Focus on Polar Applications”, to be held in Dresden from 19 to 21 April 2017.

One focus will be on the new German research aircraft HALO that is planned to be operated in Antarctica. However, we solicit contributions on all kinds of airborne geodetic, geophysical and glaciological measurement techniques applied in polar regions, from airborne gravimetry and magnetometry to radio‐echo sounding of the ice sheets and glaciers, from GNSS reflectometry, scatterometry and occultation to radar and laser altimetry. We solicit contributions on the state‐of‐the‐art of airborne geoscientific observation techniques and their analyses to improve our understanding of processes that interlink the potential fields with the cryosphere, the geosphere and the oceans. Presentations are very much welcome on innovative methods and engineering solutions to adopt airborne platforms of different size and endurance, from jet aircraft to turboprop aircraft, helicopters and UAV for measurements in the polar regions.

For more information contact Mirko Scheinert ( Mirko.Scheinert@tu-dresden.de ).

1 November 2016:

The XIIth SCAR Biology Symposium with the general theme 'Scale Matters', will be held in Leuven, Belgium from Monday 10th to Friday 14th July 2017.
 
The International SCAR Biology symposia were initiated in 1973 with the purpose of bringing fundamental and applied scientists together with an interest in Antarctic terrestrial and marine life sciences, including man. Symposium themes under consideration include: Distribution and trends; Adaptation and processes; New insights through multi-disciplinary research; Threats and impacts: from the poles to the globe to the poles; Societal impact of Antarctic biological science; Human biology at the poles.
 
For information, registration and abstract submission (deadline: 15th of February 2017), see http://www.scarbiology2017.org or download the 1st Circular here.

31 October 2016:

SCAR’s Past President Jerónimo López-Martínez was recently interviewed by Angela Posada-Swafford of the Spanish Edition of Scientific American.  

"Research in Antarctica is crucial to understanding climate variability and its consequences"

Jerónimo López, outgoing Chairman of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, talks about the importance of investigating the White Continent.

Read the full article in Spanish here.

Here’s the introduction in English via Google Translate:

Over the past four years, and until a few weeks ago, geologist and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid Jeronimo Lopez was the president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. SCAR, for its acronym in English, is the organization responsible for promoting and coordinating scientific research in Antarctica, and advise the Antarctic Treaty on science. With 43 member countries and nine international scientific unions, arguably is a small United Nations of Antarctic science. Lopez was the only Spanish speaker so far to hold that position. Scientific American spoke with him about the future of Antarctic science and the growing Latin American participation in it.

31 October 2016:

The 31st FRISP workshop will be arranged 19-22 June, 2017 at Hotel Panorama in Bergen, Norway. Please save the dates and join us for three days of interesting presentations and discussions on all aspects of ice shelf related research! More information on the workshop is available at: http://folk.uib.no/ngfso/FRISP/news.html#

FRISP was first developed by SCAR in 1983, with a specific geographical focus on the Filchner‐Ronne Ice Shelf as a subcommittee under the past Working Group on Glaciology.  It later broadened its scope to the whole of Antarctica and Greenland and the direct connection to SCAR declined after SCAR’s restructuring.  We are pleased to announce a reinvigorated connection between FRISP and SCAR as in August 2016 FRISP was approved as an expert group under the SCAR Physical Sciences Group to focus on the oceanic and atmospheric processes governing the behavior of ice shelves that are key to the ice sheet contribution to sea level change.

This Expert Group is distinct from and complementary to the existing Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level (ISMASS) Expert Group in that FRISP concentrates on the processes controlling ice shelf behaviour, whereas ISMASS is broadly concerned with the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise.  The scientific focus of FRISP naturally puts its activities at the interface between those of ISMASS, SORP and SOOS, while complementing the efforts of MISOMIP, and the FRISP Steering Committee includes representatives from the Steering Committees of those groups. Establishment of further links with other relevant SCAR groups, such as ASPeCt and AntClim21 will also be explored.

For more information on FRISP visit http://www.scar.org/ssg/physical-sciences/frisp

31 October 2016:

The Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) is a major international activity that has been initiated by World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) as a key component of the Polar Prediction Project (PPP). It will take place from mid-2017 to mid-2019. The overarching goal of YOPP is to significantly advance our environmental prediction capabilities for the polar regions and beyond. As an internationally coordinated period of intensive observing, modelling, prediction, verification, user-engagement and education activities which involves various stakeholders, the Year of Polar Prediction contributes to the knowledge base needed to managing the opportunities and risks that come with polar climate change.

The YOPP Southern Hemisphere efforts are being coordinated by David Bromwich, SCAR’s Chief Officer for the Physical Sciences Group and thus are closely tied to many of SCAR’s efforts.  Learn more about the Southern Hemisphere plans here: http://polarmet.osu.edu/YOPP-SH/

The first edition of PolarPredictNews, the newsletter from the International Coordination Office for Polar Prediction, has recently been published.  In this first issue, learn more about a flying laboratory and new colleagues joining the Polar Prediction Steering Group. Amongst others, read about the preparation of the Year of Polar Prediction in Columbus, Ohio and Reading, UK, and meet with Dave Bromwich chatting about his YOPP-endorsed project in West Antarctica. Download the newsletter here.

PolarPredictNews aims to keep you updated with recent, ongoing and upcoming activities during the Year of Polar Prediction. With this newsletter, they are aiming to build a common platform to exchange information, updates, and developments in polar prediction. To learn more about YOPP visit their website. Sign up for their newsletter by contacting office@polarprediction.net.

31 October 2016:

We would like to share with you the October 2016 Electronic Journal from one of SCAR’s Union Members, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). IUGG is the international organization dedicated to advancing, promoting, and communicating knowledge of the Earth system, its space environment, and the dynamical processes causing change. If you are interested in learning more about IUGG, please contact the IUGG representatives to SCAR: Ian Allison and John Turner.

They produce a monthly newsletter that often has updates of interest to the Antarctic Community. We share this particular newsletter as it has information on the 34th SCAR Delegates Meeting as well as an update on the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) activities. If you are interested in receiving these newsletter right to your own inbox, visit http://www.iugg.org/publications/ejournals/ for more information.

The IUGG Electronic Journal, Volume 16, No. 10 (1 October 2016)

Contents
1. Milestone for global geodesy
2. Report on the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee Meeting
3. Report on the 34th SCAR Delegates Meeting
4. News from the International Council for Science (ICSU)
5. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s International Climate Protection Fellowships
6. Meeting calendar

Download the newsletter here: http://www.iugg.org/publications/ejournals/IUGGej1610.pdf

31 October 2016:

The Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), is seeking nominations for the international Scientific Steering Committee. Nominations of qualified individuals are due 11 November 2016.

SOOS is an international initiative of SCAR and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) with the mission to facilitate the collection and delivery of essential observations on dynamics and change of Southern Ocean systems to all international stakeholders (researchers, governments, industries), through design, advocacy and implementation of cost-effective observing and data delivery systems.

Nominations should only be made for those with the capacity to be actively involved in driving SOOS forward. The SSC meet annually, whilst the majority of SSC activities and input is managed via email. In some instances, SSC members will be invited to represent SOOS at scientific meetings, usually on an opportunistic basis. Membership on the SSC is for a 3-year period, with the potential for renewal for an additional 3 years, on approval of the EXCOM.

For more information about SOOS and its SSC please visit the SSC webpages or contact the Executive Officer, Louise Newman (newman@soos.aq).

27 October 2016:

The 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Polar Marine Science, entitled "Understanding Ecosystem Change through Time Series Observations, Technological Advances, and Biophysical Coupled Modeling" will convene on 26-31 March 2017.  It will be preceded by an associated Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on 25-26 March 2017.  The organizers announce a call for participation applications to both events, which will be held in Ventura, California, USA. Both events are co-sponsored by SCAR.

Conference participants will discuss new findings and uncertainties in observing marine time series data, the use of developing technology for collecting observations, and successes and challenges emerging from time series observations and biophysical modeling that can be used to accurately forecast future ecosystem response.

The Seminar will will focus on innovative marine technology, including autonomous and remotely operated instruments, camera systems, advanced laboratory techniques, and numerical modeling and will provide a forum for graduate students and postdoctoral scientists to present their work and interface with peers and experts in variable disciplines.  Financial support will be offered in priority to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows attending both the Conference and the preceding Seminar. All attendees are expected to actively participate in the Seminar either by giving an oral presentation or presenting a poster. Therefore, all applications must include an abstract.

25 October 2016:

The 3rd Snow Science Winter School, organised by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, will take place from 12th to 18th February at the FMI Arctic Research Centre in Sodankylä, Finland.  The course is co-sponsored by SCAR's Snow in Antarctica (SnowAnt) group.

The school will teach advanced field techniques, (e.g. high-resolution penetrometry and casting of snow samples for micro-tomography), and relate these measurements to microwave and spectral albedo measurements. The focus of the workshop lies in field and laboratory measurements, combined with theoretical lessons in the classroom. The location, the FMI Arctic Research Centre, has a unique setup of ground-based microwave radiometers and optical spectrometers.  Any graduate student or post-doc working on snow or in some snow-related field, this year especially in remote sensing of the cryosphere, is welcome to participate. Those fields include everybody interested in cryospheric sciences.

25 October 2016:

Following a successful SCAR meeting in Kuala Lumpur in August, the Solid Earth Response and influence on Cryosphere Evolution (SERCE) Scientific Research Programme of SCAR has rotated leadership, and will now be jointly headed up by Matt King and Pippa Whitehouse. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Terry Wilson for her hard work and leadership over the last four years.
 
Membership of the Steering Committee has also seen a few changes. Many thanks to continuing members and to those who are now stepping down, and welcome to new members (listed on the SERCE members page).

The SERCE implementation plan has recently been posted on the website, and information about future SERCE meetings and workshops are on the SERCE news page.

25 October 2016:

Registration is open for the upcoming "Polar Connections" Interoperability Workshop and Assessment Process, to be held from 7-10 November at the European Space Agency’s research institute, ESRIN, in Frascati, Rome, Italy. The workshop is co organised by SCAR’s Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SCADM).

The workshop forms part of an assessment process, the aim of which is to complete a broad assessment of the status of data and information systems interoperability within the polar regions, as well as connections to global systems. The assessment will not be limited to technical aspects of interoperability. Topics discussed will include governance, sustainability and evolving business models, and potential connections to documented forms of Indigenous Knowledge and social science data.

The process will be active before and after the workshop and virtual participation will be possible during most of the workshop. Participation is encouraged through a brief pre-worshop survey. If you have thoughts on interoperability or are engaged in a relevant project, please complete the survey. Following the workshop, there will be approximately two months available for broad input to the process including live contribution to documents.

25 October 2016:

The report of the XXXIV SCAR Delegates’ Meeting, held on 29 -30 August in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has been published as SCAR Bulletin 197 and is available to view and download from the SCAR Bulletin page of the website.  The report gives details of the meeting’s discussions and decisions, which included:

• the application and acceptance of Austria, Colombia, Thailand and Turkey as Associate Members of SCAR;
• the approval of a new Expert Group, the Forum for Research into Ice Shelf Processes (FRISP), and two Action Groups, Tropical Antarctic Teleconnections (TATE) and Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at the Sea-Ice Interfaces (BEPSII) and the advancement of Antarctic Near-shore and Terrestrial Observing System (ANTOS) from an action group to an expert group;
• the results of external reviews of five of SCAR's flagship Scientific Research Programmes, AntEco, AnT-ERA, AntClim21, PAIS and SERCE, and their renewal for another four years;
• the proposal to improve communications, to update the SCAR Communication Strategy and develop plans to meet the new Strategic Plan;
• the agreement to simplify the membership categories and contribution levels.

25 October 2016:

Legendary polar scientist, expedition leader, and explorer, Dr. Fred Roots, passed away unexpectedly and peacefully at his home is British Columbia, Canada on Friday, 21 October, at the age of 93. Dr. Roots was a geoscientist, meteorologist, and ecologist whose distinguished career included serving as the Chief Geologist on the Norwegian-British-Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1949-52), helping to write the Antarctic Treaty and developing Canada’s Polar Continental Shelf Program, the Canadian Polar Commission and the Canadian Committee on Antarctic Research. He holds the record for the longest un-supported dogsled journey on Earth, a six-month scientific journey into the Antarctic interior and has an Antarctic mountain range named after him.

“Fred was very active in international and non-governmental scientific and environmental activities and researchers for decades. He was a member of the Polar Research Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 1970-83 and subsequently on several of its technical committees. From 1979 to 1983 he was President of the International Commission on Snow and Ice, served on the Science Advisory Board of the Geophysical Institute University of Alaska 1976-88 (Chairman 1980-84). He was a founder of the International Arctic Science Committee and served as its first President (1991-94) and from 1983 had been chairman of the Northern Sciences Network of the UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program. He is the author of over 250 scientific papers and published reports on Polar, environmental and global change subjects. He helped to write the Antarctic Treaty.” (Source: Students on Ice)

20 October 2016:

At the SCAR Delegates Meeting held in Kuala Lumpur in August, four new countries became associate members of SCAR: Austria, Colombia, Thailand and Turkey. This brings the total number of countries in the SCAR family to 43. SCAR has 31 full members and now 12 associate members.

To learn more about these new member countries, their current Antarctic research activities and future plans – as well as how to find scientists to collaborate with – please read their applications for membership linked below:

Austria                       
Colombia                   
Thailand                    
Turkey

Membership of SCAR is through the national scientific academies or research councils that are the adhering bodies to ICSU, the International Council for Science, which is SCAR’s parent body. The relevant bodies for the four new member countries are the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften – ÖAW); the Colombian Ocean Commission (Comisión Colombiana del Océano – CCO), designated by the Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales to represent Colombia in SCAR; the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT), designated by the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) to represent Thailand in SCAR; and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBÍTAK).

We welcome all the new members and look forward to fruitful cooperation over the coming years.

31 October 2016:

The polar regions have been attracting more and more attention in recent years, fueled by the perceptible impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Polar climate change provides new opportunities, such as shorter shipping routes between Europe and East Asia, but also new risks such as the potential for industrial accidents or emergencies in ice-covered seas. Here, it is argued that environmental prediction systems for the polar regions are less developed than elsewhere. There are many reasons for this situation, including the polar regions being (historically) lower priority, with fewer in situ observations, and with numerous local physical processes that are less well represented by models. By contrasting the relative importance of different physical processes in polar and lower latitudes, the need for a dedicated polar prediction effort is illustrated. Research priorities are identified that will help to advance environmental polar prediction capabilities. Examples include an improvement of the polar observing system; the use of coupled atmosphere–sea ice–ocean models, even for short-term prediction; and insight into polar–lower-latitude linkages and their role for forecasting. Given the enormity of some of the challenges ahead, in a harsh and remote environment such as the polar regions, it is argued that rapid progress will only be possible with a coordinated international effort. More specifically, it is proposed to hold a Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP) from mid-2017 to mid-2019 in which the international research and operational forecasting communites will work together with stakeholders in a period of intensive observing, modeling, prediction, verification, user engagement, and educational activities.

Jung, T., N. Gordon, P. Bauer, D. Bromwich, M. Chevallier, J Day, and co-authors. 2016. Advancing polar predic- tion capabilities on daily to seasonal time scales. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 97, 1631–1647, doi:10.1175 /BAMS-D-14-00246.1.

31 October 2016: Contributed by: Huw Griffiths* and colleagues

The South Orkney Islands is a small archipelago located in the Southern Ocean, 375 miles north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The seafloor around the South Orkney Islands has been shown to be an area with exceptionally high biodiversity. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) closed all finfish fisheries around the South Orkney Islands in 1989, and in 2009 they established the South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf Marine Protected Area (SOISS MPA), the first MPA located entirely within the High Seas anywhere on the planet.

SO-AntEco (JR15005) was a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) led expedition undertaken in conjunction with an international team of scientists from the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) AntEco research programme. The team included 22 participants from 9 different countries and 16 institutes. The expedition took place on board the RRS James Clark Ross in February-March 2016.

30 June 2016: Contributed by J. Xavier, A. Brandt and Y. Ropert-Coudert

We are pleased to announce the publication of "Future challenges in Southern Ocean ecology research", by Jose Carlos Xavier, Angelika Brandt, Yan Ropert-Coudert, Renuka Badhe, Julian Gutt, Charlotte Havermans, Christopher Jones, Erli S Costa, Karin Lochte, Irene R Schloss, Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, William J. Sutherland, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, section Marine Ecosystem Ecology. This article is follow-on work from the 1st SCAR Antarctic and Southern Ocean Horizon Scan completed in 2014.

To view the online open-access publication please click here: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2016.00094

Abstract
The Southern Ocean is experiencing relentless change. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean community, represented by 75 scientists and policy-makers from 22 countries, recently met to formulate a collective vision on the priorities for Antarctic research for the next two decades and beyond. Here, we assess high-interest research areas related specifically to Southern Ocean life and ecology that, although not all retained as the 80 top priorities among the addressed scientific domains, are of considerable relevance to the biology and ecology of the Southern Ocean. As certain regions of the Southern Ocean ecosystems have witnessed abiotic and biotic changes in the last decades (e.g., warming, climate variability, changes in sea ice, and abundance of marine organisms), such an exercise was urgently needed. We concluded that basic biological information on the taxonomy of numerous organisms is still lacking in areas, such as the deep-ocean floor or the under-ice environments. Furthermore, there is a need for knowledge about the response and resilience of Antarctic marine ecosystems to change. The continuation of a long-term commitment and the development and use of innovative technology to adequately monitor the Southern Ocean ecosystems is required. Highlighting the most important Southern Ocean research topics allow the identification of the challenges and future requirements in technological development, and both research and funding strategies for the various stakeholders.

24 October 2016: Article from ICSU, SCAR's parent body

World’s top bodies representing the social and natural sciences vote to pursue a merger, forming a single organization representing all social and natural sciences by 2018

At a landmark joint General Assembly of two leading international science councils, their members voted to merge, launching a process to form a single global entity that represents all social and natural sciences.

At an extraordinary General Assembly of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and a General Assembly of the International Social Science Council (ISSC), the two organizations’ members voted overwhelmingly that the two organizations should merge. This in-principle decision followed a recommendation by the two organizations’ executives, setting the two councils on a trajectory to become one by October 2018.

For the plans to go ahead, the majority of both councils’ voting members needed to vote in favour. 76% of the ICSU members and 87% of the ISSC members voted in favour of a merger of the two organizations, thereby setting the merger process in motion.

Read more on the ICSU website here.

31 October 2016:

We are pleased to share with you a very special newsletter edition from the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC). After being located in Potsdam (Germany), hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and co-financed by the German Science Foundation (DFG) since 2009, the IASC Secretariat will move to Akureyri (Iceland) beginning of next year.

This special issue of the IASC Progress highlights IASC´s major achievements during the past eight years.

The new IASC Secretariat, under the leadership of our new IASC Executive Secretary Dr. Allen Pope, will be hosted by the Icelandic Research Council (RANNIS).

IASC Progress Fall 2016 edition

SCAR would like to take this opportunity to thank the IASC Staff, Heike, Susan, Maja, Mare, Ursula, Yoo Kyung, Tetsuo and Volker, for a great cooperation thus far, and we look forward to many more years of a productive partnership with the new staff in Iceland.

31 October 2016:
 
The International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO), SCAR Union Member International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), and SCAR partner the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) --three groups of the International Council for Science (ICSU)--prepared input for the  G7, which is available at http://www.icsu.org/news-centre/news/pdf/Report%20to%20G7%20SMins%20on%20FOSs.pdf.

Topics in the report include:

• Cross-cutting issues
• Plastic pollution of the marine environment
• Deep-sea mining and its ecosystem impacts
• Ocean acidification
• De-oxygenation
• Ocean warming
• Biodiversity loss
• Marine ecosystem degradation

31 October 2016:

The Scientific Committee on Ocean Research (SCOR), a close partner of SCAR’s, has recently published a newsletter containing updates from their annual steering committee meeting. There are a number of items of interest to the Antarctic community in this addition and we encourage you to take a look.

Of particular note is the approval of a new working group on "Measuring Essential Climate Variables in Sea Ice (ECV-Ice)". The group is described as follows: Observations over recent decades suggest that sea ice plays a significant role in global biogeochemical cycles, providing an active biogeochemical interface at the ocean- atmosphere boundary. However, a pressing need exists to perform methodological intercalibration experiments in sea ice in order to obtain reliable measurements of basic biogeochemical properties, including many of the Essential Climate Variables of the Global Climate Observing System. With newly emerging techniques, and pressed by the rapid changes in sea ice, the time has come to evaluate and improve our approach to studying sea-ice systems. An international working group is required to synthesize past intercalibration exercises and to design and coordinate new experiments.

For more information on this group and other SCOR updates, please download their newsletter: http://www.scor-int.org/Publications/SCOR-NL-33.pdf

30 September 2016:

Following a competitive hiring process with various highly qualified candidates, the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is happy to announce that Dr. Allen Pope will be IASC´s new Executive Secretary as of 01 January 2017.

Before coming to IASC, Dr. Allen Pope held positions as a research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (University of Colorado Boulder) and the Polar Science Center (University of Washington) where he researched remote sensing of glaciers. He also was a visiting scientist at Dartmouth College where he taught a course on Polar remote sensing. Allen holds a Ph.D. and a M.Phil. in Polar Studies from Cambridge University where he worked on multispectral remote sensing of Arctic glaciers and conducted glaciological fieldwork in Antarctica, Iceland, Svalbard, Sweden, Alaska, Canada, and Nepal. He has worked extensively with a range of international scientific organizations, including as a council member of the American Geophysical Union and president of the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. You can find out more about Allen and his research at https://about.me/allenpope. He also enjoys sharing and discussing polar science with the public and tweets @PopePolar.

Dr. Pope has also worked with SCAR in a number of ways over the past few years and we look forward to working with him and IASC in his new capacity.

SCAR would also like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing IASC Executive Secretary, Dr. Volker Rachold, for his many years of service to IASC and the Arctic Research Community. Under Volker’s leadership we continued to develop a great working relationship between SCAR and IASC and accomplished much together. Volker helped to spur many of the International Polar Year activities together with SCAR and we wish him well in his new endeavors.

28 September 2016:

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) and the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research are pleased to announce that the APECS International Directorate will be hosted by AWI at its research centre in Potsdam, Germany for five years from February 2017. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between both this week. The staff of the APECS International Directorate at AWI will include the APECS Executive Director, Dr. Gerlis Fugmann, and Heike Midleja as new half-time APECS Administrative Assistant (currently Administrative Assistant for the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC)).

The APECS is an international and interdisciplinary organization for undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, early faculty members, educators and others with interests in the polar and alpine regions and the wider cryosphere. By providing networking and career development opportunities, APECS’ activities aim to: a) raise the profile of polar research; b) develop effective leaders in research, education and outreach; and c) stimulate interdisciplinary and international research collaborations. To achieve this, APECS works with many partners in the international polar research community and has, among others, close connections with IASC and SCAR, with whom it has had a Memorandum of Understanding since 2008.

SCAR would like to take this opportunity to thank UiT The Arctic University of Norway, the Norwegian Polar Institute and the Research Council of Norway for their years of support in hosting the APECS International Directorate.

7 September 2016:

We are pleased to share with you the publication of the latest issue of the Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFoPS) newsletter. Highlights in this issue include an update on a special meeting to discuss AFoPS in the next decade, APS’ New Website, CHINARE32, JARE58 Training, Thailand’s New MOUs, and Korea-Chile Cooperation.

Download the newsletter here. For more information on AFoPS, visit their website. 

4 October 2016:

ENVEO IT GmbH would like to advertise the newly released scientific data portal at http://cryoportal.enveo.at, which provides convenient functionality for searching, viewing, visualising and downloading satellite based products for ice sheets, glaciers and seasonal snow.

Products include:

• ice velocities and velocity time series of outlet glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica
• calving fronts of outlet glaciers in Greenland (Antarctica in preparation)
• annual ice sheet wide velocity maps of Greenland (Antarctica in preparation)
• grounding lines of several ice shelves in Antarctica
• ice velocity maps of ice caps (South Georgia, Alexander Island, Svalbard; further ice caps will follow) and mountain glaciers (Pamir, Karakoram)
• snow services: near real time service on daily snow products from optical and microwave data covering the pan-European domain.

Products are freely available for download after simple registration. We will frequently update and extend the data sets on the portal.

The products are generated by ENVEO and several partners in various projects, funded by ESA, EC and national agencies. In order to further improve the portal and its usability, your feedback is very welcome.

For more information, contact Thomas Nagler and the ENVEO Team (thomas.nagler@enveo.at)

4 October 2016:

APECS is excited to announce that another leadership term has begun on 1 October 2016!

APECS Executive Committee 2016-2017:

APECS’s tenth Executive Committee (ExCom) is now in place and ready to continue to shape the polar world. 

• Alice Bradley (University of Colorado Boulder, United States)
• Josefine Lenz (Alfred-Wegener Institute, Germany)
• Hanne Nielsen (University of Tasmania, Australia)
• Alex Thornton (University of Alaska Fairbanks, United States)
• TJ Young (University of Cambridge/British Antarctic Survey, United Kingdom)

have been elected to form the ExCom, the main leadership body of APECS. Ruth Vingerhagen (UK), Heather Mariash (Canada), and Tristy Vick-Majors (Canada/United States) will serve as ex-officios and support the new ExCom over the coming year. And of course, Gerlis Fugmann, the APECS Executive Director will continue to support and foster the group from the International Directorate in Tromsø, Norway (and from February 2017 from our new location in Potsdam, Germany).  More information on the APECS 2016-2017 Executive Committee can be found on the APECS website.

APECS President 2016-2017:

With a new term comes a new president, and this year Alice Bradley will be taking on this role. Alice is currently finishing her PhD research at the University of Colorado Boulder. She uses in situ and remote sensing observations of upper ocean heat and sea ice to study how the annual cycle of first-year ice growth in the Arctic is changing. She has been involved in APECS leadership for the past two years and is on the board of the US APECS committee. 

5 October 2016:

The Scientific Committee On Solar-TErrestrial Physics (SCOSTEP) Annual Report for 2015 has been released.  It includes summaries of SCOSTEP's 2015 scientific meetings and workshops, award schemes and publications:

SCOSTEP Annual Report 2015

Previous Annual Reports are available on the SCOSTEP website.

As a fellow interdisciplinary committee of ICSU, SCOSTEP is a partner organisation of SCAR and has a SCAR Representative, Dr Annika Seppälä of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, on its Bureau or governing body.