Adopt a Glacier

Looking for a holiday gift that is tax deductible and helps to preserve historic cryospheric data? Adopt a Glacier through NSIDC’s Archives and Resource Center (ARC) and you’ll receive a personalized certificate suitable for framing and a fact sheet about the glacier. All funds go toward the creation of an endowment for the sustainability of the archives collection and staff. Go to: http://nsidc.org/rocs/adopt-a-glacier/

The Roger G. Barry Archives and Resource Center at the National Snow and Ice Data Center maintains a unique and rare collection, documenting early polar exploration and the first scientific expeditions to the far reaches of our planet. These collections provide researchers priceless historical insight into how the Earth’s polar and icy regions have changed. As a soft money funded organization with no endowment, our facility is under threat. Traditional funding sources no longer support the collection. Your donation will help create an endowment to sustain these resources for research into the future.

Our immediate goal is to raise $25,000 by May 2013. Please support us today.

For more about the collections held in the Archives, and how you can access them, visit http://nsidc.org/rocs/analog_archives/holdings.html

Applications now available for the Girls on Ice 2013 Expeditions

©UAF Girls on Ice

Girls on Ice (http://girlsonice.org) is a unique, FREE, wilderness science education program for high school girls. Each year a team of 9 teenage girls and 3 instructors spend 11 days exploring and learning about mountain glaciers and alpine landscapes through scientific field studies with professional glaciologists and mountaineers. This year there are 2 expeditions:

Girls on Ice NORTH CASCADES is the original expedition in Washington State.
Open to all girls age 15-18
July 21 – August 1, 2013

Girls on Ice ALASKA is geared toward Alaskan and Pacific Northwest girls.
June 21 – July 2, 2013

Click here to learn how to apply: http://girlsonice.org/apply (applications are due February 1, 2013)

7th International Workshop on Ice Drilling Technology

The first circular is now posted. The workshop will be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA from 9-13 September 2013.

Following in the footsteps of the six previous ice drilling technology workshops held between 1974 and 2006, the 7th International Workshop on Ice Drilling Technology will take a comprehensive look at the latest technological innovations in ice drilling technology, including ice coring, borehole logging, subglacial sampling, core logging, handling and field logistics. The workshop will promote the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and experience among many countries and individuals who are involved in ice drilling projects. People active in the technical side of ice drilling are especially encouraged to participate, as are technical representatives from nations who have recently begun ice drilling programs for the first time.

You can download a copy of the first circular and register your interest to attend the workshop at:
http://icedrill.org/7th-international-workshop-on-ice-drilling-technology/

Arctic Frontiers program online now

Arctic Frontiers 2013 will be held at the University of Tromsø, Norway from Sunday 20 to Friday 25 January 2013. The theme of the conference is 'Geopolitics and Marine Production in a Changing Arctic'. The policy section will run for the first two days (Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 January 2013) followed by three days of science (Wednesday 23 January to Friday 25 January). The science section will have three parts:

•   Geopolitics in a Changing Arctic
•   Marine harvesting in the Arctic
•   Arctic Marine Productivity 

The program online here: https://arcticfrontiers.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=3325&language=en-uk

Updated and finalized analysis of the many records set in Greenland in 2012

Find the results in an article available on the Cryosphere Discussion at www.greenlandmelting.com, or download the pdf directly by clicking here.

Cumulated Surface Mass Balance for the 1958 - 2011 mean and the 2010, 2011 and 2012 years

Scientific Research in Polar Seas: ERICON Science Perspective 2015-2030

A publication of a Science Perspective developed by the international polar research community within The European Research Icebreaker Consortium (ERICON) Aurora Borealis project is now released. The document “Scientific Research in Polar Seas: ERICON Science Perspective 2015-2030” is  based on the deliberations of  two scientific panels within two workshops (Strasburg 2010 and Vienna 2011).

The philosophy of this Science Perspective of the ERICON project is to explicitly acknowledge the importance of carrying out research in the Central Arctic Ocean and Antarctic ice-infested waters throughout the entire year. Understanding the past and future changes of the polar regions is essential, as our present knowledge about these changes and their impacts on humans and natural resources is far smaller than in any other regions of the world. The Science Perspective is not intended to cover in detail all the research that can be carried out in polar regions, but to identify the outstanding scientific questions most relevant for understanding the processes underlying changes currently taking place. Many of these questions can only be identified and addressed through novel technology.
This Science Perspective will provide a basis for future scientific investigations of polar regions and define a ”decadal” strategy for European cooperation in Polar Science.

You can download the Science Perspective and additional project deliverables under:

http://www.eri-aurora-borealis.eu/en/news_and_media/downloads/ericon_science_perspective/

http://www.eri-aurora-borealis.eu/en/news_and_media/downloads/other_deliverables/

Project homepage: http://www.eri-aurora-borealis.eu/en/home/

Report Release and Webinar Announcement: Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice: Challenges and Strategies

A new report, entitled "Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice: Challenges and Strategies" is now available from the Polar Research Board of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. To download a free PDF of the prepublication version of the report, please go to: http://dels.nas.edu/Report/Seasonal-Decadal-Predictions-Arctic/13515.

Understanding and projecting future sea ice conditions is important to a growing number of stakeholders, including local populations, natural resource industries, fishing communities, commercial shippers, marine tourism operators, national security organizations, regulatory agencies, and the scientific research community. However, gaps in understanding the interactions between Arctic sea ice, oceans, and the atmosphere, along with an increasing rate of change in the nature and quantity of sea ice, is hampering accurate predictions. Although modeling has steadily improved, projections by every major modeling group failed to predict the record breaking drop in summer sea ice extent in September 2012. Establishing sustained communication between the user, modeling, and observation communities could help reveal gaps in understanding, help balance the needs and expectations of different stakeholders, and ensure that resources are allocated to address the most pressing sea ice data needs. The report explores major challenges in sea ice prediction and identifies methods, observations, and technologies that might advance capabilities to predict the extent of sea ice over seasonal to decadal timescales.

A post-release briefing has been scheduled for November 29th at 10:30am EST in Washington, DC at the NAS building, Room 250, located at 2101 Constitution Ave NW. Co-chair, Jackie Richter-Menge, will present the report's findings and answer questions. Please RSVP to Liz Finkelman at efinkelman@nas.edu by November 23rd. 

In addition, a webinar presentation and discussion on report highlights with co-chairs Jackie Richter-Menge and John Walsh will be held Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. EST. Registration information is available on the website above.
For further information, please contact: Katie Thomas Email: kcthomas@nas.edu

Join firn-densification model inter-comparison project

At the University of Washington they are developing a modular community firn-evolution model funded by the ICEICS PIRE grant at Oregon State (http://iceics.science.oregonstate.edu/).
Because they want to incorporate the best ideas and physical descriptions of firn from existing models, they are organizing a firn-densification model inter-comparison project and hope researchers will join the project.
What: Numerous glaciological research questions involve physical processes in firn; however, for this project they are focusing on cold firn, which is targeted at understanding firn air (See link above).
They will compare new and existing firn-densification models with a standard suite of boundary conditions, including temperature and accumulation rate.  Model developers are asked to run their model and provide output to be included in the suite of results.  Model-comparison tests will incorporate synthetic and observation-based boundary conditions.  They hope that a community model-comparison paper will result from all the contributions.
Why: They wish to compare the response behavior of current firn models to pertinent questions.  For example, what is the variance among current models in response to temperature perturbations?  In response to accumulation-rate perturbations?  How well can different models replicate observations?  The goal is to determine the most-pertinent physics for a transient firn model under a wide rage of climate conditions.  This will guide future improvements in firn modeling.
When: They hope to initiate the first simple inter-comparisons by January 18 and will provide a set of boundary conditions for this initial stage of the project.  Further goals, tests, and target dates (e.g. at EGU, April 7-12) will be established as the group develops.
Who: All are welcome to contribute results and modeling expertise.
For more information please contact:
jdrees@uw.edu
www.ess.earthweb.washington.edu/~jdrees

New model of the geothermal heat flux under the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets available

The new models are available for download at:

http://websrv.cs.umt.edu/isis/index.php/Greenland_Basal_Heat_Flux
http://websrv.cs.umt.edu/isis/index.php/Antarctica_Basal_Heat_Flux

The dataset is based on low resolution observations collected by the CHAMP satellite between 2000 and 2010, and was produced following the technique of Fox Maule et al. (2005). Questions about the dataset should be addressed to Michael Purucker (michael.e.purucker@nasa.gov).

Please email Michael Purucker if you use this data, so you can get notified when improved resolution data becomes available.

Ice Bits Newsletter Fall 2012 Now Available

The U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) announces that the Fall 2012 issue of the Ice Bits newsletter, the quarterly update of IDPO and Ice Drilling Design and Operations (IDDO) activities, is now available at: http://www.icedrill.org/news/icebits.shtml
Topics include:

• Field Support to Antarctic Projects
• Future Plans for the DISC Drill
• Scientific Drilling in the Polar Regions AGU Town Hall Meeting
• 7th International Workshop on Ice Drilling Technology
• Intermediate Depth Logging Winch Now Available for Community Use
• Educational Outreach
• Visit Us on Facebook
• NSF Solicitation for Ice Coring and Drilling Program for the Office of Polar Programs
• U.S. SCAR Office and ANSWER News Digest Move to Ohio State University
• South Pole 1500 m Ice Core
• Requesting Ice Drilling Support

Download the newsletter at: http://www.icedrill.org/news/icebits.shtml
Visit The U.S. Ice Drilling Program on the web at: http://www.icedrill.org/

LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 workshop Registration deadline: 9th of October 2012

Date: 11-15 November 2012

Location: American University in Cairo, and Faculty of Computers and Information - Cairo University, Egypt

The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project in collaboration with the American University of Cairo (AUC) and the Faculty of Computers and Information - Cairo University (FCI-CU) are jointly organizing a five day 2-workshop training event between the 11th and 15th November 2012.

• Lectures on the 11th and 12th November will be held at Cairo University and will include introductory courses and hands-on training on parallel computing.
• On the 13th-15th November the LinkSCEEM 3-day Cross Sectional HPC Workshop will be held at the American University in Cairo. Lectures will include four parallel training sessions in selected scientific fields targeted towards participants’ interests. The four parallel sessions will be the following:
1. Structural and Computational Biophysics (featured software: NAMD2)
2. Real-Time Density Functional Theory (DFT) based Simulation (featured software: Octopus)
3. Scientific Simulation and Analysis (featured software: Geant4 & Root)
4. Computational Nanoscience (featured software: TBD)

The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project would like to announce fellowship opportunities for advanced High Performance Computing (HPC) training during the Third LinkSCEEM Cross Sectional HPC Workshop from 13-15 November 2012 at the American University in Cairo.
The workshop targets young researchers from the region and will address programming training needs of current and prospective HPC users from various computational scientific fields.
Access to LinkSCEEM HPC infrastructure will be provided for training purposes. Hands-on guidance in preparing projects for HPC usage will be given during the workshop.
A number of competitive funded LinkSCEEM fellowships are available for this workshop. 20 fellowships will cover the workshop attendance fee cost and will also provide financial contribution to flights and accommodation costs (3 nights single room accommodation or 5 nights for shared room accommodation). Further fellowships will only cover the workshop attendance fee cost.
Fellowships will be awarded to candidates who:

1. Are experienced and are involved in Computational Science/HPC research projects or studies.
2. Identify how attending the workshop can help them in their future work.

LinkSCEEM workshop participants are encouraged to attend the introductory workshop to be held on the 11th and 12th of November.
Special hotel rates can be made available for LinkSCEEM participants who will accept shared rooms - where the cost of 5 nights shared accommodation will be equivalent to 3 nights single room accommodation.
Important Dates:

• Registration opens: 20th of September 2012
• Registration deadline: 9th of October 2012
• Notification of acceptance: 12th of October 2012

Registration:
Applicants should fill in the following online form to express their interest in attending the Third LinkSCEEM Cross Sectional workshop.
More Information:
More information about the program of the workshop can be found in the following LinkSCEEM webpage:
http://www.linksceem.eu/ls2/news-and-activities/events/events/event/19-third-linksceem-cross-sectional-hpc-workshop.html
Please keep in mind that the above webpage may be regularly updated.
For more information please contact: Thekla Loizou.

Extended deadline to Sunday, October 7 for the SEG/AGU Cryosphere Geophysics workshop

The deadline for submitting an abstract to the SEG/AGU Cryosphere Geophysics workshop has been extended.  The deadline is now Sunday, October 7.  Confirmed invited speakers are listed below.

Organizing committee:

John Bradford, Chairman (Boise State University), Steven Arcone (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab), Hajo Eicken (University of Alaska Fairbanks), Hans-Peter Marshall (Boise State University)

SEG-AGU 2013

Cryosphere Geophysics: Understanding a Changing Climate with Subsurface Imaging

6-8 January 2013

Boise, Idaho, USA

http://www.seg.org/events/upcoming-seg-meetings/cryo2013

Invited Speakers

George Tsoflias, University of Kansas, U.S.

"Internal Ice Layer and Bed Mapping of the Jakobshavn Glacier Catchment Using Airborne Radar: Insights to a Fast Flowing Outlet Glacier"

Bernd Kulessa, Swansea University, U.K.

"Seismic Detection and Characterization of Unlithified Subglacial Sediments beneath the West Greenland Ice Sheet"

Seth Campbell, University of Maine, U.S.

"Preliminary Winter Accumulation Rates for Mass Balance Estimates of the Juneau Icefield, Alaska using 400 MHz Ground-Penetrating Radar"

Christian Haas, University of Alberta, Canada "Advances in airborne and surface-based electromagnetic sounding of sea ice thickness and ice properties"

Lasse Rabenstein, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, "Porosity of a Sea-ice Pressure Ridge Keel Estimated on the Basis of Surface Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Measurements"

Mike Demuth, Geological Survey of Canada - Cryosphere Geoscience Section, Natural Resources Canada "Inter-annual and regime-shift variations of firn architecture derived from neutron snow density probe and ground-penetrating radar measurements, Devon Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada"

REMINDER: Open Access Special Issue

Open Access Special Issue, Polar Research and Earth System Science Data

Submission deadline: 31 January 2013.


Links:
http://www.polarresearch.net/index.php/polar
http://www.earth-system-science-data.net/index.html


Contact:
Helle Goldman <Helle.Goldman@npolar.no> for Polar Research
Dave Carlson <ipy.djc@gmail.com> for ESSD