1. Call for Abstracts

The Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 2011 will be held in Seoul, Korea on 27 March - 1 April 2011. ASSW is the annual gathering of international organizations engaged in supporting and facilitating arctic research. The purpose is to provide opportunities for international coordination, collaboration, and cooperation in all fields of arctic science and to combine science and management meetings.

In odd number years the ASSW includes a 3-day Science Symposium in addition to the business meetings of the participating organizations. The 2011 Science Symposium will be held 29-31 March 2011, and the theme is:
The Arctic: New Frontier for Global Science.

Science sessions include:

- Arctic Atmosphere, Climate Processes, and Teleconnections
- Arctic Change and Implications for Terrestrial Ecosystem Services
- Arctic Marine Climate Change: Causes and Impacts on the Marine System
- State of Glaciers and Permafrost and Associated Feedbacks to the Climate System
- Societal Changes in the Arctic and North-South Relations
- Ecosystem Responses to Climate Change: Past, Present, and Future
- State and Fate of Sea Ice and Legal and Policy Consequences on the Global Community
- Observing, Modeling, and Prediction of Arctic Change

Abstracts are due Wednesday, 15 December 2010. To submit an abstract, please go to: http://www.assw2011.org/submission_abstracts.php.

For more information, please visit the ASSW 2011 website:
http://www.assw2011.org.

Or contact the ASSW 2011 Secretariat:
Email: assw2011@kopri.re.kr

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2. Session Announcement
State of Glaciers and Permafrost and Associated Feedbacks to the Climate System

Organizers of a session entitled "State of Glaciers and Permafrost and Associated Feedbacks to the Climate System" announce a call for abstracts. The session will be convened at the Arctic Science Summit Week, 27 March - 1 April 2011 in Seoul, Korea.

Contributions related to the following description are invited:

Glaciers and permafrost are some of the most outstanding components of the cryosphere, covering about 10% of the emerged land surface (glaciers) and underlying around 24% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere (permafrost). It is well known that they both have a high impact on the climate system, yet the International Polar Year highlighted the need for better and denser measurements of the state of glaciers and permafrost, and the necessity to integrate these measurements in regional and global efforts in modeling and observing.

The connections between receding glaciers, sea level rise, and changed sea ice conditions as well as the related alterations in the albedo and the regional and global climate has been outlined by the most recent IPY findings. Similarly, the impact of thawing permafrost on the mobilization of stored carbon and nitrogen, its decomposition in greenhouse gases, and its subsequent effects on the global climate is one of the most urgent issues in arctic research.

This session will showcase the most recent results from the ongoing or concluding projects on glaciers and permafrost from the International Polar Year, as well as results from other innovative projects conducted in the arctic realm. It will emphasize presentations that highlight integrated understanding of past and recent changes and projections for future change in glaciers and permafrost; the connections between local, regional, and global systems; and efforts to understand glacier and permafrost dynamics.

Organizers invite contributions on all aspects of arctic glacier and permafrost research. Submissions on glacier dynamics such as the recent evolution of small ice caps, studies about the interactions of glaciers and the atmosphere, and microbiological aspects are welcome. New modeling approaches and innovative observation techniques (e.g. remote sensing) are also of great interest.

Another major focus of this session will be on the connection between permafrost environments with the global climate system through the vertical or lateral release of carbon and nitrogen, changes in the hydrological cycle, and alterations in the land cover. Research on permafrost modeling and monitoring, as well as submissions about permafrost temperature, geomorphology, microbiology, and engineering will also be gladly accepted.

Submission deadline: Wednesday, 15 December 2010.

More details on the scope of this session can be found at:
http://www.assw2011.org/symposium_disciplinary.html#004.

For further information, please contact:
Hugues Lantuit
Email: Hugues.Lantuit@awi.de

Sungmin Hong
Email: smhong@inha.ac.kr

Inga May
Email: i.may@iggf.geo.uni-muenchen.de

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3. Session Announcement
Observing, Modeling, and Prediction of Arctic Change

Organizers of a session entitled "Observing, Modeling, and Prediction of Arctic Change" announce a call for abstracts. The session will be convened at the Arctic Science Summit Week, 27 March - 1 April 2011 in Seoul, Korea.

The arctic environment is in a period of rapid change, seemingly headed to a new state with implications for physical and biological processes and northern societies.

The scientific community is being challenged to detect change, understand the drivers of change, predict the future course of change, and understand the links between physical change and biological response--all to improve the state of science and/or to help guide societal decisions.

This session will focus on results from observing or model-based activities aimed at detecting or understanding change, and at determining physical-biological connections. The session will also embrace new developments in prediction science, including new tools and capabilities, new intellectual approaches, and new results from current capabilities.

For further information, please go to:
http://www.assw2011.org/symposium_interdisciplinary.html#003.

Or contact:
John Calder
Email: John.Calder@noaa.gov

Jinping Zhao
Email: jpzhao@ouc.edu.cn

Jaclyn Clement Kinney
Email: jlclemen@nps.edu