Download or read book Improving Coordination and Integration of Observations of Arctic Change written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book International Study of Arctic Change written by Michael Tjernström and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC) is an open-ended, international, interdisciplinary science program. The goal of ISAC is to provide scientific information on rapid arctic change to society and decision makers so they can respond with informed strategies. This requires observation and tracking of arctic changes and understanding their nature, causes, feedbacks and connections among them. ISAC encompasses pan-Arctic, system-scale, multidisciplinary observations, synthesis and modeling to provide an integrated understanding of arctic change and projections of future change. The ISAC Science Plan provides a vision for integrating research among diverse fields and varied users and stakeholders. ISAC facilitates international cooperative efforts to understand the Arctic System and all its components on a pan-Arctic scale. ISAC is positioned to sustain research and coordination activities relevant to environmental arctic change largely initiated during the International Polar Year (IPY). As an active science program ISAC stimulates and provides guidance to develop, maintain and evolve observational activities and scientific understanding. This approach ensures a legacy of relevant high-quality science in the Arctic for decades to come. ISAC is motivated by environmental changes that are already large enough to affect life in the Arctic. The changes illustrated in this document focus on the last decade noting shrinking sea ice cover, rising atmospheric temperature, thawing permafrost, shifts in ecosystems, and linkages to human systems. Substantial future changes are projected to have profound impacts on humankind. Ecosystems are changing, species distributions shifting, and wildlife populations and fisheries are experiencing extraordinary pressures - both natural and anthropogenic. Recent changes in the Arctic have already had significant impacts on infrastructure, on food security, on human health, and on industrial development, and they are influencing domestic responses and international relations. These changes can be measured in economic, social, political and cultural risks and costs and are reflected in human decision-making from the level of the individual to the nation-state, at the international scale, and in feedbacks to the system as a whole. Future system states are uncertain and the lack of predictability hinders efforts to develop strategies for adapting to and managing a changing Arctic. The following key science questions are prompted by observed changes and our current understanding of the Arctic System. Question 1. How is Arctic Change linked to global change? Question 2. How persistent is the presently observed arctic change and is it unique? Question 3. How large is the anthropogenic component of observed arctic change compared to natural variability? Question 4. Why are many aspects of arctic change amplified with respect to global conditions? Question 5. How well can arctic change be projected and what is needed to improve projections? Question 6. What are the adaptive capacities and resilience of arctic ecological systems? Question 7. To what extent are social and ecological systems able to adapt to the effects of arctic change? Question 8. How does environmental change in the Arctic affect the resilience, adaptive capacity, and ultimately, viability of human communities? Question 9. How can new insight into arctic change and its impacts be translated into solutions for adaptation, management, and mitigation? The ISAC science program is structured around three concepts: Observing, Understanding and Responding to arctic change. All the components of the Arctic System must be observed across time and space to understand the scope and evolution of change. Understanding how the system functions and projecting future changes requires models using data that flow from the comprehensive arctic observing system. Moving beyond description to understanding change in the past, present, and future is critical. In the integrated ISAC program the observing, understanding and responding components have been developed in concert around a set of objectives. These are: -Observing the Arctic System covering all domains including the anthroposphere, the atmosphere, the biosphere, the cryosphere, and the hydrosphere. This is based on existing and new long-term observing sites and networks as well as new observing methods. (observing); -Quantifying the anthropogenically-driven component of arctic change within the context of natural variability. (observing); -Understanding the causes of pan-Arctic changes, including changes in the human component, in the context of global change. (understanding); -Improving models to project future changes in the Arctic System, including impact assessment models for responding to change. (understanding); -Exploring options for adaptation to and mitigation of arctic change and suggesting ways that will lead to a path of sustainable use and development. (responding); -Disseminating data and results from ISAC activities to the scientific community, stakeholders and the general public (cross-cuts observing, understanding, responding); Implementation of ISAC is underway, with activities designed to collect specific information relevant to addressing ISAC science questions. Among numerous programs endorsed by IPY and that have contributed to ISAC are the recently sunsetted European Commission funded DAMOCLES Integrated Project (www.damocles-eu.org), and the ongoing United States Inter-agency SEARCH Program (www. arcus.org/search/index.php). These two initiatives were formally linked through the EU/US SEARCH FOR DAMOCLES initiative (www.arcus. org/search/internationalsearch/ damocles.php). They provide an example of how partnerships within ISAC may work. Partnerships within ISAC continue to expand and program building activities are planned in concert with participating programs. An integrated observing system that is designed for pan-Arctic coverage is being developed, with much progress on this initiative made during the International Polar Year. This evolving observing system will constitute the ISAC Observing component; it will ultimately cover the atmosphere, ocean and sea ice, hydrology, cyrosphere, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and aspects of the human dimensions of the Arctic System. The data flow within each of the ISAC program elements is coordinated by dedicated data information systems following standard data policies operated by participating organizations, programs and projects. Efforts are underway within the ISAC Program Office to coordinate the data management functions among these program elements. Development of the ISAC Understanding component is also underway as modeling is increasingly coordinated among operational ISAC program elements. These activities include model comparisons, as well as coordination of new modeling initiatives, and in the longer-term, expansion of these activities to specifically address societal needs for understanding. The Responding to Change component of ISAC drives the program with an emphasis on societally relevant science. Implementation of the Responding to Change piece began with planning efforts during the IPY, and is one of the major foci for the near future activities of ISAC"--Page iv.

Download or read book U S Arctic Observing Network Coordination Workshop Report written by and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Toward an Integrated Arctic Observing Network written by Committee on Designing an Arctic Observing Network and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-05-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Observable changes with regional and global implications, such as warming temperatures and reduced sea ice, are taking place across the Arctic. However, the record of Arctic observations suffers from incomplete geographic coverage and limited duration, and measurements are not well coordinated. This makes it difficult to comprehensively describe current conditions in the Arctic, let alone understand the changes that are underway or their connections to the rest of the Earth system. The U.S. National Science Foundation asked for guidance to help design a pan-arctic observing network. This book outlines the potential scope, composition, and implementation strategy for an arctic observing network. Such an integrated, complete, and multidisciplinary environmental observing network will improve society's understanding of and ability to respond to ongoing systemic changes in the Arctic and its capability to anticipate, predict, and respond to future change both in the Arctic and around the globe. The network would build on and enhance existing national and international efforts and deliver easily accessible, complete, reliable, timely, long-term, pan-arctic observations. Because many potential components of the network already exist or are being planned, and because of the surge of activity during the International Polar Year, there is an immediate opportunity for major progress.

Download or read book Arctic Research of the United States written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Study of Environmental Arctic Change written by University of Washington. Polar Science Center. Applied Physics Laboratory. SEARCH Project and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book International Coordination to Improve Studies of Changes in Arctic Sea Ice Cover written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Improving Predictions of Arctic Sea ice Conditions Using Satellite Observations and Numerical Models written by James Williams and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In this thesis, we develop and further the understanding of both observation-based statistical methods as well as numerical models for predicting sea-ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean. We present a novel seasonal forecasting method for predicting the summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic with a 4-6 month lead time. This method is based on the preconditioning effect that winter sea-ice dynamics have on the initial summer melt through changes to the sea-ice mass distribution. We find a 38% reduction in the hindcast error variance when compared to a baseline seasonal forecasting method which does not account for the interannual variability of the system. Next, we study the propagation of plastic waves in the commonly used viscous-plastic and elastic-viscous-plastic sea-ice models. We document that failure to resolve these waves is the source of first-order error in the sea-ice velocity, deformation and thickness fields which has previously been noted in the modelling community. Furthermore, we show that the IMplicit-EXplicit (IMEX) method can be used to alleviate the restriction the plastic waves impose on the model timestep when the simulation is solved implicitly. Finally, we study the effects of increasing the spatial resolution of the model on the simulated sea-ice thickness, velocity and deformation fields in the Viscous-Plastic model. We find that in idealized simulations, the sea-ice velocity increases towards an analytical solutions as the spatial resolution of the model is increased. We show that these changes occur due to a net reduction in energy dissipation due to friction in shear. Increasing the sea-ice strength in shear is a possible way to compensate for these effects. It is necessary to account for these effects in order to ensure that simulations become more accurate as models are run at higher spatial resolutions. " --

Download or read book Snow Water Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic written by Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The key findings of SWIPA 2017 have implications for policy and planning in four broad areas: Limit Future Change: Stabilizing Arctic warming and its associated impacts will require substantial near-term cuts in net global greenhouse gas emissions. Full implementation of the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will cause Arctic temperatures to stabilize-at a higher level than today-in the latter half of this century. This will require much larger cuts in global greenhouse gas emissions than those planned under current nationally determined contributions to the fulfillment of the UNFCCC. The Arctic states, permanent participants, and observers to the Arctic Council should individually and collectively lead global efforts for an early, ambitious, and full implementation of the Paris COP21 Agreement, including efforts to reduce emissions of short-lived climate forcers. Adapt to Near-Term Impacts: The transformative changes underway in the Arctic will continue and in some cases accelerate until at least mid-century regardless of efforts to reduce emissions. Impacts from climate change are thus expected to intensify for at least the next three to four decades, creating a clear and urgent need for knowledge and strategies to help Arctic communities and global society adapt to new conditions and reduce vulnerabilities to expected impacts. Addressing major knowledge gaps will help ensure adaptation strategies are grounded in a solid understanding of potential impacts and interactions. The Arctic Council and other international organizations should prioritize research and knowledge-building efforts leading to enhanced certainty in predictions of changes and their consequences at local to global scales, facilitating the development of effective adaptation responses to changes in the Arctic cryosphere. Support the Advancement of Understanding: SWIPA 2017 demonstrates great advances in our understanding of changes in the Arctic cryosphere, but also reveals major knowledge gaps. It also identifies several unmet scientific goals and specific areas where more observations and research are needed. As awareness of Arctic climate change and its consequences has grown, a number of international organizations, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the International Council for Science (ICSU) through the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), have become increasingly engaged in understanding the implications of Arctic change. Making advances in these areas will require international coordination; long-term commitments to funding; the application of traditional and local knowledge; engagement with stakeholders; and coordinated and enhanced observation networks. The Arctic Council should continue its efforts to monitor, assess, and understand Arctic climate change and its implications. It should also support and interact with efforts of international organizations and conventions such as IPCC, WMO, the UNFCCC, and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) to promote the inclusion of Arctic perspectives in their work. Raise Public Awareness of the Implications of Changes in the Arctic Cryosphere: Outreach and public sharing of information about Arctic climate change, its consequences, uncertainties, risks, adaptation options, and effects of emission reductions are key to informed governance and policy development. The Arctic Council, permanent participants, and observers to the Council should prioritize informing and educating the public about observations, projections, and implications of Arctic climate change. This document presents the AMAP 2017 Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) Assessment Summary for Policy-makers. More detailed information on the results of the assessment can be found in the SWIPA Scientific Assessment Report. For more information, contact the AMAP Secretariat"--ASTIS database.

Download or read book The Arctic Observing Network written by Thomas R. Calahan and published by Nova Science Publishers. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April 2007 the US Interagency Research Policy Committee (IARPC) called for the development of an Arctic Observing Network (AON) to understand the causes and consequences of Arctic change. Under the joint leadership of NOAA and NSF, Committee staff prepared Arctic Observing Network (AON): Toward a US Contribution to Pan-Arctic Observing, a summary of ongoing and future Federal Arctic observing activities with a strategy for enhanced co-ordination and integration of these activities. This document constitutes the biennial update of the US Arctic Research Plan, focusing on observing needs. Enhanced co-ordination and integration of observing activities, and data and information management, will enable the agencies to respond with increased agility to the science questions posed by the Study of Environmental Arctic Change (SEARCH) program: m1 Is the Arctic system moving to a new state? 2 To what extent is the Arctic system predictable, i.e., what are the potential accuracies and/or uncertainties in predictions of relevant Arctic variables over different time scales? 3To what extent can recent and ongoing climate changes be attributed to anthropogenic forcing rather than to natural modes of variability? 4 What is the direction and relative importance of system feedbacks? 5 How are terrestrial and marine ecosystems and ecosystem services affected by environmental change and its interactions with human activities? 6 How do cultural and socio-economic systems interact with Arctic environmental change? 7 What are the most consequential links between the Arctic and Earth systems?

Download or read book The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate written by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-30 with total page 755 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Download or read book Witness the Arctic written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions written by Grete K. Hovelsrud and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-09-14 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ‘Year’ That Changed How We View the North This book is about a new theoretical approach that transformed the field of Arctic social studies and about a program called International Polar Year 2007–2008 (IPY) that altered the position of social research within the broader polar science. The concept for IPY was developed in 2003–2005; its vision was for researchers from many nations to work together to gain cro- disciplinary insight into planetary processes, to explore and increase our understanding of the polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctica, and of their roles in the global system. IPY 2007–2008, the fourth program of its kind, followed in the footsteps of its predecessors, the first IPY in 1882–1883, the second IPY in 1932–1933, and the third IPY (later renamed to ‘International Geophysical Year’ or IGY) in 1957–1958. All earlier IPY/IGY have been primarily geophysical initiatives, with their focus on meteorology, atmospheric and geomagnetic observations, and with additional emphasis on glaciology and sea ice circulation. As such, they excluded socio-economic disciplines and polar indigenous people, often deliberately, except for limited ethnographic and natural history collection work conducted by some expeditions of the first IPY. That once dominant vision biased heavily towards geophysics, oceanography, and ice-sheets, left little if any place for people, that is, the social sciences and the humanities, in what has been commonly viewed as the ‘hard-core’ polar research.

Download or read book Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions written by Grete K. Hovelsrud and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ‘Year’ That Changed How We View the North This book is about a new theoretical approach that transformed the field of Arctic social studies and about a program called International Polar Year 2007–2008 (IPY) that altered the position of social research within the broader polar science. The concept for IPY was developed in 2003–2005; its vision was for researchers from many nations to work together to gain cro- disciplinary insight into planetary processes, to explore and increase our understanding of the polar regions, the Arctic and Antarctica, and of their roles in the global system. IPY 2007–2008, the fourth program of its kind, followed in the footsteps of its predecessors, the first IPY in 1882–1883, the second IPY in 1932–1933, and the third IPY (later renamed to ‘International Geophysical Year’ or IGY) in 1957–1958. All earlier IPY/IGY have been primarily geophysical initiatives, with their focus on meteorology, atmospheric and geomagnetic observations, and with additional emphasis on glaciology and sea ice circulation. As such, they excluded socio-economic disciplines and polar indigenous people, often deliberately, except for limited ethnographic and natural history collection work conducted by some expeditions of the first IPY. That once dominant vision biased heavily towards geophysics, oceanography, and ice-sheets, left little if any place for people, that is, the social sciences and the humanities, in what has been commonly viewed as the ‘hard-core’ polar research.

Download or read book Saudi Maritime Policy written by Hatim Al-Bisher and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-09-14 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is concerned with the integrated governance and enactment of Saudi maritime policy. Taking a comparative approach the authors examine the concept of integrated national maritime policy (INMP), analysing its application in four countries – Australia, Canada, UK and USA – and discussing at length how it might be applied to Saudi Arabia.

Download or read book The Arctic in the Anthropocene written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once ice-bound, difficult to access, and largely ignored by the rest of the world, the Arctic is now front and center in the midst of many important questions facing the world today. Our daily weather, what we eat, and coastal flooding are all interconnected with the future of the Arctic. The year 2012 was an astounding year for Arctic change. The summer sea ice volume smashed previous records, losing approximately 75 percent of its value since 1980 and half of its areal coverage. Multiple records were also broken when 97 percent of Greenland's surface experienced melt conditions in 2012, the largest melt extent in the satellite era. Receding ice caps in Arctic Canada are now exposing land surfaces that have been continuously ice covered for more than 40,000 years. What happens in the Arctic has far-reaching implications around the world. Loss of snow and ice exacerbates climate change and is the largest contributor to expected global sea level rise during the next century. Ten percent of the world's fish catches comes from Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that up to 13 percent of the world's remaining oil reserves are in the Arctic. The geologic history of the Arctic may hold vital clues about massive volcanic eruptions and the consequent release of massive amount of coal fly ash that is thought to have caused mass extinctions in the distant past. How will these changes affect the rest of Earth? What research should we invest in to best understand this previously hidden land, manage impacts of change on Arctic communities, and cooperate with researchers from other nations? The Arctic in the Anthropocene reviews research questions previously identified by Arctic researchers, and then highlights the new questions that have emerged in the wake of and expectation of further rapid Arctic change, as well as new capabilities to address them. This report is meant to guide future directions in U.S. Arctic research so that research is targeted on critical scientific and societal questions and conducted as effectively as possible. The Arctic in the Anthropocene identifies both a disciplinary and a cross-cutting research strategy for the next 10 to 20 years, and evaluates infrastructure needs and collaboration opportunities. The climate, biology, and society in the Arctic are changing in rapid, complex, and interactive ways. Understanding the Arctic system has never been more critical; thus, Arctic research has never been more important. This report will be a resource for institutions, funders, policy makers, and students. Written in an engaging style, The Arctic in the Anthropocene paints a picture of one of the last unknown places on this planet, and communicates the excitement and importance of the discoveries and challenges that lie ahead.

Download or read book Water Carbon Dynamics in Eastern Siberia written by Takeshi Ohta and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-07-01 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the water and carbon cycle system in the permafrost region of eastern Siberia, Providing vitalin sights into how climate change has affected the permafrost environment in recent decades. It analyzes the relationships between precipitation and evapotranspiration, gross primary production and runoff in the permafrost regions, which differ from those intropical and temperate forests. Eastern Siberia is located in the easternmost part of the Eurasian continent, and the land surface with underlying permafrost has developed over a period of seventy thousand years. The permafrost ecosystem has specific hydrological and meteorological characteristics in terms of the water and carbon dynamics, and the current global warming and resulting changes in the permafrost environment are serious issues in the high-latitude regions. The book is a valuable resource for students, researchers and professionals interested in forest meteorology and hydrology, forest ecology, and boreal vegetation, as well as the impact of climate change and water-carbon cycles in permafrost and non-permafrost regions.