At the Geophysical institute we have an open permanent position as Project Manager (Advisor) for the international secretariat of the Synoptic Arctic Survey, hosted by Norway and the UiB. The position is jointly funded by strategic allocations from the UiB and by the EU H2020 project ArcticPassion. The initial scope of the position may change with time, depending on future funding.
March 16th – Large-Scale Arctic Insights, 14:00 – 15:30 UTC (15:00 – 16:30 CET)
The Arctic Ocean is brimming with change. In SAS, we’re trying to approach and understand the totality of change and how it potentially connects the different compartments of the ocean. In this new March seminar we are extremely happy to present a diverse set of excellent speakers who will share recent insights on large scale Arctic oceanography, biology, and biogeochemistry in the spirit of the SAS. All are welcome to join.
Mary-Louise Timmermans (Yale University): Ocean heat and freshwater dynamics and change in the Canadian Basin
Bodil Bluhm (University of Tromsø): Bio-physical coupling on the pan-Artic continental slope
Jens Terhaar (University of Bern): Around one third of current Arctic Ocean primary production sustained by rivers and coastal erosion
The planning of the 2021 field season is well underway, and several important Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) cruises will take place.
On this occasion we would like to invite you to join the SAS January Webinar, where we will be learning about some of these cruises, and the finer details that goes into biological sampling programs. We will also learn the latest about drivers of Arctic ocean acidification.
There will be time for questions and discussions after each presentation.
Date, time and location:
January 28. 2021
14:00 – 15:30 UTC (15:00 – 16:30 CET)
Online, see details below
Presenters
Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm (Stockholm University)
Organizing a biological core parameter program for the SAS-Oden 2021 expedition
Heidemarie Kassens (GEOMAR)
Arctic Century – International expedition onboard research icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov
Karl Adam Ulfsbo (University of Gothenburg)
Drivers of ocean acidification in the Arctic Ocean
The Webinar will take place in GoToMeeting. Please submit your e-mail in this form to get the meeting ID and password (the contact will only be used for this webinar, and the list will be deleted after two months).
Feel free to distribute this throughout your community and network.
SAS has a session on ASSW2021. Submit abstracts through the ASSW21 website https://assw2021.pt/
The new deadline is Dec 10, 2020.
ASSW21 Theme: Observing the Arctic
Session ID: 17 – The Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) Activities
Abstract
The Central Arctic Ocean remains profoundly understudied, particularly carbon cycling, ecosystem alteration, and associated changes in atmosphere, ice and ocean physics that influence those biological and biogeochemical systems. The region is expected to continue to make marked changes over the next decades, driven by ongoing climate warming, yet our understanding of key process is limited for this area. The international Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) seeks to quantify the present states of the physical, biological, and biogeochemical systems of the Arctic Ocean. Multiple countries have both confirmed and pending cruises as part of the 2020/2021 SAS networked activities. Key goals of the SAS are to establish the present state of the Arctic system, to document temporal changes where possible through comparison with historical data, and to quantify linkages between the adjacent shelves, slopes, and deep basins, objectives that are shared with the broader Pan-Arctic effort of the composite SAS. The SAS consists of regional shelf-to-basin ship-based surveys in 2020 and 2021 to obtain a Pan-Arctic understanding of essential ocean variables (EOVs) on a quasi-synoptic, spatially distributed basis in which no single nation bears the full burden of collecting the requisite data. The multi-country field effort will provide a strong basis for educational opportunities for early career scientists. This SAS session will outline the benchmark and important legacy for SAS activities to future, quasi-decadal assessments of rapid and evolving Arctic Ocean system change. Updates on the 2020 SAS field program results and upcoming national plans for 2021 activities will be provided during the session.
Key-words
Central Arctic Ocean, Pan-Arctic, ecosystem, climate change
Conveners
Jacqueline M. Grebmeier | University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, Maryland, USA
Oyvind Paasche | Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and NORCE Climate, Bergen, Norway
Christina Goethel | University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, Solomons, Maryland, USA
November 19, 2020
Reports from the SAS cruise activity in 2020 from the national representatives;
0:04:03: Dr Shigeto Nishino (JAMSTEC) Reporting from the Japanese contribution from Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, and Canada Basin with R/V Mirai.
0:17:25: Dr Kyoung-Ho Cho (KOPRI) Reporting from the Korean contribution from Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea with R/V Araon.
0:24:45: Dr Kumiko Asetzu-Scott (DFO) Reporting from the USA/Canada/Denmark/Greenland contribution from Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Labrador Sea with R/V Dana.
0:37:00: Dr Bill Williams (DFO) Reporting from the USA/Canada/Japan contribution from the Beaufort Sea and Canada Basin with CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.
Updates on planned cruises;
0:54:30: Dr Mats Granskog (Norwegian Polar Institute) Cruise plans for Fram Strait (Norwegian Polar Institute) and Arctic Ocean (Nansen Legacy) with Kronprins Haakon.
MOSAiC:
1:01:00: Dr Carin Ashjian (WHOI) Presentation from the recent MOSAiC expedition.
The Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) completed four cruises this fall in the Western Arctic Ocean, where the latest one with R/V Mirai just arrived back in Shimizu (Japan) from the Canada Basin.
On this occasion, we would like to invite you to join the SAS November Webinar where representatives from each cruise will report back from the expeditions. Much changed because of the pandemic, but most cruises still carried out their sampling program and collected physical, chemical, and biological measurements that will become part of SAS’s pan-arctic dataset.
In addition to the cruise reports, there will be an update on “ARCTIC CENTURY”, the Russian/Swiss/German contribution to SAS 2021 that will sample across the Kara Sea with the icebreaker Akademik Tryoshnikov. We will also see some highlights from the recent yearlong MOSAiC cruise.
There will be time for questions and discussion after the last talk.
November 19, 2020
15:00 – 17:00 CET
Online, see details below.
Dr Shigeto Nishino (JAMSTEC) – Reporting from the Japanese contribution from Bering Strait, Chukchi Sea, and Canada Basin with R/V Mirai.
Dr Kyoung-Ho Cho (KOPRI) – Reporting from the Korean contribution from Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea with R/V Araon.
Dr Kumiko Asetzu-Scott (DFO) – Reporting from the USA/Canada/Denmark/Greenland contribution from Davis Strait, Baffin Bay, and Labrador Sea with R/V Dana.
Dr Bill Williams (DFO) – Reporting from the USA/Canada/Japan contribution from the Beaufort Sea and Canada Basin with CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent.
Dr Heidi Marie Kassens (GEOMAR) – Update on «ARCTIC CENTURY» 2021.
Dr Carin Ashjian (WHOI) – Presentation from the recent MOSAiC expedition.
The Webinar will take place in GoToMeeting. Please email anne.meisingset@uib.no to get the meeting ID and password.
Feel free to distribute this throughout your community and network.
Best regards,
Anne Kari Meisingset
SAS Coordinator
SAS will lead a session during next year’s online Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) 20 to 26 March.
Session name: “The International Synoptic Arctic Survey (SAS) Program in the High Arctic”
Chairs: Jacqueline Grebmeier (CBL/UMCES, USA), Øyvind Paasche (Norway), and Christina Goethel (CBL/UMCES, USA)
More information will come in December.
Thanks to our three speakers and to everyone who attended the Webinar! Watch it above.
The Synotic Arctic Survey (SAS) is still going strong despite the situation with Covid-19. On this occasion, we would like to bring you up to speed on the status of the Arctic Ocean and of SAS and hereby invite you to join the Synoptic Arctic Survey’s fall Webinar “A New Arctic Emerging” on September 2, 15:00 – 17:00 (UTC +2).
This Webinar will address the Arctic Ocean in response to present and future climate change with focus on marine physical, biogeochemical, and ecological processes, and emphasizes the underlying question behind SAS’s science plan: What are the present state and major ongoing transformations of the Arctic marine system?
There will be three solicited talks with room for questions and discussions:
1. Andrey Proshutinsky (WHOI) – Freshwater in the Beaufort Gyre; accumulation, release processes, and their influence on Arctic circulation and climate.
2. Ryan Woosley (MiT) – Freshening of the western Arctic and the impacts on anthropogenic carbon uptake potential.
3. Marit Reigstad (UiT) – Understanding the driving mechanisms and potential fate of increased primary production in the Arctic.
The Webinar will take place in GoToMeeting, and moderated by Øyvind Paasche, the Chair of SAS’ Scientific Steering Committee.
If you are interested in joining, please email Anne Kari Meisingset at anne.meisingset(@)uib.no to get the meeting ID.
On the 11th of June, a virtual SSC meeting was held. It dealt with updates from planned SAS expeditions, the construction of a new SAS data portal, as well as upcoming meetings and webinars suchs as the Arctic Science Ministerial Meeting and next year’s Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW). A brief summary of relevant updates are provided in the following.
Despite the COVID-19 situation many of the SAS cruises are still going as planned in 2020, whereas others are postponed until 2021 or even 2022. The cruises going as planned in 2020 include the Korean and Japanese cruises in the Pacific Central Arctic Ocean from August 8 to September 4 (Korea) and from 13 October to 22 October (Japan), and the Norwegian/Russian contribution in the Barents Sea in August/September, the Canada/USA/EU cruise in Davis Strait from August 22 to September 17, and the Canada/USA/Japan cruise in the Beaufort Gyre from September 14 to to October 3.
SSC was also informed about two potentially new SAS cruises planned for 2021 which we were delighted to learn about. Karen Edelvang presented the Danish contribution “Polar DREAM 2021 – From glacier to glacier”, a survey consisting of three ships that will take measurements at 1) the glacier front and shelf break on the south-eastern parts of Greenland, 2) the glacier front and shelf break in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard, and 3) across Fram Strait.
Vito Vitale gave a presentation on the tentative plans for the Italian 2021 summer expedition with the newly acquired icebreaker Laura Bassi. This expedition can potentially contribute with physical, biological, atmospheric, and geological/geophysical measurements outside the west coast of Svalbard which will be most valuable to SAS and the international community.
Details on these cruises in addition to plans for all SAS expeditions can be found in the cruise matrix from the “Expeditions” tab. This table has updated information on all cruises in collaboration with SAS.
Hello Anne Kari Øhman Meisingset!
