UKPN Member Svalbard Fieldwork Blog
Hi UKPN! My name is Allen Pope and for the next three weeks I will be up in Ny Ålesund, Svalbard for the next 3 weeks doing fieldwork. My research is related to collecting ground-based glacier-surface reflectance data to help in validation and interpretation of satellite and airborne imagery.
In addition to myself and two other team members, we will be joined by our mascot Fjord the Reindeer. As an outreach measure, Fjord will be keeping a blog of our activities, research, life in Ny Ålesund, and stories about Arctic research complete with photos, maps and hopefully video.
So, check it out at www.notrudolph.blogspot.com, and keep checking back as he’ll be putting up new content frequently. Please feel free to tell any friends you have interested in education & outreach, too – we would love to get questions from anybody interested in our work or Arctic fieldwork in general whether school kids or armchair explorers. If you’re interested in more expeditions and outreach, check outwww.educationthroughexpeditions.org.
Investigating Variability in Polar Climates: Past, Present and Future
As a great start to the Career Skills series this year, the University of Leeds hosted a multi-disciplinary workshop Investigating Variability in Polar Climates; Past, Present and Future. The workshop took place on the 8th and 9th of April and saw over 30 PhD, Masters students and Post-Docs gather to discuss the latest topics surrounding variability in Polar environments.
The workshop was organised by PhD students at the University of Leeds; Aisling Dolan, Amber Leeson, Sarah Monks, Thomas Pleavin, Jo Browse and Abigail Clifton.
Two keynote talks were given by leading scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. Dr. Anna Jones gave a presentation on ‘Air/snowinteractions and its influence on polar tropospheric chemistry’ and Dr. Adrian Jenkins gave a talk on oceanic forcing on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Other speakers included Prof. Jane Francis and Prof. Piers Forster (IPCC Author) looking at the past and future evolution of Polar Climates. Technical sessions included An Introduction to Modelling Polar Climates, Polar Meteorology, Polar Atmospheric Composition and Cryosphere Remote Sensing. A speed researcher networking session was given by Dr. Andrea Howarth (Skills Training, Leeds) and anintroduction to Science and the Media was given by Hannah Isom; a Senior Press Officer at Leeds. Practical sessions on ice sheet modelling (Dr. Daniel Hill, BGS) and a Q&A panel on fieldwork also provided an interactive learning environment.
Many researchers gave a poster of their current or projected research and all posters were of a very high standard. Three posters were chosen by a panel of senior academic judges as outstanding; Kathryn Nye (Durham, best overall poster), Carys Cook (Imperial College, highly commendable) and Daniel Grosvener (Manchester, highly commendable). The poster session and conference dinner offered a valuable networking opportunity and allowed for many in depth discussions about current Polar research.
We feel that the workshop was a huge success and we hope that early career researchers found the event of value and that it may have sparked off future collaborations. We would like to take the opportunity to thanks all of the participants and presenters who made this event as enjoyable as it was.
Particular recognition must also go to our sponsors – the Natural Environment Research Council, International Polar Year International Programme Office, the University of Leeds (Institute of Climate and Atmospheric Science, Earth System Science Institute and the Sellwood Group for Palaeo-Climatology) and the Royal Meteorological Society - for making this event financially possible.
Aisling Dolan (UKPN Committee)
IPY Oslo Science Conference, 8-12 June 2010
DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL THE 25TH JAN 2010!!
The IPY Oslo Science Conference, taking place 8-12 June 2010 in Oslo, Norway, is the major IPY Conference, a brilliant opportunity to show off your polar science whether it's part of an IPY project or not. The IPY Oslo Conference also sets a precedent for the involvement of early career scientists at all levels of the conference and the activities during the event. APECS is coordinating the activities, and of course UKPN members are involved too! Spread the word so that this becomes the highlight of the year!
The submission deadline for abstracts is the 20th January 2010, so get your abstracts in!! To submit, go to this webpage: http://www.ipy-osc.no/section/1257865053.48. There is plenty of support available for early career scientists (reduced registration fees, accommodation, Oslo stipends, travel fellowships), all of it tied to abstract submission. Any question regarding the application process, don't hesitate to contact us!
We would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of the sessions UKPN members are (co-)organising and show you what else there is for early career scientists.
Sessions with UKPN (or UK based APECS) conveners (apologies if I forgot anybody!):
- T2-1 Climate and paleoclimate dynaimcs and processes (Louise Sime, BAS)
- T2-4 Permafrost on a warming planet (Matt Strzelecki, Uni Durham)
- T2-6 Ocean physical and geochemical dynamics and processes (Povl Abrahamsen, BAS)
- T3-8 Ecosystems of the Southern Ocean (Angelika Renner, BAS/UEA)
- T6-3 Adventures in the field: Impact of field programs for students, teachers, artists, writers and others (Allen Pope, SPRI)
- T6-4 Global learning: The impact of the media (Jose Xavier, BAS)
APECS activities during the conference: APECS Professional Development Workshop - workshop with session on publishing your research, communicating science, funding, alternative careers, and more
APECS Reception - speed dating with potential mentors
APECS Lounge - in the middle of everything! THE meeting point of the conference
Awards for outstanding presentations and posters!
Application includes Oslo Stipend, Travel Fellowships and the APECS Professional Development Workshop
- 20 February 2010 Abstract Acceptance Notification Date
- 25 February 2010 Notification of Oslo Stipend Awards
- 1 March 2010 Notification of Acceptance in APECS Workshop
- 5 March 2010 Deadline to Confirm Stipend Acceptance
- 8 March 2010 Stipend Recipients Conference Registration Deadline
So get your abstracts polished and send them in! For more info check http://www.ipy-osc.no and http://www.apecs.is/events/oslo2010
See you in Oslo,
Angelika
UKPN Annual General Meeting 2010
The Annual General Meeting will be held at the Royal Astronomical Society's rooms in Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.
At the AGM we will discuss the future of the UKPN and we encourage all UKPN members to participate in the meeting. The outline of the meeting is:
- An overview of UKPN, its aims and general future directions
- An overview of UKPN events in 2009.
- Discussion about UKPN events in 2010.
- Discussion about the proposed spring/summer school in 2011.
- A talk by an external scientist on a broad, topical subject.
More information will follow soon.
UKPN members go to sea!
This has to be the science cruise with the highest density of UKPN committee members and other active members on board: On Monday, the team for the second field campaign of the Antarctic Deep Water Rates of Export (ANDREX) project sets off from London Heathrow and amongst the scientists are Loic, Sinhue, Libby, Geli and several others you might have heard of as part of a UKPN event or the other.
The cruise is going to investigate deep water export from the Weddell Sea and of course we will maintain a blog to keep you and everybody who's interested, updated on our progress and daily life on the ship. Check it out and tell your friends!
http://www.classroomatsea.net/andrex/
