ASPeCt participated two COMNAP workshops in 2015. The first was the Sea Ice Challenges Workshop in Tasmania, in May 2015. The aim of this workshop was to explore the sea ice challenges our National Antarctic programs are experiencing in some parts of Antarctica right now and especially the past few seasons. ASPeCt members gave presentations on the science and logistics and participated in the discussions.
The second was the SCAR/COMNAP ARC workshop in Tromso in August 2015. This workshop discussed the logistics/infrastructure requirements coming out of the SCAR Horizon Scan in 2014. Steve Ackley participated in the workshop, providing the sea ice input for icebreakers, autonomous vehicles, buoy networks, satellite observations etc. Two surveys were conducted prior to that workshop and a majority of responses supported Sea Ice as a discipline. This indicates the growing importance of ASPeCt related science in the future undertakings in Antarctic/Southern Ocean research.
For information on meetings, see the ASPeCt website.