Documents

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP08: SCAR Annual Report for 2006

Executive Summary

SCAR’s initiates, develops, and co-ordinates high quality international scientific research in the Antarctic region, and on the role of the Antarctic region in the Earth system. SCAR adds value to national research by enabling researchers to tackle issues of pan-Antarctic scale or global reach. SCAR also provides objective and independent scientific advice on issues affecting the management of the environment to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM); the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR); and the Advisory Committee of the Agreement on Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP). During 2006, SCAR’s main focus was on the XXIXth SCAR Meeting and 2^nd Open Science Conference, hosted in Hobart, Tasmania, by the Australian Antarctic Division, which attracted 850 participants.

Through 2006, SCAR continued to focus on research in five main thematic areas: (i) the modern ocean-atmosphere-ice system; (ii) the evolution of climate over the past 34 million years since glaciation began; (iii) the response of life to change; (iv) preparations to study subglacial lakes and their environs; and (v) the response of the Earth’s outer atmosphere to the changing impact of the solar wind at both poles. Particular highlights include the following:

• the Antarctic plateau has been shown to be the best place on Earth for surface-based astronomy – future plans call for possible installation of a terahertz telescope at Dome A, and a 2.4-metre optical/IR telescope at Dome C.
• advanced numerical models show that intermediate depths in the Southern Ocean have warmed by 0.2ºC, and would have warmed by twice as much but for the masking effect of aerosols including volcanic dust;
• analysis of climate models suggests that by 2100 the marginal ice zone will warm in winter by up to 0.6ºC/decade, resulting in a decrease of 25% in sea-ice cover; central Antarctica will warm at 0.4ºC/decade in all seasons; precipitation will increase 3.3mm/decade on average over the continent, mostly around the edges; westerly winds will strengthen over the ocean, mostly in autumn, but coastal easterlies will decrease; katabatic winds will decrease slightly as temperatures on the polar plateau rise by several degrees;
• drilling through the Ross Sea ice shelf shows that the shelf has come and gone repeatedly over the past few hundred thousand years in response to climate change;
• there is a striking biogeographical ‘divide’ between the biota of the Antarctic Peninsula and that of the rest of the continent, suggesting that the biota does not have a ‘recent’ origin.
• evidence of rapid water movement beneath ice sheets suggests that subglacial hydrologic systems exist beneath the polar plateau and may link subglacial lakes;
• conjugate studies of aurora showed that the onsets of simultaneous Arctic and Antarctic substorm onsets are not symmetric, which has implications for predicting space weather events that could have deleterious technological impacts.

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP09: Proposal for a new Expert Group on Higher Predators

SCAR Working Paper – The Future of the Expert Groups on Birds and Seals

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP10: Plans for the Review of Scientific Research Programme Performance

Performance Review System for SCAR’s Scientific Research Programmes (SRPs)

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP11: Report on Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) and links with IASC (Annex I)

Report on Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW)

14-18 March 2007, Hanover, Hew Hampshire, USA

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP12: Proposal to Create an International Union of Polar Sciences

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP13: Report on Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM)

Overview

This report covers the period between the SCAR meetings in Hobart (July 2006) and the SCAR Executive meeting in Washington, DC (July 2007).
During this period, JCADM:

• held its annual meeting in Hobart
• participated in the SCAR Cross linkages workshop in Rome
• continued populating the Antarctic Master Directory (AMD)
• advised the Global Change Master Directory (GCMD, the host of the AMD) on future directions of the AMD
• established closer involvement with the SCAR SRPs and SSGs
• started working on the SCAR Data Strategy
• continued to involve more countries in Antarctic data management
• advised the ATS secretariat on data issues
• IPY data management
• started preparing the next JCADM annual meeting, which will be held in conjunction with a JCADM capacity building workshop in Rome, Italy, Sept. 2007

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP14: Report on the Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information (SC-AGI)

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP15a: Report from the SCAR Delegation to XXX ATCM in New Delhi

Report from the SCAR Delegation to XXX ATCM in New Delhi

Introduction

The meeting in New Delhi took place at Vigyan Bhavan from 30 April to 11 May 2007.

The SCAR Delegation comprised Colin Summerhayes (Head), Steven Chown, and Chris Rapley who presented the SCAR lecture. The Director of the IPY-IPO was initially included in the SCAR Delegation, though it later turned out that ATCM provided him with a separate IPY-IPO name-plate.

Most of the Members of SC-ATS attended the meeting (S. Chown, C. Kennicutt, H. Miller, S. Marenssi), which facilitated decision making on key issues concerning SCAR’s presentations to the CEP and the ATCM.

The SCAR lecture took place between 1130 and 1300 on Wednesday May 2. SCAR hosted a reception immediately after the lecture to bring delegates together. The Indian organisers shared the costs of the reception.

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP15b: XXX ATCM – Resolution E (2007): Conservation of Southern Giant Petrel Macronectes giganteus

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP15c: XXX ATCM – Resolution G (2007): Long-term Scientific Monitoring and Sustained Environmental Observation in Antarctica

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP16: Report on SCAR and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

Report on the Twenty-fourth Meeting on the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)

Hobart, Australia, 23 October to 3 November 2006
Graham Hosie – SCAR Observer to CCAMLR

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP17: Draft SCAR Brochure

The draft SCAR brochure is tabled for the Executive Committee to comment.

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP18a: Local Arrangements for XXX SCAR

Brief Report on Local Arrangements for XXX SCAR.

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP18b: Local Arrangements for XXX SCAR – Slides

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP19: Arrangements for SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference

SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference

“Polar Research – Arctic and Antarctic Perspectives in the International Polar Year”

St. Petersburg, Russia July, 2008

International Scientific Organizing Committee Status Report – 6/4/07

The initial phase of comment on the DRAFT 2008 SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference (OSC) Science Program has now concluded and a DRAFT Science Program is presented in this paper. 

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP20: Revised Election Procedure

Suggested New Electoral Procedure (Draft)

The SCAR Election Procedure in its old form has become unnecessarily time- consuming for a meeting that has been reduced to last only 3 days. This topic was formally raised as an item of business at the first meeting of the new Executive Committee in Hobart (19 July 2006), following the first 3-day long Meeting of Delegates, and it was suggested (action EC-01) that a new, shorter election procedure was required. The matter was raised again in the meeting between the SCAR President and SCAR Secretariat on14 September 2006, at SPRI. The minutes of that meeting call for changes in electoral procedure to make it more efficient: “Regarding Action EC-3 (to consider reducing length of Delegates meetings), it would appear not worth pursuing at present given that we have already reduced the meetings from 5 days to 3. Rather it would be best to invest some effort into optimising the time spent (which is linked to Action EC-1 – devise a new, shorter, election procedure)”.

Having consulted ICSU to check its election procedures, and after some internal discussions, the SCAR Secretariat recommends adopting a slightly different scheme. The new scheme would require a single ballot (to save time), and voting by simple majority with the current President having a casting vote. The proposed scheme is described below for consideration by the SCAR Executive Committee at its meeting in July 2007. The old version of the Election Procedures, from the Rules of Procedure approved by the Delegates in 2004, is enclosed in Annex 1, and the Election Procedure proposed to the Delegates in 2006 in the revised Rules of Procedure for SCAR as a Company Limited by Guarantee (currently under review pending approval) is enclosed in Annex 2.

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP21a: Revised Rules of Procedure (Action and Expert Groups) – Comparison of Wording

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP21b: Revised Rules of Procedure (Action and Expert Groups) – Full Text

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP22: Revised Memorandum of Association – Comparison of Wording

SCAR EXCOM 2007 WP23: Revised Articles of Association – Comparison of Wording