Documents

Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica 2018-2020 Report

Report Author(s): Tony Travouillon – Australian National University, AUS; Adriana Maria Gulisano – Instituto Antártico Argentino, Argentina

Summary of activities from 2018-20

AAA is continuing its role as an independent SRP to promote collaborations in Antarctic sciences. In these three years, we have expanded our group to welcome sciences working in near-earth observations, grown our base of researchers and presented our plan to become a SCAR science group.

Antarctic Clouds and Aerosols Action Group 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Tom Lachlan-Cope (UK)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

The Antarctic Cloud and Aerosol group normally meets at EGU in Vienna. In 2019 this happened – and was reported in the last report to SCAR – and at that meeting it was agreed that we should pursue the development of a database of cloud, aerosol and precipitation observations, initially as metadata. In 2020 EGU was a virtual conference and so the annual meeting of the action group was also held virtually. This was successful and will probably lead to more meeting of the group being held during the year.

Progress with the development of the database has been slow – a plan to use a summer student at the British Antarctic Survey fell through. We plan to have another virtual meeting in the next couple of months to discuss this project and at the same time look for some funding to employ a student for a short period to get the first phase of the project underway.

One of the main objectives of the group is to encourage collaboration between different Antarctic groups. Already several groups are in close collaboration and a discussion was held at the recent meeting as to how we can collaborate further particularly in the Peninsula. Also it the importance of surface radiation observations were emphasised and is hoped that SCAR could reinforce this recommendation.

Finally it proposed that a review paper is written concentrating on Antarctic precipitation – Irina Gorodetskaya is taking the lead on this.

Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project (ADMAP) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Graeme Eagles (Germany), Fausto Ferraccioli (UK), Detlef Damaske (Germany)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Meetings:

The ADMAP group met in a short side-meeting at the ISAES in Incheon. The goal of the meeting was to review the initial impact of the ADMAP2 publication and data release of 2018, and to agree a road-map towards further updates and versions as new magnetic anomaly data continue to be returned from Antarctica on a season-by-season basis:

1. The data release has been a success. The ADMAP2 data have been widely downloaded and used in a variety of new geophysical, geological and cryospheric studies. At the time of writing, the accompanying release paper (Golynsky et al., 2018; DOI:1029/2018GL078153) has been cited 22 times.
2. Complementary approaches to ADMAP2’s existing levelling procedures (see this preprint), and approaches to fast pre-levelling for achieving compatibility of new data sets to the ADMAP2 field (Timm Clausen MSc thesis, University of Bremen (in German)) were discussed. At the time of writing, over 500,000 line-kilometres of new magnetic data exist that are not incorporated into the ADMAP2 compilation.
3. A preliminary update to ADMAP2 showing new data that were not included in the 2018 release was briefly presented. Significantly, our colleagues from China committed in principle to sharing Chinese aeromagnetic data as part of ADMAP – just as soon as their national data portal goes online.

Fieldwork:

1. New helicopter-based magnetic acquisition by BGR (Germany) in Victoria Land in 2018/19.
2. New magnetic acquisition by AWI over the Falkland Plateau Basin in 2017/18 and 2018/19 for conjugate-margin based Antarctic studies.
3. New Chinese magnetic acquisition in Princess Elizabeth Land in 2017-20.
4. New magnetic acquisition by BAS in the Thwaites glacier region in 2018/19.
5. New Russian magnetic acquisition offshore Antarctica and in Queen Mary Land in 2017-20.
6. Continuation of international collaborative EAGLE acquisition in East Antarctica in 2017-20.

Publications:

There have been no new ADMAP compilations since the data release paper in 2018. Instead, members of ADMAP as well as external groups have published a range of papers that use and exploit the ADMAP2 compilation for a variety of geophysical, geodynamic, and glaciological studies.

Antarctic Gravity Wave Instrument Network (ANGWIN) 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Mike Taylor (Utah State University, USA), Takuji Nakamura (NIPR, Japan), Tracy Moffat-Griffin (BAS, UK), Damian Murphy (AAD, Australia), Jose Valentin Bageston (INPE, Brazil), Geonhwa Jee (KOPRI, South Korea)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Our membership have presented ANGWIN related work at a range of conferences, including IUGG 2019, AGU 2019. We had contributed to convening a session at the 2020 SCAR OSC (and submitted several abstracts), submitted abstracts to COSPAR 2020 and had planned to hold our ANGWIN workshop in early 2020. However the pandemic has resulted in these 2020 events not taking place.

Key challenge – changing how we interact and continue ANGWIN work in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Major achievements – Dr Kogure, one of our ANGWIN members successfully gained a SCAR fellowship to pursue his ANGWIN work.

Upcoming activities – ANGWIN workshop 2021, session on polar field work (that can cover ANGWIN work) at BOCA-21 (IAMAS)

AntArchitecture Action Group 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences and Geosciences Groups

Report Author(s)

Robert G. Bingham (UK), Olaf Eisen (Germany), Nanna B. Karlsson (Denmark), Joseph A. MacGregor (USA), Neil Ross (UK), Duncan A. Young (USA)

Group Summary

Approved as a SCAR Action Group at the June 2018 SCAR Delegates Meeting in Davos, AntArchitecture aims to develop a continent-wide age-depth model of Antarctica’s ice using the internal layers and surfaces imaged by radar-sounding. The product will underpin the wider goal to determine the stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheets over past glacial cycles, and feeds into additional SCAR Groups such as PAIS, IPICS, and AntClim21.

It has two primary 2-year milestones; the first being production of a white paper for 2020, outlining the need for an Antarctic radar-layers database, the potential applications, and methods for achieving it; the second being the aspiration to publish, in 2022, an online dataset and paper reporting the 3D internal architecture of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. At the time of reporting we are in the final months of achieving milestone 1, and we have made some good progress with efforts towards milestone 2, as will be reported below.

With thanks to the SCAR office, we launched a website in March 2019 https://www.scar.org/science/antarchitecture/home/ which outlines the project in more details, and serves as a forum for communicating our activities and achievements. At the same time we also generated a mailing list for AntArchitecture, which has grown over the past year to 121 subscribers.

Antarctic Near-shore and Terrestrial Observation System (ANTOS) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences, Geosciences and Physical Sciences Groups

Report Authors: Craig Cary & Vonda Cummings (NZ)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Major activities/achievements:

1. SCAR Integrated Science for the Sub Antarctic (ISSA) Workshop, October 2018 (Great Barrier Island, NZ). Convened by Gary Wilson and Justine Shaw, representatives of most National Programmes with jurisdiction/management in the Subantarctic attended. ANTOS was presented at the meeting to make the sub-Antarctic island community aware of ANTOS and to solicit participation in the expansion of the ANTOS network to the Subantarctic (Sub-ANTOS). This effort has already proved valuable in that the French attendees have sought support to establish 2-3 Tier 1 ANTOS towers in the Kerguelen Islands.
2. Progressed development of ANTOS baseline survey protocols, to assist new participants in obtaining the critical baseline data needed prior to the installation of a Tier 1-3 system. A trans-Tasman workshop held in August 2019, with partial support from ANTOS, facilitated protocol development. Major funding was obtained through an internal grant to Sharon Robinson (ANTOS Committee Member; (~$28K from University of Wollongong).
3. The Italian National Antarctic Programme supported installation of new ANTOS Tier 1 systems in four Terra Nova Bay locations during 2019/20. These integrate several new sensors to measure the bioactivity of known endolithic communities. Data are being live streamed to the database, bringing the total number of on-line terrestrial ANTOS systems to eight.
4. A Canadian vendor experienced in integrating marine sensor systems in polar environments have agreed to develop a prototype telemetered (iridium) system for the near-shore component of ANTOS. Potential for their direct involvement in ANTOS to assist development of a QA/QC sensor tracking system (as they developed in the Arctic).
5. The ANTOS community was updated on the activities and progress made in 2018 at the Genoa workshop and subsequent ANTOS meeting in Leuven, via a report published on the website in late 2019 (see https://www.scar.org/science/antos/antos-resources/).
6. ANTOS Survey II was designed and was launched in April 2020. It targets participants of the Survey I to gain more detailed information on the data stream available (incl. frequency and duration of measurements, observed environmental/ ecological responses) and participants views on the uniqueness/value of the sites. This will augment and enhance information obtained from Survey I, enabling prioritisation of the ANTOS Sentinel Sites.

ANTPAS 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Authors: Mauro Guglielmin (Italy), Marc Oliva (Spain)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

A better coordination of the permafrost research especially in Maritime Antarctica was achieved also with the approval from PROPOLAR of the Jointed Project “Nunantar” led by Marc Oliva is an example in which many nations (Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, Chile, UK, France) are working together also with the national scientific programs logistic and financial supports.

Antarctic Volcanism (ANTVOLC) Expert Group 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Adelina Geyer ([email protected] – Spain), Alessio Di Roberto ([email protected] – Italy), AntVolc Steering Board members

Summary of activities from 2018-2020

Membership and Leadership:

• Membership of AntVolc has stabilised at c. 110 members, representing 16 countries (Spain, Italy, New Zealand, USA, UK, Argentina, Germany, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Poland, Iceland, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and France)
• Adelina Geyer (Spain) took over from John Smellie (UK) as Chair at the end of 2018, with a term of office of 2 years.
• Alessio Di Roberto (Italy) took over from Adelina Geyer (Spain) as Deputy Chair at the end of 2018, with a term of office of 2 years.

The AntVolc website, hosted at the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (ICTJA-CSIC) (https://antvolcscar.wordpress.com/), is under continuous update and new dedicated AntVolc Twitter (@antvolc) and Facebook accounts have been created.

Antarctic Sea-Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Marilyn Raphael (USA)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

ASPeCt wrote and had endorsed by YOPP a proposal to contribute underway sea ice observations to the YOPP effort in 2018 and 2019. This effort to have more cruises involved each year is being continued. SOOS has significantly updated its “Due South” system with direct ASPeCt assistance and we are using that to engage the cruises in making the observations. Already existing ASPeCt data are being formatted for easier access and analysis.  

• ASPeCt scientists at AWI conducted a month-long Polarstern expedition into the northwestern Weddell Sea, conducting 15 ice stations, 10 EM bird flights and deploying 3 drift arrays.
• ASPeCt scientists on the Australian AFIN project completed a successful field campaign at Casey Station (East Antarctica), which coincided with the final deployment of NASA’s Operation IceBridge
• ASPeCt continued to leverage members’ attendance at regular science conferences to hold sub group meetings to ensure that progress is made on ASPeCt goals. In 2019 the ASPeCt held a side-meeting the day before the IGS Sea Ice Symposium began, and sponsored the sea ice session convened by Stefanie Arndt, ASPeCt’s junior officer.
• ASPeCt will hold a Workshop online on July 31^st 2020. This workshop was previously scheduled to be held in Hobart at the SCAR 2020 OSC. Parallel sessions convened by  ASPeCt  scientists will also be held online during tthis time.
• Major outcomes of the the 2017 PIPERS cruise, led by ASPeCt Immediate Past Chair Steve Ackley, on N. B. Palmer into the early winter Ross Sea, have been presented at scientific conferences and are in varying stages of publications.

BEPSII Expert Group 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Jacqueline Stefels (Netherlands) and Jeff Bowman (USA)

Summary Budget 2019 to 2022

We would like to ask SCAR to make a reservation of the non-spend $4000 for 2020 for activities in 2021.

Connecting Geology and Geophysics (CGG) Report 2018-2020

Action Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Joachim Jacobs, Norway, Fausto Ferraccioli, UK, Andreas Läufer, Germany

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Field activities, other activities:

Isotopic profiling along the Dronning Maud Land Mts. to gain insights into the crustal evolution across a major accretionary plate margin in Neoproterozoic/early Paleozoic times, several papers in preparation (Jacobs, J., et al.)

Comprehensive Ar/Ar dataset of eastern DML to delineate the protracted Neoproterozoic/early Paleozoic deformation and cooling history of this part of East Antarctica (Läufer, A., et al.)

High-resolution aeromagnetic survey over the western margin of the Mariner Glacier, combined with extensive geological field work in Victoria Land, Transantarctic Mountains during BGR expeditions GANOVEX XIII (2018-19) and GANOVEX XIII/2 (2019-20)

Pre-site survey “Sub-EIS-Obs III” jointly organized by AWI and BGR with core sampling under the Eckstrom Shelf Ice at Neumayer III station in the 2018-19 Antarctic season following extensive vibroseismic surveys in the two previous seasons

Comprehensive seismic bathymetry data set beneath Eckstrom Shelf Ice collected during joint AWI/BGR project Sub-EIS-Obs (Smith, Läufer et al.) High resolution aerogeophysical surveys of Thwaites Glacier (2018-19 & 2019-20) flown by BAS in collaboration with LDEO as part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration led by NSF & NERC (Jordan, Tinto et al.)

Four European Space Agency funded research projects (PolarGAP, GOCE+Antarctica, ADMAP 2.0+ & 4D Antarctica) with BAS leading and/or contributing to airborne and satellite geophysical data analyses and modelling to investigate subglacial geology, crustal and lithospheric architecture, global supercontinent linkages and geothermal heat flux heterogeneity (Ferraccioli, Ebbing, Forsberg, et al.). Several papers published & in preparation.

Geological and geophysical contributions to new SCAR-SERCE international and interdisciplinary Geothermal Heat Flow Sub-Group, including the 2020 White Paper (Alex Burton-Johnson et al.) and contributions to the new SCAR INSANT SRP proposal development.

Application of remote sensing techniques combined with geological field and lab and geophysical data to identify bedrock and structures in northern Victoria Land, one paper published, one in preparation (Läufer, Crispini, et al.)

Full waveform ambient noise tomography to investigate the structure of East Antarctica, work in progress (Hansen, S. et al.)

Regional-scale interpretation of magnetic anomaly field for the Mac. Robertson Land − Princess Elizabeth Land region, integrated with surface geology (Mikhalsky & Leitchenkov, 2018)

Tectonic map of Antarctica, 2nd edition. (Grikurov & Leitchenkov 2019)

Expert Group on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics (EGABI) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group

Report Authors: Ben Raymond (Australia), Anton Van de Putte (Belgium), Bruno Danis (Belgium)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

The Expert Group on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics was formed in 2012, with Bruno Danis as the chief officer and aiming to foster the application and development of biodiversity informatics in the SCAR community. In the subsequent 8 years, EGABI achieved a number of remarkable successes, contributing to such projects as the SCAR Biogeographic Atlas of the Southern Ocean, the Microbial Antarctic Resource System, and the Retrospective Analysis of Antarctic Tracking Data. Due to changes in work commitments, Bruno stepped down as chief officer in 2020, just prior to the end of the current EGABI term. Ben Raymond replaced Bruno as chief officer, with Anton Van de Putte as deputy.

Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group 

Report Author(s): Mark Hindell (Australia) and Yan Ropert-Coudert (France)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

EG-BAMM has been in existence for 10 years, after being reviewed and renewed by the SCAR delegates in 2017. The group maintained many of its usual activities in 2019 and 2020, participating in several international fora, such as CCAMLR and SOOS, as well as being part of several SCAR programs, most notably SCATS, ANT-Eco and ANT-Era. However, the COVID19 situation has also curtailed several activities, most notably participation in the Science program at the cancelled Open Science Conference in Hobart and our annual general meeting. We have also had to delay the implantation of three new working groups (cetaceans, functional responses and demography), but we anticipate these will begin in 2021.

This will be the last year that Hindell and Ropert-Coudert will be CI and secretary. Their replacements have been nominated and await approval from the SCAR Delegates, with a hand-over to take place in Hyderabad at the OSC in 2022.

Earth Observation Action Group (EOAG) 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Anna E. Hogg (UK)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

There has been quite a bit of activity within the EOAG to report on over the past two-year period. This report contains a brief summary of work that’s been done, challenges faced, and upcoming activities.

Major activities/achievements:

• Presented at the Polar Space Task Group (PSTG) meeting in Geneva.
• The SCAR EOAG was announced to the polar science community during an invited talk at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) meeting.
• The EOAG was represented in an ESA-NASA discussion meeting at the ESA Living Planet Symposium (LPS) about the possibility of synchronising the orbits of CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2, in order to better understand the difference between radar and laser altimetry.
• Named a new ‘Earth observation Range’ of glaciers in Antarctica.
• Convened a Remote sensing of the cryosphere session at the SCAR Hobart meeting.

SCAR Action Group on Geological Heritage and Geoconservation 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Geosciences Group  

Report Author(s): Kevin A. Hughes (Secretary; UK), Marcelo Reguero (Chair; Argentina) and Luis Carcavilla (Vice-chair; Spain) Jerόnimo Lόpez-Martínez (Spain)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

• Output: Preparation of a SCAR Working Paper for ATCM detailing a new methodology for the identification of Geological Heritage within Antarctica. The methodology was tested with the identification of:
  • (i) nine Antarctic Geological Frameworks (or themes); and
  • (ii) a Geosite for the Geological Framework ‘Cretaceous-Paleogene Transition’ on Seymour (Marambio) Island.

NB: The SCAR Working Paper for ATCM XLIII (Helsinki, 2020) was not submitted by SCAR due to the cancellation of this meeting, but may be submitted at ATCM XLIV (Paris) expected to be held in 2021.

• Output: SCAR Environmental Code of Conduct for Geosciences Field Research Activities in Antarctica. A final draft of the CoC was produced following the production of a SCAR Information Paper for ATCM XLII (Prague, 2019) and detailed consultation with COMNAP. A SCAR Working Paper detailing the CoC was to be presented by SCAR to ATCM XLIII in Helsinki (2020) for approval, but was not submitted due to the cancellation of the meeting.

• Output: List of national repositories (museums, universities, institutes, etc.) housing Antarctic geological and palaeontological specimens. The list was updated and now included 33 repositories in 17 countries. The list of repositories was to be presented by SCAR to ATCM XLIII in Helsinki (2020) for approval, but was not submitted due to the cancellation of the meeting.

• Four Action Group meetings and workshops were held: July 2018 (Davos), November 2018 (Madrid), March 2019 (Cambridge) and March 2020 (Cambridge).

• In 2018, Marcelo Reguero (Argentina) was appointed as Chair, Luis Carcavilla (Spain) as Vice-Chair and Kevin Hughes (UK) continued as Action Group Secretary.

• In 2019, support was given to an Early Career Researcher to attend the XIII ISAES in Korea.

• The activities and progress of the Action Group were presented in the XIII ISAES (Korea, 2019) through a Keynote and two posters.

• The preparation of the Action Group outputs included broad consultation with the AG members and the Geosciences community.

• The Action Group outputs have been submitted to the SCAR Standing Committee on the Antarctic Treaty System (SCATS) for review and presentation by SCAR to the ATCM.

Geological Mapping Update of Antarctica (GeoMAP) Action Group 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Geosciences Group 

Report Author(s): Simon Cox (New Zealand), Paul Morin (USA), Christine Siddoway (USA)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

A GIS dataset describing exposed bedrock and surficial geology of Antarctica has been constructed by the SCAR GeoMAP Action Group. Work started from a continent-scale, low density, attribute-poor dataset in 2015 that was added to and improved through multiple iterations during 2018-2020. It involved capturing existing geological map data, refining its spatial reliability, then improving representation of glacial sequences and geomorphology. GeoMAP depicts ‘known geology’ of rock exposures rather than ‘interpreted’ sub-ice features and is aimed towards continent-wide perspectives and cross-discipline interrogation.

A beta version (v.201907) of GeoMAP was made available at XIII ISAES in Korea (July 2019) – primarily for comment and peer review and is still available as a webmap or download via the SCAR website (see www.scar.org/ssg/geosciences/geomap). It has since had 3 iterations of improvement by GNS Science.  

Plans to formally release the first version of GeoMAP at the Hobart Open Science Conference were scuppered by Covid-19.  The action group now plans to release GeoMAP together with a journal ‘data paper’ in late 2020. Data will be archived with a doi and delivered from a number of websites – potentially also GeoMAP pages on the SCAR website. The action group can now be wound up due to cancellation of the OSC, and do not need to use funds allocated for 2020. We propose data should continue to be delivered from a dedicated page on SCAR’s website, and GeoMAP move to be recognised as a formal SCAR product.

Expert Group “Geodetic Infrastructure in Antarctica” (GIANT) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Mirko Scheinert (Germany, [email protected]), Alessandro Capra (Italy)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Geodetic GNSS measurements on bedrock are indispensable to determine vertical and horizontal deformations of the Earth’s crust in order to provide in-situ information for the study of glacial-isostatic adjustment (GIA) and plate tectonics. During last Antarctic seasons GNSS measurements were contin-ued. New data – especially episodic GNSS data – are incorporated into the “SCAR GNSS Database” maintained at TU Dresden.

The new “Geodynamics In ANTarctica based on REprocessing GNSS dAta Initiative” (GIANT-REGAIN) was announced in 2016 to realize a major reprocessing of Antarctic GNSS data to infer a consistent set of coordinates and coordinate changes for further geoscientific investigation (especially GIA). This project is still in progress, first results are expected 2020/2021.

The “2^nd SCAR Summer School on Polar Geodesy” was carried out in Ladozhskoe Ozero, Russia, 10–19 May 2018 and formed a contribution both to EG GIANT and to SCAR SRP SERCE. Members of GIANT contributed to further summer schools in the framework of SERCE, e.g. the GIA training school in Gävle, Sweden, in September 2019.

Members of GIANT actively supported the initiation of a new SCAR Scientific Research Program in sucession to SERCE and PAIS, namely INStabilities and Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT). This new SRP proposal was submitted to SCAR EC in June 2020. Thus, EG GIANT requests the strong support of the SG Geosciences for this new SRP.

GRAPE (GNSS Research and Application for Polar Environment) 2018-2020 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Science/Geosciences Groups

Person Responsible: Giorgiana De Franceschi

Summary

GRAPE was born in 2012 and it is a joint Physical Science and Geoscience group. In the last two years the group efforts have been addressed to organize a summer school, meetings, scientific sessions at SCAR2020 OSC and URSI GASS2020 Conference, to coordinate polar (Arctic and Antarctic) experimental campaign, to manage data, archive, and data base.  The group worked to enlarge the scientific and technological issues within Solar Terrestrial interactions and Space Weather, including the interaction between neutral and ionized atmosphere, mainly based on Radio Science. This action has been concluded and a new Proposal Planning Group named RESOURCE (has been recently submitted to SCAR for consideration by the EXCOMM and SCAR delegates. The initial core membership includes 29 members from 18 Countries, representing the physical sciences and the geosciences. The proposed SRP, taking advantage of the experience of GRAPE, aims to gather the communities that investigate the polar atmosphere, with particular reference to Antarctica but with a bi-polar perspective, by means of radio probes into a common shared initiative. The scope is to improve the current understanding of the Antarctic atmosphere by sharing the expertise and the experience achieved by several scientific teams in the world, thus facilitating the advancement in the field and avoiding any duplication of activities already in action.

Due to the pandemic COVID 19 and the cancelled SCAR2020, we do not know if the PPG RESOURCE will be considered to start within 2020. If not, GRAPE (planned to be embedded in the PPG) would continue its activity until the next SCAR2022.

The remaining funds 2020 (4250USD from PS and GS) were to be spend to support 2 ECRs presenting a paper at SCAR2020 (session1&11) and 2 registration fees for attenders from the GRAPE community. We would like to have the possibility to spend the 2020 funds allocated to GRAPE within 2021-2022.

This report is submitted to both Physical Science and Geosciences Groups Officers.

International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) 2018-2020 Report

Report Author(s): Boris Dorschel (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany), Laura Hehemann (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany), Jan Erik Arndt (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Since February 2018, IBCSO is part of the Nippon Foundation – GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project.  In the scope of this project, work on IBCSO v2.0 was intensified. Different to IBCSO v1, IBCSO v2.0 covers the area south of 50°S, thus more than doubling the area of seafloor covered.  Over the course of the past two years, data handling and workflows have been developed and optimised to cope with increase data volumes.  Furthermore, additional bathymetric datasets have been integrated continuously in the IBCSO database.  In February to April 2019 large areas in the Powell Basin were mapped during expedition PS118 with RV Polarstern.  These data will be included in IBCSO v2.0.  Throughout the past 2 years IBCSO was presented at international conferences, meetings and workshops.

The publication of IBCSO v2.0 is anticipated for late 2020/early 2021.

Input Pathways for persistent organic pollutants to AntarCTica (ImPACT) 2018-2020 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences/Life Sciences Group

 Report Author(s): Susan Bengtson Nash (Australia), Simonetta Corsolini (Italy), Cristobal Galban-Malagon (Chile)

Summary of activities from 2018-20

Our 2018 Action Group Proposal identified the following short-medium term objectives.

• Co-ordinate current and ongoing research efforts aligned with the Action Group terms of reference, ensuring data collected meets minimum quality assurance requirements for temporal trend collation.
• Pursue national and multi-national funding strategies for establishment of permanent atmospheric monitoring stations at four sites across the continent (Casey Station, Troll station, Mario Zucchelli Station and Professor Julio Escudero base (or another Chilean base in the Antarctic Peninsula region)
• Publish collaborative synthesis works relating to identified knowledge gaps, arising from coordinated monitoring efforts.
• Identify avenues for scaffolding of the ImPACT Action Group towards establishment of an AnMAP body.