Documents

Antarctic Clouds and Aerosols (ACA) 2020-22 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Tom Lachlan-Cope (UK)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The development of a database of cloud observations (starting with ceilometer measurements) is now under the leadership of Adrian McDonald in New Zealand.

There was a meeting to discuss coordination of observations of clouds and aerosols over the Antarctic Peninsula. This includes the UK Southern Ocean clouds project which is taking ground-based measurements at Rothera, the Chilean observations being taken at Marsh, Dan Lubin’s proposed project at Palmer (called Alcina) and a Spanish cruise in the 2022/23 season. Cooperation has been organized between the Spanish cruise and aircraft observations BAS plans to make from Rothera. In the 2023/24 season BAS will have a planned cruise concentrating on aerosols and clouds and it is hoped that Lubin’s project will be funded by then. There is a lot going on over the Peninsula and ACA is proving an effective forum for coordinating this work.

Antarctic Digital Magnetic Anomaly Project (ADMAP) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

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

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The ongoing COVID pandemic severely curtailed activities of the ADMAP group in the 2020-22 reporting period. The main achievements were ongoing fieldwork and a number of new publications.

Meetings: The ADMAP group did not meet formally or informally in the 2020-22 period owing to restrictions related to the COVID pandemic. Online discussions have been continuing on ideas related to the concept of an ADMAP3 compilation, and future fieldwork programmes that might require international cooperation.

Fieldwork:

• PGMRE (Russia) completed ~12000 km of new airborne acquisition in Queen Mary Land in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
• Chinare (China) completed ~10000 km of new airborne acquisition in Princess Elizabeth Land in 2019/20.
• The ITGC project (BAS/LDEO) completed ~9000 km of new airborne acquisition in the Thwaites Glacier region in 2019/20.
• The BGR (Germany) completed ~11000 km of new airborne acquisition in northern Victoria Land in 2018/19/20.
• Shipborne acquisition was undertaken by Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish vessels, totalling around 25000 line kilometres.

Publications:

Members of the group led, or were involved in, the preparation and publication of over 25 new publications in international peer reviewed journals. Highlights are included in the relevant section in the report.

Antarctic Gravity Wave Instrument Network (ANGWIN) 2020-22 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Mike Taylor (USA), Takuji Nakamura (Japan), Tracy Moffat-Griffin (UK), Damian Murphy (Australia), Jose Valentin Bageston (Brazil) and Geonhwa Jee (Korea)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

Key challenges:

• Our activities have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions on travel has meant that our regular workshops have not taken place. Additionally, restrictions on who can travel South over the past seasons has meant that, for some of our instruments, they have either not been deployed on time or had maintenance delayed.

Highlights:

• Airglow imager gravity wave analysis software now publicly available (M-Transform, program language Interactive Data Language (IDL))
• Instrument deployments/upgrades in 2022: At Comandante Ferraz (CF) station and Halley station there are new all-sky airglow imagers deployed. Upgraded meteor radar at CF station. Wind profiling (MST) radar at Davis upgraded.

Upcoming activities:

• Instrumentation: A new airglow instrument at King Sejong Station, Antarctica for the observations of the mesospheric temperature and gravity waves. Rayleigh LIDAR at South Pole. Upgrade of Meteor radar at Davis
• SCAR OSC session: Polar atmospheric processes: water cycle, snow, clouds, aerosols, radiation and gravity waves
• ANGWIN workshop, hosted by KOPRI, October 2022
• 2023 IUGG assembly joint symposium on Polar regions instrumentation

Antarctic Near-Shore and Terrestrial Observation System (ANTOS) 2020-22 Report

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

Report Author(s): Craig Cary and Vonda Cummings (NZ)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

1. Invited Talks. During the pandemic and series of global lockdowns meetings continued to be held on-line. Members of the committee presented invited talks at four conferences including one seeking to develop a similar system across the sub-Antarctic – Sub-ANTOS.
2. Technical Manual Development – the central spine of ANTOS is to design and install 25 dedicated monitoring nodes in or near per-selected biological sentinel sites. With continued input from ANTOS, Hoskins Scientific (Canada) has developed three scalable monitoring systems (Tier 1-3) for both near-shore and terrestrial deployment and their respective manuals.
3. ANTOS members are developing a proposal for philantropic funding to support the installation of Tier 3 systems in 25 cross continental locations.
4. ANTOS was represented at two US NSF-supported workshops: (a) Developing an Antarctic Biorepository (Jan 2-4, 2022); (b) Developing a submarine fiber optic telecommunications cable from New Zealand to McMurdo Station with terabit-scale networking capability.
5. Research proposals are increasingly including ANTOS systems in their science plans. For example, a proposal submitted to the BelSPO Impuls 2022 call (Verleyen) includes installing a long-term monitoring site in Yûboku Valley incorporated into the ANTOS programme and network.
6. The installation of 25 Tier 3 marine and terrestrial nodes in 25 sentinel sites – is aspirational. ANTOS fully supports the individual researchers and national programs installing smaller systems is areas of interest. ANTOS currently has six Tier one terrestrial (NZ, Italy) and three Tier 2 marine (NZ) systems installed and has written letters to support applications in Italy, Argentina, and Australia to install four Tier 1 and a Tier 3 terrestrial system in designated sentinel sites.
7. Committee members have been invited to attend and participate at five international conferences, symposia, and/or workshops that focus on aspects of monitoring climate change in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic.

Antarctic Permafrost, Soils and Periglacial Environments (ANTPAS) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Mauro Guglielmin (Italy), Marc Oliva (Spain)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

ANTPAS activities since 2020 were very restricted by the pandemic situation.

Some ANTPAS members conducted research in Antarctica in January-February 2021 and 2022 in Maritime Antarctica or in December in Victoria Land, basically performing the monitoring activities of permafrost and active layer boreholes. Research was very limited, particularly in 2021, as field activities were cancelled in the frozen continent.

Some other ANTPAS members made essentially the maintaining of the permafrost monitoring network in Northern and Southern Victoria Land as well as in Signy Island and Rothera Station.

In 2022 the situation has started to go back to normality and ANTPAS members have developed again field activities. We expect that the situation will even improve in 2023 and ANTPAS researchers can continue to foster permafrost research in Antarctica promoting sessions and seminars in regional and international meetings.

Antarctic Volcanism (AntVolc) 2021-2022 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author(s): Adelina Geyer (Spain), Alessio Di Roberto ( Italy) and AntVolc Steering Board members

Summary of activities from 2021-2022

• Review volume titled ‘Volcanism in Antarctica: 200 million years of subduction, rifting & continental break-up’, editors John Smellie, Kurt Panter and Adelina Geyer, published as a Geological Society of London -GSL- Memoir on April – May 2021.
• Outreach book: “Antarctic Volcanism: Explore the remotest volcanoes of the planet!” by Geyer et al. downloadable for free from Zenodo repository. Published on June 2 2022, the book has been already downloaded 1,524 times.
• Review volume titled ‘The Geochemistry and Geophysics of the Antarctic Mantle’, editors Adam P. Martin and Wouter van der Wal, to be published as a Geological Society of London -GSL- Memoir. All chapters have been accepted for publication and are currently in press. The GSL has now begun the editing & proofing tasks and publication in paper is theoretically guaranteed by beginning 2023.
• On-line database of Deception Island’s tephra record (DecTephra).

Antarctic Sea-ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Marilyn Raphael (Chair, USA)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The key challenge that ASPeCt faced over the past two years was (and remains) the COVID-19 pandemic which limited our activities and led to revision of planned activities.

2020 – ASPeCt held a Workshop online on July 31^st, 2020. This workshop was previously scheduled to be held in Hobart at the SCAR 2020 OSC. We were updated on the progress of our national programs, we updated the community on ASPeCt-led initiatives, identified critical Antarctic sea-ice areas for targeted observations in next 5 – 8 years and identified key ASPeCt objectives for the next 5 – 10 years. SOOS and SORP joined our meeting to discuss common goals. Parallel sessions convened by ASPeCt scientists, were held online during the SCAR 2020 OSC.

2020-2022 – ASPeCt Immediate Past Chair, Steve Ackley, led a weekly online seminar series on Antarctic Sea Ice and Southern Ocean including numerous ASPeCt scientists. This series was instrumental in keeping ASPeCt scientists engaged despite the restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

2021 – We revised our use of requested funds using them instead to hire someone to update our database. This update included quality control and entering new data, making the database accessible to the larger public and formatting the data to make it easier for incorporating into climate models, and finally, analysing the data and writing up the results. An outcome of this is our newly updated sea ice cards for training of sea-ice observers on our icebreakers.

2022 – ASPeCt scientists participated in publication of BAMS article, A New Structure for the Sea Ice Essential Climate Variables of the Global Climate Observing System, Lavergne and Kern et al. (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-21-0227.1

2022 – Just initiated: An information gathering exercise aimed at developing a community-owned pipeline from observational methods → protocols → meta data (→ data). This includes standardization of observation protocols and development of best practices. The outcomes of these are scheduled to be discussed at a proposed ASPeCt workshop at the IGS sea ice meeting in Bremerhaven, in June 2023.

Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at Sea-Ice Interfaces (BEPSII) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group

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

Summary of activities from 2020-22

• Following detailed evaluations, data collations, observation and model studies, BEPSII applied its collective expertise to compile several policy relevant community science papers, two of which were published in 2020. In 2021, a synthesis of climate change impacts on sea-iceecosystems and associated ecosystem services was published in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (Steiner et al. 2021). The main outcomes of the three publications have been compiled into a policy brief, which has been circulated widely and received significant international attention including at the COP26 Cryosphere Pavilion. (see below for references)
• The 2021 synthesis of the sea-ice ecosystem and associated ecosystem services highlights that: (1)The sea-ice ecosystem supports all four ecosystem service categories; (2) sea-ice ecosystems meet the criteria for ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs); (3) global emissions driving climate change are directly linked to the demise of sea-ice ecosystems and its ecosystem services; and (4). the sea-ice ecosystem deserves specific attention in the evaluation of marine protected area planning. The ongoing changes in the polar regions have extreme impacts on sea-ice ecosystems and associated ecosystem services. While the response of sea-ice associated primary production to environmental change is regionally variable, the effect on ice-associated mammals and birds are predominantly negative, subsequently impacting human harvesting and cultural services in both polar regions. Conservation can help protect some species and functions. However, the key mitigation measure is a reduction in carbon emissions.
• A joint BEPSII-CATCH (Cryosphere and Atmospheric Chemistry) SCOR working group was launched in November 2021 (SCOR-WG 163: CIce2Clouds: Coupling of ocean-ice-atmosphere processes: from sea-Ice biogeochemistry to aerosols and Clouds). The new WG aims to better link the communities and help improve understanding and model parameterizations of biogeochemical processes in sea-ice regions, which may impact the local and global climate and are insufficiently represented in current earth system models.
• In February/March 2021, a small sea ice inter-comparison experiment for CO₂ flux took place in Saroma-ko Lagoon, Hokkaido Japan. Nomura et al. compared the CO₂ flux data measured by the different type of chambers. In addition, equipment such as air–sea ice CO₂/CH₄ flux chambers and an eddy covariance system, a trace metal analyzer, and a pump and sampler for environmental DNA were tested.
• A major field inter-comparison experiment was conducted in May 2022 at CHARS, Cambridge Bay, Canada. This experiment lasted 6 weeks and included more than 15 scientists and examined methods for measuring gas fluxes, gas concentrations, primary production, and biomass. This experiment was the last intercomparison experiment carried out by the ECV-Ice SCOR working group.
• The May 2022 inter-comparison experiment was associated with the BEPSII field school, to efficiently make use of scientists/teachers available for both activities. The field school was extremely successful. Although we got the green light only 3 months before the event, over 100 students and Early Career Researchers (ECRs) applied for the 30 places available.
• Both in 2020 and 2021, the annual BEPSII meetings were held online. Various discussion sessions, science presentations and specific ECR sessions were organized in an around-the-world set-up. These were well received, but there was also a general feeling that an in-person meeting every now and then is needed to stimulate creativity and collaboration. It was decided for the future to try to organize in-person meetings every second year in association with a relevant science meeting and use the funds for an ECR exchange program in alternate years.
• In 2020, a new BEPSII Special Feature of Elementa Science of the Anthropocene was opened: Insights into Biogeochemical Exchange Processes at Sea Ice Interfaces (BEPSII-2). Currently 8 papers have been published within this feature.

Connecting Geophysics with Geology (CGG) 2020-22 Report

Action Group of the Geosciences Group

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

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The past two years have been strongly influenced by the pandemic, which has resulted in considerable delays and in part cancellation of field activities.

• BGR expedition “GANOVEX XIV-BOOST” with high-resolution aeromagnetic survey and geological field work in northern Victoria Land successfully conducted.
• Planned sampling/analyses of ice-rafted debris/moraine material off/in Dronning Maud Land could not be conducted due to the pandemic. Instead, sedimentary rocks of the critical Shackleton Range were targeted, by sampling material taken during previous expeditions by BGR and stored in the German National Polar Sample Archive (NAPA) in Berlin. Mineral separation and analyses in progress.
• Contribution to the new Gondwana Map (Antarctic part), editor R. Schmitt, Rio de Janeiro. The new Gondwana map is almost finalised. Last issues with respect to Antarctica addressed particularly the reconstruction of the Antarctic microblocks which still remain to be solved.
• An SRP planning meeting in Bergen, Norway, originally planned for early 2021, had to be postponed due to the pandemic. We now plan to meet in autumn 2022 or 2023 either in Bergen, Hannover or Trieste.
• A proposal for new aerogeophysical surveys of Princess Elizabeth Land in East Antarctica (GEOEAIS), led by India & UK, was submitted in 2020. However, NERC funding was not awarded in 2021. Whether to resubmit it, or to pursue alternative collaboration with China who have also collected new datasets in the study area will be further considered at the next planning meeting.
• 4D Antarctica geophysical interpretation and modelling efforts to help constrain crustal and lithosphere structure and its influence on Antarctic geothermal heat flux heterogeneity has progressed, despite major restrictions in international collaborative visits and work. The results so far are reported in 4 new papers (see list in the report). These activities are planned to continue at least till Spring 2023.
• Contributions to the new International Lithosphere Programme on East Antarctica (2020-2025) have been made via presentations on East Antarctica delivered at AGU 2020 & AGU 2021 and EGU 2021 and EGU 2022.
• A conference session on Antarctic and Arctic lithosphere structure and evolution was organized at AGU Fall Meeting 2020 (lead convenor Ferraccioli). It was successful, despite severe limitations related to the pandemic that imposed virtual only attendance. However, we decided not to propose other sessions until safer on-site conference attendance becomes more viable (e.g. EGU 2023 or AGU 2023).

Expert Group on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics (EG-ABI) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Ben Raymond (Australia), Anton Van de Putte (Belgium), Zephyr Sylvester (USA), and the EG-ABI core group

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The Expert Group on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics was formed in 2012, and its initial 8-year term extended in 2020 for two years to 2022. The extension was accompanied by a change in leadership (office-holders and new core group members) and a refocusing of the group’s mission and terms of reference towards tools and resources for data access, integration, analysis, and synthesis, and enabling the community to produce and utilize those resources. In March 2021 we held an online information session and established a mailing list.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenge for our group, as of course it was for everyone. Nevertheless, we collectively managed some good outcomes with collaborations on various projects (see projects and publications below), and continued development of tools, primarily R packages for data access, analysis, and visualization.

In the latter part of 2022 we will look to continue our current projects and also help the community re-establish links post-pandemic. We will use EG-ABI funds to offer some small travel bursaries and a data-visualisation (or similar) competition with some small prizes. These will be focused on, but not exclusive to, early-career researchers and those from countries with developing Antarctic programs.

Expert Group on Birds and Marine Mammals (EG-BAMM) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Life Science Group

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

Summary of activities from 2020-22

EG-BAMM has been in existence for more than 10 years, after being reviewed and renewed by the SCAR delegates in 2017. The group maintained several of its usual activities in 2020 and 2021, participating in several international fora, such as CCAMLR and SOOS, as well as being part of several SCAR programmes, most notably SCATS, AntEco and AnT-ERA. However, the COVID19 situation has also curtailed several activities, most notably delaying the implantation of three new working groups (cetaceans, functional responses and demography), but we anticipate these will begin in 2022.

This will be the last year that Hindell and Ropert-Coudert will be CO and Secretary. Their replacements have been nominated and, after approval from the SCAR Delegates, will commence at the OSC in 2022.

The new leadership team is:

• Chief Officer, Associate Professor Michelle La Rue, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Deputy Chief Officer, Dr Ryan Reisinger, University of Southampton, UK
• Secretary, Manuela Bassoi, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Earth Observation Action Group (EOAG) 2020-22 Report

Action Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Anna Hogg (UK)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

With Covid it hasn’t been possible to meet as usual, so plans have been much slower as a result. There isn’t budget in the AG for the committee to travel, so we were relying on travel to existing meetings that could bolt a side meeting onto. As we previously reported the first major opportunity to hold a SCAR wide EOAG meeting was at the Hobart meeting that was cancelled due to coronavirus. It was a real blow not to be able to have a full EOAG meeting during this event.

The need for EOAG has grown since the pandemic as other space agency EO acquisition coordination groups have also not been able to meet since the pandemic. Anna discussed a month ago with the new Earth Sciences Director at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) that there would be a great opportunity to combine the SCAR EOAG into a new international working group (which would be funded by ISSI for a 3 year period). They were very supportive of this as the director was previously a senior colleague at the European Space Agency (ESA) with links to other space agencies world-wide. The application period for new working group proposals is October 2022. This would be a tremendous outcome for SCAR if the application is successful as it will enable us to leverage the political commitment that SCAR has to bring international scientists together to tackle important topics, with the funding and impartiality that ISSI provides. Anna Hogg will lead this application this year (2022).

Forum for Research into Ice Shelf Processes (FRISP) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Adrian Jenkins (UK)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

FRISP exists to promote inter-disciplinary scientific research into the interactions between the Earth’s ice sheets and oceans. To achieve that, FRISP organises an annual international workshop that is open to anyone working on relevant topics.

That activity has been particularly badly affected by the global pandemic and the resulting restrictions on international travel and personal contact. In early 2020 plans were already in place for a workshop in Potsdam, Germany, to be held in June 2020. The initial response to the global lockdown was to postpone the in-person meeting until June 2021 and run a virtual event in June 2020. As it became clear that significant travel restrictions would likely still be in place in mid-2021, the in-person meeting was eventually cancelled altogether.

The 2020 virtual meeting was hosted by PIK, Potsdam, Germany, and consisted of four separate sessions over a two-week period. Sessions were scheduled on different days and at different times to accommodate differing time zones. There were over 50 presentations and a number of online discussion sessions.

Although the format worked well, by mid-2021 enthusiasm for online meetings was waning, so the decision was taken to wait until an in-person meeting could be organised. First steps have been taken to host the next workshop in the North-East of England in September 2022.

GRAPE (GNSS Research and Application for Polar Environment) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences and Physical Sciences Groups

Report Author(s): Giorgiana De Franceschi (Italy) and Nicolas Bergeot (Belgium)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

• Organization of the GRAPE online workshop. The workshop took place on 1-3 July 2020, 13:00-15:00 GMT each day, via Google Meet. The workshop registration was free of charge. The workshop received about 100 registrations. On the average about 70 colleagues from all over the world participated to the workshop along the three days, many of them had the possibility to interact actively by chat and by microphone. Several Early Career Researchers/Students followed the workshop as well. The full report on the workshop is available.
• Publication of the white paper “Polar atmosphere and Geospace: Present knowledge, infrastructures and future research directions”, September 2020, as SCAR Bulletin 203.
• Organization of the scientific session “GHJ: The polar environment and geospacer” in the frame of the URSI General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, (Rome, 28 August-4 September 2021)
• Maintenance and updating of the GRAPE web.
• Coordination of international efforts for drafting the new PPG RESOURCE (renamed AGATA), last submission June 2, 2022.
• Coordination of activity for a review paper titled ”Review of environmental monitoring by means of radio waves in the (Ant)Arctic: from atmosphere to geospacer” related to GRAPE/RESOURCE, submitted to Surveys in Geophysics in March 2022, and accepted in June 2022 for publication with minor revisions.
• Coordination for data management and archive from Arctic and Antarctic experimental infrastructures of GRAPE interest.
• Outreaches activities, carried out at national level.

International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Geosciences Group

Report Author: Boris Dorschel (Germany)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The main achievement during the reporting period was the publication of the second version of IBCSO in the Scientific Data. All associated data set (e.g. a digital chart, digital terrain models with and without the Antarctic ice sheet and an RGB version of the map) are publically available for download. Furthermore, IBCSO as part of the Nippon Foundation – GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project provided the area south of 50°S for the General Bathymetric chart of the Oceans (GEBCO) grid releases 2020, 2021 and 2022.

In parallel, bathymetric data sets were continuously added to the IBCSO database. New data were acquired during the expeditions PS124 and PS128 with RV Polarstern.

IBCSO / Seabed 2030 Regional Centre – Southern Ocean held the 2021 Arctic Antarctic North Pacific Mapping Meeting (virtual) attended the 2022 Arctic Antarctic North Pacific Mapping Meeting in person in Stockholm Sweden, 21 – 24 March 2022. Progress of IBCSO was reported at the 18^th Hydrographic Commission on Antarctica Conference, Berlin Germany 24 – 26 May 2022.

Now, work on IBCSO v3 is ongoing.

Input Pathways of Persistent Organic Pollutants to Antarctica (ImPACT-AG) 2020-22 Report

Action Group of the Life Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Susan Bengtson Nash (Australia)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

1. ImPACT have continued to hold twice yearly whole WG and task-specific meetings. Today we have 36 members representing from 18 countries.
2. ImPACT commenced their activities by collating two databases, (i) A sample database that new projects could refer to for circum-polar collaboration and scope, and (ii) An active projects database that members may use to navigate Antarctic access and samples via collaborators.
3. In 2021 ImPACT produced a white paper, a horizon scan of chemical pollution research needs in the Antarctic context, for the 2021 Antarctic Treaty Meetings. This article is in preparation as a Perspective paper for the Lancet Planetary Health.
4. Supplementary SCAR funding was secured to create an interactive pollution mapping tool in collaboration with EG-ABI (Expert Group on Antarctic Biodiversity Informatics). The supplementary funding secured the literature review and data entry for all POP literature and led to a collaboration with the PLASTICS group to commence data entry for plastics also. The map is available for viewing at: https://aad.aad-science.cloud.edu.au/app/sopopp/
5. In line with the goals of ImPACT to scaffold towards an Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AnMAP) body, modelled on the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, UN endorsement of AnMAP as an Ocean Decade Activity was secured.
6. Further submissions resulting from the January, 2022 “ACT Now – Legacy and Emerging Contaminants in Polar Regions” workshop were made to the Antarctic Treaty CEP meetings in Berlin, and ImPACT have been asked to respond to these submissions, reporting on AnMAP activities.
7. ImPACT will host the 2022 SCAR Open Science Conference Session “Chemicals of Emerging Antarctic Concern; A rising tide in a warming climate.”
8. An outcome of the Antarctic Treaty Meetings feed-back was a suggestion of hosting a multiple stakeholder workshop. This activity is planned for late 2022.

Discussion continues on the logical placement of AnMAP within the SCAR structure.

International Partnership in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Science Group

Report Author(s): Tas van Ommen (Australia); Hubertus Fischer (Switzerland)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

Implementing and developing the IPICS science plan: Further progress has been made in the implementation of Oldest Ice core drillings in Antarctica with the goal to retrieve an ice core reaching back in time 1.5 Myr, i.e., across the Mid Pleistocene Transition. Several national projects have now been started and the US-NSF granted approved the Centre for Oldest Ice Explorations (COLDEX), which will enable targeted large-scale oldest ice activities. The oldest ice core drilling already started within the European Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice project at Little Dome C. Australia’s Oldest Ice project has selected a site at little Dome C approximately 5 km from the Beyond EPICA site, although planned pilot work onsite was not achieved due to logistical challenges and COVID. Delays in all national projects are to be expected, given the COVID situation. A new IPICS White paper has been added in March 2021 on the PAGES webpage laying out the role of ice-core sciences in the understanding of past and present ice flow.

Capacity Building: In 2021 the first term of the two IPICS chairs came to an end. Both chairs were elected for another 4-year term using an online process. Changes were made to the IPICS Steering Committee composition in 2021 with Kathleen Wendt elected as the new ICYS (the ice core early career research network) representative on the IPICS SC and Francisco Fernandoy replacing Fabrice Lambert as national representative of Chile.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the IPICS Open Science Conference and the ICYS Early Career Researcher (ECR) workshop in Crans Montana, Switzerland, was postponed again to October 2022. The conference will definitely take place in 2022 and abstract submission has closed with more than 280 abstracts received. All funders and partners (including PAGES) kindly agreed to extend their commitment into 2022. The conference will be also followed by joint special issue in The Cryosphere and Climate of the Past. The scientific exchange gap that opened up by this COVID-19 delay was filled most successfully by an online seminar organized by ICYS, the IPICS young scientist organization. The model of this seminar series utilizes the concept of back-on-back presentations of a senior scientist (outlining the history and larger picture) and early-stage researchers (showing latest results); a format that was extremely well received by the audience and regularly draws an audience of 30-50 persons world-wide.

Ice Sheet Mass Balance and Sea Level (ISMASS) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Science Group

Report Author(s): Frank Pattyn (Belgium), Heiko Goelzer (Norway), Catherine Ritz (France), Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir (Iceland) and Edward Hanna (UK).

Summary of activities from 2020-22

ISMASS is dedicated to both Arctic and Antarctic science and is supported by SCAR, CliC, and IASC. The following information does not directly concern Antarctica but Greenland. However, the tools are common for both ice sheets. ISMASS promoted an intercomparison project (SMBMIP, also in the framework of ISMIP6) which is being led by Dr. Xavier Fettweis (University of Liege, Belgium) and has recently evaluated regional climate model (RCM), positive degree day (PDD) and global climate model (GCM) estimates of surface mass balance (SMB) for the Greenland Ice Sheet, with the goal of forcing ice sheet models with reconciled information from SMB models. The results are published in The Cryosphere: Fettweis, X. et al.: GrSMBMIP: intercomparison of the modelled 1980–2012 surface mass balance over the Greenland Ice Sheet, The Cryosphere, 14, 3935–3958, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-3935-2020, 2020.

Virtual EGU 2021 session on ice sheet mass balance and sea-level. ISMASS has organized a joint session with ISMIP6 titled “Integrating models and observations for the estimation of ice sheet mass balance and sea level, incorporating ISMASS/ISMIP6” at vEGU21: Gather Online, 19–30 April 2021.

Hybrid EGU 2022 session on ice sheet mass balance and sea-level. ISMASS organized a joint session with ISMIP6 titled “Ice sheet mass balance and sea level: ISMASS/ISMIP6 and beyond” at the General Assembly 2022, 23–27 May 2022.

The Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6 (ISMIP6), with ISMASS chair Heiko Goelzer taking a leading role in the Greenland projections, has delivered key publications that formed an important basis for the latest IPCC assessment report (AR6) for both the Greenland an Antarctic ice sheets (see publication list)

In connection with Cryosphere 2022, the ISMASS Consortium organises a special session on recent and future ice-sheet changes (Ice sheets: weather versus climate) within the IGS Symposium to be held in Reykjavik in August 2022. This 1.5-day workshop will explore the degree to which short-term fluctuations and extreme events in the ice sheets (both Greenland and Antarctica) in the last two decades reflect their longer-term evolution and response to ongoing climate change. The workshop is sponsored by CliC, IASC and SCAR.

The 2022 allocated budget of 6350 USD is used for the ISMASS workshop in Reykjavik, especially to accommodate early career researchers to attend the meeting.

Key challenge was the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which reduced ISMASS meeting activities during this reporting period.

Joint Expert Group on Human Biology and Medicine 2020-2022 Report

Expert Group of the Life Sciences Group

Report Author(s): Anne Hicks (UK), Giichiro Ohno (Japan), Nathalie Pattyn (Belgium)

Summary of activities from 2020-2022

1. Update of the JEGHBM-EG webpage on the SCAR website, with general access for membership and select access for licensed clinical providers.
2. JEGHBM activity was dominated addressing the COVID 19 pandemic both for National Antarctic Programs and international communities. Report available to membership of JEGHBM members and affiliated groups on JEGHBM webpages and COMNAP website members area.
3. SCAR 2022 special program addressing medicine in extreme environments from Antarctica to Outer Space. Antarctic expeditioners and Spaceflight – Lessons learned in health and medicine off the grid. Co-convenors Marc Shepanek and Nathalie Pattyn. Presentations included: medicine, behavioral medicine and health, extended reality technology, analog definition, oral microbiome and inflammatory markers.

Key challenges faced: APT IQ NOW
A – Avoid bringing COVID 19 to Antarctica.
P – Prevent the transmission of COVID 19 if it is transported to Antarctica.
T – Treat COVID 19 in Antarctica with most current information possible.
I – Isolation processes and procedures, including transport defined.
Q – Quarantine as necessary.
N – National program cooperative preparations facilitated in advance.
O – Optimize communication between national programs clinical resources.
W – Work-up continuously updated guidance for the International Antarctic community to address challenges from COVID 19.

JEGHBM members are in dialogue with their COMNAP operational partners to support decisions with respect to COVID-19 and ensuring that science activities are disturbed as little as possible within the significant considerations of COVID related challenges. JEGHBM will be in communication with ATCM.

Expert Group on Operational Meteorology in the Antarctic (OpMet) 2020-22 Report

Expert Group of the Physical Sciences Group

Report Author: Steve Colwell (UK)

Summary of activities from 2020-22

The group continues to maintain webpages that are updated on a weekly basis with news, information and data monitoring at https://legacy.bas.ac.uk/met/jds/met/SCAR_oma.htm

Data is updated on a monthly basis on the MET-READER website.

An archive of high-resolution radiosonde data collected during the Special Observing Period (SOP) of the Year of Polar Predication – Southern Hemisphere (YOPP-SH) has been created at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), this can be found at https://legacy.bas.ac.uk/met/READER/YOPP-SH/

A second winter campaign for the YOPP-SH is taking place between mid-April and mid-August 2022 and many members of the OpMet group are involved in this and data from these flights will be added to the YOPP-SH archive once the campaign has finished.