Documents

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 01: Meeting Agenda

Agenda Item: all
Person Responsible: Directors / Secretariat
Report Authors: Directors

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 02: Annotated Agenda and Timetable

Agenda Item: all
Person Responsible: Directors / Secretariat
Report Authors: Directors / Secretariat

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 03: List of papers

Agenda Item: all
Person Responsible: Directors / Secretariat
Report Authors: Secretariat

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 04: Luxembourg – application for Associate Membership

Agenda Item: 2.1.1
Person Responsible: Luxembourg representative
Report Authors: Marc Schiltz and staff at Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR)

Summary

This paper is an application for Associate Membership of SCAR by Luxembourg through the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), which is a member of the International Science.

The letter of application is provided, along with an annex on scientific work undertaken, current collaborations and planned participation by Luxembourg.

Recommendations

The Delegates consider the application of Luxembourg for Associate Membership of SCAR.

Budget Implications

The Associate Membership fee of $7,000 would be an additional annual positive contribution to SCAR’s budget.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 06: SCAR Membership, current and potential members, and status of membership arrears

Agenda Item: 2.3
Person Responsible: Jefferson Simões
Report Authors: Jefferson Simões, Rosemary Nash and Eoghan Griffin

Summary

The membership of SCAR currently comprises 45 National Members and 9 Union Members. Following the conversations maintained in the last couple of years, 2 new countries have put applications together for this Delegates meeting to join SCAR. Increasing the membership of SCAR has obvious advantages, both by engaging more countries in Antarctic Science and SCAR as well as increasing SCAR revenue.

Recommendations

With regard to current membership, those associate members that have already consolidated Antarctic research activities should be encouraged to become full members.

Contact with potential future members of SCAR should continue, including those contacted before as well as other potential interested countries.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 08: Near-term Variability and Prediction of the Antarctic Climate System (AntClimNow)

Agenda Item: 4.1.1
Person Responsible: Tom Bracegirdle
Report Authors: Tom Bracegirdle and Ilana Wainer

Summary

The Antarctic climate system exhibits large variability on annual to multi-decadal timescales, which makes predicting near-term (1-30 years) conditions particularly challenging. The AntClimNow SRP is focussed on quantifying and understanding the recent, current and future near-term state of the Antarctic climate system and impacts and interactions across physical and biological components.

Over the first year and a half the main activities of AntClimNow have been establishing a diverse community of members, planning workshops (taking place mid-late 2022), and refining and implementing core ongoing products/activities. During the first year (2020) a key ECR activity was logo competition which generated a large number of applications and helped to foster early awareness of AntClimNow. To promote scientific discussion an online talk series was established and slowly expanded from an initial Steering Committee focus to become a more open community-wide initiative. A launch and planning event in June 2021 set the stage for a wide range of activities that are taking place in 2022. These include:

• Continuation of the AntClimNow science talk series.
• Two scientific workshops
• Support of an Antarctic-focussed session at an international conference
• An Antarctic data stewardship and development scheme.
• Formulation and initial drafting of core ongoing AntClimNow products/activities, for example the annual science update and Antarctic Climate Indicators.

Details of which are provided in this report.

Spending was low during 2021 both due to Covid-19 impacts and lead time for event planning. In 2022 this has balanced out with the majority of the 2021 and 2022 allocated budget gratefully used for the above-listed activities.

The AntClimNow Steering Committee would like to thank SCAR for the excellent support provided and the opportunity to develop and implement such an exciting international research programme.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 09: Integrated Science to Inform Antarctic and Southern Ocean Conservation (Ant-ICON)

Agenda Item: 4.1.2
Person Responsible: Mercedes Santos
Report Authors: Mercedes Santos, Daniela Liggett, Aleks Terauds, Bettine van Vuuren, Alvaro Soutullo, Jilda Caccavo, Kevin A. Hughes, Jasmine Lee, Andrew Lowther, Daniela Liggett, Adrian Howkins, Stephen Chignell, Natasha Gardiner, Neil Gilbert and Hyoung Chul Shin

Summary

Focussing on key areas of interest to the CEP and SC-CAMLR, Ant-ICON aims to contribute transdisciplinary policy-relevant research that (a) examines the current state and future projections of Antarctic ecosystems, species and functions, (b) studies human activities in terms of their impact, (c) explores socio-ecological connectivity and alternative approaches to Antarctic and Southern Ocean conservation, and (d) offers a synthesis of key research results for the purposes of environmental governance and policy development.

Since 2021, Ant-ICON has established a functioning administrative structure with a Steering Committee consisting of the leads and co-leads of the individual research themes, and have had regular meetings to ensure the sharing of information and collaboration in the organisation of Ant-ICON activities. The latter included a series of community workshops and the development of a fellowship scheme to build capacity and increase the policy literacy of ECRs. Ant-ICON has also contributed policy papers to the 2022 ATCM and has had a range of cutting-edge research outputs. Ant-ICON has had a prominent presence at the SCAR OSC 2022, and plans to hold a cross-theme workshop in 2023.

We request that the Delegates approve a leadership change (which has already been approved by the SCAR Executive), with Aleks Terauds stepping down as one of the Chief Officers and Daniela Liggett stepping into this role.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 10: INStabilities and Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT)

Agenda Item: 4.1.3
Person Responsible: Tim Naish
Report Authors: Tim Naish, Florence Colleoni, Alessandro Silvano, Liz Thomas, Alex Simms, Andrew Lloyd, Richard Levy and Sophie Norwicki

Summary

INStabilities & Thresholds in ANTarctica (INSTANT) strategic research programme addresses – the question of Antarctica’s uncertain contribution to sea-level change, by using a multidisciplinary Earth systems approach combining geoscience, physical sciences, biological and social sciences to improve understanding of the interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, solid Earth and the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS). It aims at ensuring effective communication on this topic with stakeholders. Therefore, it is sponsored by all 3 Science Standing Groups and works closely with SC-ATS and SC-HASS.

To achieve its goals, INSTANT with its internal SCAR and external partners in the World Climate Research Programme (e.g. CLiC¹, CLiVAR²), focuses on the poorly understood processes and feedbacks that influenced ice-sheets in the past, are influencing observed ice sheet changes, and will influence Antarctica’s contribution to future global sea-level change. (see Fig. 1). The key outcomes are reconstructions of past and projections of future ice mass changes, with reduced uncertainties due to an improved knowledge of rate-determining instabilities and irreversible thresholds. These are shared with various stakeholder groups. The ice sheet projections are being integrated into probabilistic sea-level projection frameworks for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Report 6 (AR6) shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs)

Key contributions of INSTANT are at the interface of science and policy, and involve engagement between earth system scientists, social scientists, practitioners, decision-makers, planners and publics. Stakeholder engagement and science communication plays an important role in this SRP, especially in converting science data into usable climate information that helps understanding of risk and uncertainty. INSTANT is providing scientific evidence to assess the effectiveness of, and risks associated with, climate change mitigation pathways (e.g., UNFCCC³ Paris Agreement). This evidence is guiding adaptation approaches required to avoid the worst impacts, such as coastal flooding and erosion, groundwater inundation and salinization, habitat loss and large-scale human migration. The impacts of sea-level and ice sheet change around Antarctica are also of critical interest to CCAMLR⁴, COMNAP⁵ and Antarctic Treaty System parties, as they will have profound implications for key Antarctic stakeholder groups including national programme operations, tourism and fisheries.

Following a highly successful online kick off meeting in February 2021 (attended by 200 participants), INSTANT has formed and is now up and running. The 3 themes, and 15 subcommittees within, have also held their own virtual kick-off meetings, developed workplans, and have started activities. The steering committee which is made up of representatives of other key SCAR groups and external partners has meet 3 times. Our official memberships has reached 300 from 31 countries, with 30% identifying as ECR. Our values of inclusiveness, diversity, and interdisciplinarity are at the forefront of our goal of facilitating excellent and impactful science. Figure 2 highlights a timeline of INSTANT activities over the last 2 years emphasising: (1) internal-operational activities, (2) SCAR internal collaborative activities, (3) external collaborative activities and (4) products and outputs.

¹ Cryosphere in a Changing Climate core research programme of WCRP
² Climate Variability core research programme of WCRP
³ UNFCCC = United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
⁴ CCAMLR = Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resource
⁵ COMNAP = Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programs

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 11: Geosciences Group (SG-GS)

Agenda Item: 4.2.1
Person Responsible: Jesús Galindo-Zaldívar
Report Authors: Jesús Galindo-Zaldívar, Naresh C. Pant and Marcelo Leppe

Summary

This report includes the activities of Geosciences Group in a setting where the global COVID19 pandemic has delayed the programmed activities. Geosciences Group included seven expert groups and three action groups, four of them cross-disciplinary. EG / AG continue their activities and do not have any major issue. Please peruse details of their activities in Progress reports submitted by each EG / AG.

GSG summary and recommendations following the Business Meeting on 29 July 2022:

1. The Geological Heritage and Geoconservation AG has closed after successfully completing the objectives. Their activities are acknowledged.
2. GEOCON EG, ICEPRO AG has been approved and RINGS AG is being supported. Remaining AG / EG of the Geosciences Group are recommended for continuation.
3. Need to continue in-situ geodetic and geophysical measurements in Antarctica, especially GNSS, to secure foundation of reference frame and enable critical applications in geodynamics, geophysics, glaciology and atmospheric sciences.
4. Need to collect bathymetric and other geophysical data on the way to and from Antarctica and in transit in order to share the data with all nations to improve the Southern Ocean bathymetry map and geophysical dataset for everybody’s use.
5. Support to Chile to organize ISAES2025.
6. Approve a budget of $49.000 for 2023 and 2024 and reallocate the unexpended budget of the groups due to the pandemic setting in order to continue their activities.
7. Support to the elected GSG steering committee (Jesús Galindo-Zaldivar, chief officer; Naresh C. Pant, deputy chief officer; Laura De Santis, secretary) and acknowledge M. Leppe (former secretary, who has not applied for re-election).

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 12: Life Sciences Group (SG-LS)

Agenda Item: 4.2.2
Person Responsible: Yan Ropert-Coudert
Report Authors: Yan Ropert-Coudert, Marc Shepanek and Ian McDonald

Summary

Over the last 2 years the Life Sciences group has done work to help support the action and expert groups during this period of significant COVID disruption, including the reallocation of funding to help support BEPSII to fund and run a summer school, during the recent Arctic summer in Canada, as well as to help ImPACT develop an interactive map for chemical pollution in Antarctica.

During this period the leadership of the group have all come to the ends of their terms of office and as such a new leadership team was elected during the recent business meeting: Ian McDonald (CO – NZ), Natalie Pattyn (Deputy CO – Belgium/JEGHBM) and Byron Adams (Secretary – USA).

A number of groups have requested extensions: Extension of expert group EG-ABI for 6 years; Extension of action group PLASTICS for 2 years; Extension of action group ImPACT for 1 year, with unanimous approval from all members present given for all extensions. SKAG requested to become an expert group (SKEG) and this also received unanimous approval from all members present.

The group also has a proposal to formalize as a rule in the “Rules of Procedure for SCAR Subsidiary Bodies” that the LS Deputy CO is a member of JEGHBM. This would require a recommendation to the Delegates for rewording the language in section 3.4.1. as follows: “The three officers should be from different scientific disciplines within the overall discipline of the SG, and from different regions. The Deputy Chief Officer of Life Sciences will be a member of JEGHBM, if nominee available. Appointments must be approved by the Meeting of Delegates”. This proposal received unanimous approval from all members present.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 13: Physical Sciences Group (SG-PS)

Agenda Item: 4.2.3
Person Responsible: David Bromwich
Report Authors: David Bromwich, Adriana Gulisano and Steven Colwell

Summary

Covid-19 negatively impacted in a big way the activities of all Action Groups (AGs) and Expert Groups (EGs) in 2020-2022.

AntArchitecture AG (joint with GS) has made steady progress on documenting the internal layering especially of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

ANTOS EG (joint with LS and GS) has identified a supplier for three scalable monitoring systems for both near-shore and terrestrial environments, and these are starting to be deployed. ANTOS is also involved in pursuing major philanthropic funding.

ASPeCt EG has continued its efforts in collecting ship-based observations of the Antarctic sea ice zone.

GRAPE EG (joint with GS) developed a Proposal Planning Group.

IPICS EG has made major progress in acquiring oldest ice samples from Antarctica via its close association with the US-NSF approved the Centre for Oldest Ice Explorations (COLDEX), which will enable targeted large-scale oldest ice activities.

ISMASS EG has continued with meetings and projects dealing with the mass balance of both Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets.

RINGS AG has been very active with meetings and publications to get the AG up and running. It only started in March 2021.

SORP EG members are leading a group of 10+ scientists that are creating a protocol and running first exemplary model experiments for a community-wide Southern Ocean Freshwater release experiment InitiAtive (SOFIA) focusing on a model intercomparison for the ocean and climate response to enhanced freshwater release from Antarctica.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 14: Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica Expert Group (AAA)

Agenda Item: 4.3.1
Person Responsible: Tony Travouillon
Report Authors: Tony Travouillon and Adriana María Gulisano

Summary

We organized in virtual format the 6th Workshop of the SCAR Astronomy & Astrophysics from Antarctica (AAA) a semi-yearly conference dedicated to Astronomy in Antarctica. This meeting aimed to bring together all the key players in Antarctic astronomy to conclude the 2015 – 2018 Implementation Plan and to coordinate future strategies and collaborations. In 2022, our involvement in the International Astronomical Union remains and we will be able to represent AAA with a booth presence. We also provided our endorsement and support to other related scientific workshop such as the 2021 Girls and Women in science day and the Icecube science workshop in January 2021.

SCAR open science session on Astronomy and upper atmosphere research. The session was allocated three time slots which were over subscribed (talks limited to 10mn including questions). Attendance averaging 50 participants at any given time. The session was a forum to learn about the science potential of these regions, and techniques for conducting research in extreme environments including ground-based and balloon borne experiments. There were talks from early career scientists and nations who have recently joined SCAR and IASC as associate members, along with presentations from more established researchers to provide opportunities for mentoring and building collaborations to leverage the investment in scientific infrastructure in the Polar Regions. Talks involving polar research in Astronomy and Astrophysics were also presented.

AAA was actively represented at the IAU general assembly including a dedicated booth to inform the community about the role of SCAR and AAA. Antarctic astronomy projects taking place in Antarctica were highlighted in all forums. Participation in outreach activities organized by venue.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 15: Bedmap3 Action Group

Agenda Item: 4.3.2
Person Responsible: Peter Fretwell
Report Authors: Peter Fretwell

Summary

Since the group was set up in 2019, there has been agreement on a standardized list of attributes and metadata needed for geophysical data for incorporation into Bedmap3 and the agreement from all international parties on the FAIR sharing of data.

The geophysical data collection and standardization phase is now complete and publication of the dataset will follow soon. The analysis of the bed topography model is also ongoing and should be complete in the next few months.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 16: Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS)

Agenda Item: 4.3.3
Person Responsible: Alyce Hancock
Report Authors: Alyce Hancock, Eileen Hofmann and Mike Williams

Summary

In August 2021 SOOS celebrated its 10-year anniversary of the establishment of the International Project Office in Hobart, Australia. During this first decade, SOOS facilitated major changes in data collection coordination and in finding and accessing existing observations of the Southern Ocean. These changes provided a foundation for the development of a new SOOS 2021-2025 Science and Implementation Plan, which, after extensive review, was approved by our sponsors, SCOR and SCAR, in June 2022.

The International Project Office staff has undergone changes during the past year. Dr. Louise Newman departed in late 2021, after 10 years as the SOOS Executive Officer, for a new position. Dr. Alyce Hancock took on the role of Executive Officer after serving as the SOOS Science and Communication Officer. Dr. Julia Bach joined SOOS in late 2021 as the new Science and Communication Officer. Dr. Pip Bricher, SOOS Data Officer for 7 years, left in March 2022 for a new position. Dr. Imogen Jones joined SOOS as the new Data Officer in May 2022. 

SOOS continues to partner with polar organisations to make data more findable and accessible. Our data portal, SOOSmap, has been undergoing continued development and version 2 will be released in the August 2022. DueSouth, which SOOS developed to help researchers find future logistical opportunities, has been further developed in partnership with the European Polar Board and is now part of Polardex which was launched in April 2022.

SOOS took a lead role in the organisation of a side-event, “Antarctic Marine Ecosystems Under Pressure”, at the 26^th United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK in October 2021. SOOS also participated in workshop and webinar related to development of the United Nations Ocean Decade Southern Ocean Action Plan. In 2022, SOOS was represented at the UN Ocean Conference and co-convened a virtual side event “From the Southern Ocean to the Arctic – a call to action via the UN Ocean Decade”.

The impacts of COVID on international travel prevented in-person meetings in 2021. However, SOOS maintained an active schedule of virtual meetings that included six Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meetings (two in 2021 and quarterly through 2022), four Data Management Sub-Committee (DMSC) meetings (two each year), the SOOS 10-year celebration, the 2nd Southern Ocean UN Ocean Decade Regional Workshop, Polar Data Forum IV, ten polar to global online data hacks, two AUV Task Team meeting (one each year) and a UN Ocean Decade Satellite Session “More Seats at the Table – Increasing Representation in the Marine Sciences”. Two of SOOS’s working groups commenced webinar series, the Southern Ocean Fluxes (SOFLUX) Capability Working Group and the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Sector (ABS) Regional Working Group. In addition, the SOOS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) group meet and continued to guide SOOS in ensuring inclusivity for all representations within SOOS and the community.

Technology is changing and SOOS has recognised this in the formation of a Polar Technologies Task Team. This task team aims to develop a polar technologies group focused on addressing challenges and exploiting synergies in technology targeted at Southern Ocean and Antarctic marine research.

SOOS continued active publication of science papers and reports in 2021 and 2022. This included seven publications, three reports and a new SOOS Data Policy. SOOS endorsed 10 international projects, was represented at over 50 international meetings, workshops and conferences, submitted several proposals for funding in collaboration with other international partners and had a growth in international sponsorship with additional sponsorship support gained from the University of Cape Town’s Marine Biogeochemistry Lab (2021-2022), South Africa and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey Marmara Research Centre Polar Research Institute (2021), Turkey. The local sponsoring partnership continued between the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies – University of Tasmania, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Tasmanian Government (2020-2022). International sponsorship continued from the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat (for 2020-2022), Antarctica New Zealand (agreed annually since 2012), and the agreement with the State Oceanic Administration, China, was completed in 2021.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 17: UN Decade of Ocean Science

Agenda Item: 4.3.4
Person Responsible: Anton Van de Putte
Report Authors: Annemie Janssen, Renuka Badhe, Anton Van de Putte and the Southern Ocean UN Decade Task Force

Summary

In 2017, the United Nations proclaimed a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (hereafter referred to as the UN Ocean Decade) from 2021 until 2030 to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health. This initiative aims to gather ocean stakeholders worldwide to ensure ocean science that creates improved conditions for sustainable development of the world’s oceans.

Since the Southern Ocean community of stakeholders is globally unique in its operation within the Antarctic Treaty System, which is based entirely on scientific understanding and environmental protection, it is imperative to strengthen international collaborations to increase scientific understanding of the Antarctic region. Underlying the UN Ocean Decade is the need for data management to be aligned with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles to achieve the ambitious data objectives of the UN Ocean Decade. The UN Ocean Decade Societal Outcomes align strongly with the remit of the Antarctic Treaty and its Committee for Environmental Protection. The Southern Ocean community therefore recognizes the need to develop and implement a coordinated, international plan.

In 2021-2022 The Southern Ocean Task force worked with various stakeholders to develop a Southern Ocean Decade Action Plan.

This include the organization of an engagement process including the organization of various online meetings. The Southern Ocean Decade Action Plan aims to mobilize the Southern Ocean community and inspire all stakeholders to seek engagement and leverage opportunities to deliver innovative solutions that maintain and foster the unique conditions of the Southern Ocean. Furthermore this plan will inform the UN Decade on the priorities from a Southern Ocean Perspective.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 18: Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Southern Ocean (ICED)

Agenda Item: 4.3.5
Person Responsible: Nadine Johnston
Report Authors: Nadine Johnston and Eugene Murphy

Summary

ICED is a regional programme of IMBeR (Integrated Marine Biosphere Research) and the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) and is a SCAR Co-Sponsored programme. ICED is a multidisciplinary programme examining the response of Southern Ocean ecosystems to natural and anthropogenic change and feedbacks to the Earth System. ICED’s coordinated circumpolar analyses unite a range of stakeholders to understand interactions between climate and ecosystem dynamics and generate scenarios and projections of the impacts of future change to support sustainable governance in this globally important ocean. Key outputs this year have addressed our three Research Challenges (1) Understanding and quantify the state and variability of Southern Ocean ecosystems, (2) Improving scenarios and projections of future Southern Ocean ecosystems at multiple scales, and (3) Informing conservation and sustainable management of Southern Ocean ecosystems. We promote and address these challenges by identifying and undertaking high-priority research, delivering workshops, conference sessions and stakeholder-engagement activities.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 19: Standing Committee on the Humanities and Social Sciences (SC-HASS)

Agenda Item: 5.1
Person Responsible: Peder Roberts
Report Authors: Elizabeth Leane (Australia); Daniela Liggett (NZ); Peder Roberts (Norway)

Summary

SC-HASS adopted a new set of Terms of Reference in 2021 and developed Rules of Procedure, which will be presented separately to the Delegates at this year’s meeting. Cornelia Lüdecke, founder of the History AG that served as the first forerunner of SC-HASS, retired as a co-chief officer in 2021 on the occasion of her retirement from her chair at the University of Hamburg. Her place was taken on an acting basis by Peder Roberts. SC-HASS voted at its 2021 business meeting that a bursary be awarded in Cornelia’s honour to sponsor an ECR’s attendance at the SC-HASS conferences.

SC-HASS sponsored four Action Groups, the activities of which are detailed in the latter part of this report.

SC-HASS successfully held its biennial conference in hybrid format from 18 to 19 November 2021. The conference was hosted by the Polar Cooperation and Research Centre at Kobe University, Japan, under the chairmanship of Akiho Shibata. Under the theme “The Global Antarctic,” the program featured 84 separate oral presentations in addition a well-attended poster session.

SC-HASS led a major report on the impact of COVID-19 on Antarctica research that included six work packages, under the overall leadership of Daniela Liggett. Using a variety of qualitative methods, the project resulted in 25 deliverables (either completed or in progress), including a report to the SCAR delegates.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 20: Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SC-ADM)

Agenda Item: 5.2
Person Responsible: Johnathan Kool
Report Authors: Johnathan Kool

Summary

2020-21

SCADM jointly developed a polar data policy recommended principles document in conjunction with the Arctic Data Community and Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS). The completed principles document is available for viewing at https://zenodo.org/record/5734900#.Yt3OInZBxaQ.

The Antarctic Master Directory portal was re-developed in response to architectural changes made to the Global Change Master Directory by NASA. The re-developed website’s location is https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/portal/amd/search​. SCADM also collectively decided to change the name going forward from the Antarctic Master directory to the Antarctic Metadata directory to better describe the function of the site, and to move away from using terms with connotations of inequality.

2021-22:

SCADM supported and attended the Fourth Polar Data Forum held in the Hague, Netherlands and online in September 2021, with 351 participants from 50 different countries. For details on activities, see https://polar-data-forum.org/.

As part of Polar Data Forum IV, SCADM participated as part of the planning committee, and also offered an award for presentations that related to Antarctic or Southern Ocean data or data management, improved or exemplified FAIR data practices, and favoured Early Career Researchers. Following the event and on the basis of unanimous consent from SCADM members, two teams were awarded the Prize: Alice Fremand and Julien Bodart from the British Antarctic Survey, and Chiara Ripa and Giulio Verazzo from the Istituto di Scienze Polari in Italy. Both teams gave an extended presentation of their work to SCADM, and the initiative was regarded as a successful and productive use of funds to support increased engagement, particularly of early-career researchers.

This principles document developed during 2020-21 was used to revise the SCAR Data Policy. The document went through several rounds of collective revision among SCADM members, and then was submitted to the SCAR Executive Committee. The document was subsequently endorsed by the Committee, and is available for viewing in the SCAR Library as SCAR Report 42.

SCADM has also been promoting increased use of schema.org by National Antarctic Data Centres. A prototype search portal has been developed by the World Data System (WDS). The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research of India has agreed to potentially assume hosting responsibilities for the site.

SCADM continues to engage new members, including new representatives for Spain (Susana Diez Tagarro) and Italy (Alberto Salvati). Attendance at regular monthly meetings continues to be strong (membership numbers), reflecting growing interest and engagement relating to polar data management.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 21: Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information (SC-AGI)

Agenda Item: 5.3
Person Responsible: Fei Li
Report Authors: SCAGI members

Summary

The highlights of SCAGI for the period of 2020-2022 are as follows:

1. SCAGI published the International Principles and Procedures for Antarctic Place Names as SCAR Report 41 in October 2021. SCAGI and its Place Names Working Group are now publicising the report and promoting putting recommendations into practise.
2. Updates to the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA). As of 18 July 2022, the number of place names in the CGA is 39,136 (2020: 37,974), referring to 20,440 recognized different features (2020: 19,897).
3. Updates to the SCAR Map Catalogue. The Australian Antarctic Data Centre continues to manage the application and content for the SCAR Map Catalogue. The application has a new web address – mapcatalogue.aq.
4. Air Operaration Planning Maps (AOPM). Australia is about to publish 1 updated map, map 10, and 5 new maps, maps 17-21, completing coverage of the Antarctic coastline in this SCAGI series.
5. Seven new national representatives joined the SCAGI family, and Louise Ireland from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) was elected as the new co-chair due to the former co-chair Paul Morin’s retirement.

XXXVII SCAR Delegates Meeting
5-7 September 2022, Goa, India

SCAR XXXVII Paper 22: Antarctic Treaty Secretariat Report

Agenda Item: 6.1
Person Responsible: ATS Executive Secretary
Report Authors: Antarctic Treaty Secretariat

Summary

The Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) XLIV and the Meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) XXIV took place in Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, from 23 May to 2 June, 2022. It was the first in-person ATCM and CEP Meeting since 2019.

This report includes information on the main outputs stemmed from ATCM XLIV and the Meeting of the CEP XXIV, relating to the work and interests of SCAR and its Members.