Report on IASC CWG at ASSW 2021
Reported by Teruo AOKI (NIPR), Nozomu TAKEUCHI (Chiba University)
Related research program: Cryosphere
Annual meeting of the Cryosphere Working Group (CWG) of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) was held on 20th and 21st March 2021 during the Arctic Science Summit Week 2021 (ASSW 2021). The ASSW 2021 was originally planned to be held in Lisbon, Portugal, however, all of the meetings were virtually held in online system (zoom) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the beginning, a total of 40 participants including the CWG young fellows and group members from each country are introduced. Drs. Teruo Aoki (NIPR) and Nozomu Takeuchi (Chiba univ) attended the meeting as the CWG representatives from Japan. In the meeting, we shared and discussed the annual activities and budget of CWG in 2020 and 2021, and made decisions of financial supports to the proposals of cross-cutting activities of the IASC. Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the Arctic science activities, group members reported situations and issues of each county. Many counties have serious problems of the maintenance of research installments and data corrections in Arctic fields. In particular, a loss of opportunities of field research activities and conference participation for students and early-career scientists was emphasized. We discussed the current CWG science foci: Atmosphere-glacier-ocean interactions: implications on the pan-Arctic glacier mass budget; Extreme Cryospheric Events; Cutting Barriers in Snow Knowledge and working plan. We discussed possible updates of the foci and plan in the context of the IASC Strategic Plan and ICARP-III priorities. The next meeting will be held in the ASSW 2022 in Tromso, Norway.
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