Note from ABoVE leadership:

The ABoVE Leadership Team has been immersed in the 2017 airborne campaign, along with many of you from the broader Science Team, both in the air and on the ground. Chip Miller and Peter Griffith, in particular, have been engaged in the day-to-day aircraft operations, which started early in the Spring and will continue well into the Fall.  More specifics on the 2017 airborne campaign can be found in their report in this issue of the newsletter.  While the airborne campaign has been the primary focus of recent action, a great deal else continues to advance under the ABoVE umbrella.  Additional projects have gained affiliated status with ABoVE, which currently numbers some 530 participants involved in 80 projects from over 160 institutions.  Coordination with other research initiatives also continues, via both formal and informal associations.  Among the more recent advances on this front is early coordination with Canadian proposals funded under the Global Water Futures initiative (see associated newsletter article in this issue). Similar efforts are underway with the European GlobPermafrost project and the Permafrost Carbon Network, among others.  The permafrost component of ABoVE, one of six key science themes, was also featured in a recent news article in Science magazine. Members of the ABoVE Leadership Group have been holding (nearly) monthly teleconferences with the Leads of the thematic Working Groups to keep abreast of current advances on the science front.  In turn, the WG Leads have been holding periodic teleconferences, webinars and workshops with their group members.  We encourage you to join these WG interactions when possible as it’s a great way to be aware of and participate in advancing ABoVE science.  We also want to make the entire science team aware of a new ABoVE Focus Collection of Environmental Research Letters, which is expected to be open to publications for the duration of the ABoVE program.

We are all looking forward to hearing more about these efforts, and a great deal of other coordinated activities, at the 4th ABoVE Science Team Meeting (ASTM4) scheduled for 23-26 January 2018 in Seattle.  The ASTM4 will be our first open science team meeting, meaning we will not be restricted to just 1 representative per project.  Instead, we encourage up to 3 team members per project to attend, and we hope for extensive partner organization representation as well as postdoctoral researcher and early career scientist participation.  An organizing committee for ASTM4 has recently been formed and will hold a series of telecons over the next few months to plan what we hope will be an exciting and highly interactive meeting that touches on nearly all aspects of ABoVE research and its applications to a wide range of land management efforts within the domain. 

-Scott, Chip, Peter, Eric, and Hank

Airborne Campaign Update

The AAC began in April and will continue through October. Flights will gather remote sensing and in situ data over an area of nearly 4 million square kilometers that includes the state of Alaska; the Yukon, Northwest and Nunavut Territories; and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Flights extended from the Arctic tundra to the southern edge of the boreal forest and from the Seward Peninsula on the western edge of North America as far east as Cambridge Bay, NU.

The 2017 ABoVE Airborne campaign by the numbers:

• 8 months duration (Apr – Oct)
• 9 different aircraft (with as many as 6 flying across the ABoVE domain on a single day)
• 10 science payloads
• 20 deployments
• More than 200 different science flights

Daily reports and science summaries are posted on the Airborne Dashboard.

Field Work

Between May and September 2017 over 30 groups connected with ABoVE are either making measurements in the field or collecting measurements though automated instruments installed in the field. Teams are dispersed throughout the ABoVE domain, ranging from Barrow, AK in the north, Seward Peninsula, AK in the west, Cambridge Bay in the northeast, and field sites in Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south and east. Twenty-five teams reported their planned measurements in the Planning tool on the ABoVE Website. Using the tool, you can view where, when and what data are being collected – if you haven’t entered your sites into the Planning Tool, please do so!

Many of the teams (included NASA-funded, affiliated, and other collaborations) that collected data did so with the intention of supporting the analysis of the airborne instrument data (see the many field sites in the map above). The field measurements address many of the ABoVE science themes, such as vegetation, disturbance, ecosystem services, permafrost, and carbon dynamics.  Field work continues into September in support of the airborne L-Band data collections which occur mid to late September. A big THANK YOU to everyone who has participated in field work this summer!

Logistics and Safety Support

In light of recent events, involving increased bear attacks in Alaska, we would like to emphasize the importance of Bear Safety in our daily field operations.  Please consider reviewing the safe practices here and/or re-watching the bear safety video in your ABoVE Safety Training Plan.  

A warning sign in Anchorage, Alaska, after a 16-year-old runner was recently killed by a black bear. There have only been six fatal bear attacks in the state in 130 years. Photograph: Mark Thiessen/AP

 If you have any questions, please contact safety@cce.nasa.gov.

ERL Focus Issue / Collection is ready for contributions

Environmental Research Letters™ is delighted to announce that its Focus on Resiliency and Vulnerability of Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems to Environmental Change: Advances and Outcomes of ABoVE (the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment), edited by Scott Goetz, Natalie Boelman, Abhishek Chatterjee, Roisin Commane, Joshua Fisher, Peter Griffith, Mike Goulden, John Kimball, Tatiana Loboda, Michelle Mack, Charles Miller, Sue Natali, Christopher Neigh, Brendan Rogers, Merrit Turetsky and Jennifer Watts, is now open for submissions. This ongoing focus collection will address the influence and impact of environmental changes, including climate change, taking place across the high northern latitudes and their influence on Arctic and boreal ecosystems.

Earth to Sky

Laura Prugh will be the featured scientist at a pre-conference workshop "Interpreting Climate Change: Understand the Science, Consider Audience Characteristics, and Explore Effective Techniques” associated with the 2017 National Association of Interpreters National Conference, Spokane, Washington, November 14-18, 2017. 

ABoVE AGU Sessions

Sixty-three abstracts were submitted to our AGU session "B070: The Resilience and Vulnerability of Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems to Climate Change”. The meeting committee assigned 4 oral sessions and a poster session. Get ready for 8 hours of Arctic-Boreal science talks!

Global Water Futures Projects– 
Merritt Turetsky, University of Guelph

As another summer of the ABoVE campaign draws to a close, it is remarkable to consider what has been achieved so far. Working groups with ambitious research plans, an airborne campaign with a swell of ground support, and lots of interactions across the U.S.-Canadian border.

It’s been a privilege to watch the NASA airborne team post pictures from Yellowknife on the day Canada celebrated its 150th birthday.  To attend one of the weekly barbeques in Fairbanks where folks came to chat science and eat sausages.  And to watch all the collaborations develop between natural and social scientists, biogeochemists and wildlife ecologists, remote sensors and field scientists who dig deep into permafrost.

While it took some time to develop, and many requests for letters of support, we are proud to announce a new Canadian project that will serve as a strong partner to ABoVE.  Northern Water Futures (NWF) is a component of the larger Global Water Futures, funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.  NWF will be managed by our two fearless leaders: Jennifer Baltzer and Bill Quinton of Wilfrid Laurier University, and focuses on research needs across the Northwest Territories.  Our overall philosophy is that a multidisciplinary approach is required to advance the understanding, prediction, and decision making tools regarding the future state of northern environments and their water resources. Thus, our research team is comprised of physical and social scientists working with stakeholders from government and industry, local and Aboriginal communities, and co-management boards. 

As NWF develops, we will be presenting updates and seeking new collaborations at the annual ABoVE Science Meetings.  In the interim, NWF has already contributed to supporting ground campaigns in the NWT for both Radar and AirSWOT flights. As a group, we helped support having people on the ground at key locations including Trail Valley Creek, Scotty Creek, Baker Creek, Daring Lake and network of sites responding to wildfire.

Northern Water Futures is just one example of a Canadian project that benefited from strong ties to the ABoVE campaign.  There are others that cover different regions or research topics in the Canadian north.  These international collaborations are never easy to launch, but the benefits will carry into the future and this is a good time to thank all of you who helped to move these initiatives forward. 

ABoVE Email List Serve Details

• All ABoVE email lists (with a link to a list of all of the participants) are viewable from the ABoVE “My Account” page after sign-in. 
• All of the ABoVE email lists are restricted to anyone participating in an ABoVE activity but not open to spammers/public.

New NASA Funded Projects

Neigh, Chris: Automated Protocols for Generating Very High-Resolution Commercial Validation Products with NASA HEC Resources Neigh-02

Kim, Sab: Dynamic inundation mapping for boreal regions using SMAP, UAVSAR, and Radarsat2 Kim-S-01

Calendar

Nov 14-18 – Spokane, WA - Earth to Sky

Dec 11-15 – New Orleans, LA - ​ AGU 2017 Fall Meeting

Jan 23–26, 2018 – Seattle, WA - 4th ABoVE Science Team Meeting