The upcoming SCAR conference and meetings have been cancelled. Please see the message from the organising committee below.

The SCAR COMNAP 2020 Local Organising Committee, in consultation with the SCAR and COMNAP  Executive Committees have decided to cancel SCAR COMNAP 2020 in light of the global Coronavirus situation. The Committee has given due consideration to local Tasmanian and Australian health advice as well as the global response to the pandemic. 
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The SCAR and COMNAP event hosts, the Australian Antarctic Division, the Tasmanian State Government and the Australian Academy of Science wish to express their gratitude and appreciation to SCAR and COMNAP for affording us the opportunity to host these premier Antarctic science and management events. We also wish to thank those members and sponsors who have been so generous in their support of this event. 


We appreciate that this is a disappointing outcome for those that were planning to travel to Hobart in July 2020 and for those Hobart-based scientists and Antarctic industry representatives that were looking forward to showcasing our Antarctic gateway city, but the health and wellbeing of the people in the Antarctic sector and the Tasmanian community is paramount. 


Further information will shortly be available regarding cancellation arrangements for registered attendees, sponsors and exhibitors and event-specific information will be sent separately from the SCAR and COMNAP Secretariats in regards to any alternative arrangements required. For any urgent enquiries please email scarcomnap2020@antarctica.gov.au


We hope everyone in the global Antarctic community is able to stay safe and well in these challenging times.
Kind regards, 

Brittany Lee
Event Coordinator

ANTPAS will hold its biennial meeting during the upcoming 9th SCAR OSC, to be held in Hobart, Australia in August of this year. The meeting is scheduled for before the OSC on 2 August, 14:00-16:00. More information on the meeting will be communicated soon.

ANTPAS will be strongly represented at the upcoming 9th SCAR OSC, which will be held in Hobart, Australia from 3-7 August 2020. There we will continue to improve our visibility, especially within SCAR. 

To facilitate the attendance of Early Career Researchers ANTPAS is providing 3 grants of US $ 1,000.00 each. To apply, send your CV and submitted abstract (specifying proposed poster or oral presentation) to the ANTPAS Chairs Mauro Guglielmin (mauro.guglielmin@uninsubria.it) and Marc Oliva (marcoliva@ub.edu). The deadline for applications is 15 March.
 
According to SCAR rules, successful applicants must apply for reimbursement of expenses from SCAR after having attended the conference. Reimbursement will only apply up to the amount of the original awarded grant.
 
If you have not yet submitted your abstract please do so by 28 February. ANTPAS is coordinating session 12G on Surficial Processes Geomorphology, Chemical Weathering, Exposure Age Dating, and Permafrost Dynamics.​

Please see the announcement by the ICOP2020 conference organisers below.


Cancellation of the International Conference on Permafrost in 2020
The International Permafrost Association has been closely watching the developing situation with the COVID-19 virus in China with the utmost concern for the wellbeing of all our Chinese colleagues. The 12th International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP 2020) was scheduled for 22-26 June in Lanzhou, China. Given the current situation with COVID-19, the ICOP 2020 Local Organizing Committee has concluded that it is simply not possible to host an international conference as planned in 2020. The International Permafrost Association fully understands and supports this decision. The International Permafrost Association and conference organizers are now considering how to organize our future conference activity and will provide further information by 1 April. We thank our colleagues in China for all their work preparing for ICOP 2020, and hope for a rapid solution to this unprecedented situation.

ANTPAS is coordinating session 12G on Surficial Processes Geomorphology, Chemical Weathering, Exposure Age Dating, and Permafrost Dynamics at the upcoming 9th SCAR OSC, which will be held in Hobart, Australia from 3-7 August 2020. You can submit your abstracts until 28 February. 

The first Southern Hemisphere Conference on Permafrost (SouthCOP) is almost at its end, having started on 8 December in Queensland, New Zealand. The pre-conference excursion took place 3-6 December, with the official welcome on Sunday. The ANTPAS session was held on Sunday as well from 15:00-15:40 in the venue Galaxy I, chaired by Marjolaine Verret and Ian Meiklejohn. The conference is due to conclude Wednesday (11 December), with post-conference field trips scheduled for 12-14 December. You can access the program here.

ANTPAS will be present at two important conferences this year (XIII ISAES, Incheon, South Korea  and 1st SouthCOP, Queenstown, New Zealand), in which our EG should be strongly represented in  order to continue and improve our visibility especially within SCAR. To facilitate the attendance of early career researchers ANTPAS invites applications to two grants per conference.

• 2 Grants of 750$ each for  XIII ISAES; and
• 2 Grants  of 750$ each for SouthCOP19.

Candidates should send their CV and  submitted  abstract, also indicating if it is a poster or oral presentation, to Mauro Guglielmin by 28 April 2019.

Also remember that the abstract submission for the XII ISAES has been postponed to 21 April. Our session is titled "Permafrost and Periglacial ice free areas in Antarctica" (see https://www.isaes2019.org).

Please consider submitting your abstracts to one of the ANTPAS session for SouthCOP19. The session description appears below. Abstract submission closes 7 April and can be submitted through the SouthCOP website.

Session Description: Past environments in permafrost regions
Permafrost regions in the Southern Hemisphere have recorded significant environmental changes in response to the changing climate conditions prevailing over the last decades. In this context, a wide range of past climate and environmental records can provide insights on recent and future changes in permafrost regions, which can be also used to examine ice/land/ocean/atmosphere feedback influencing regional, hemispheric and global climate conditions.

Permafrost environments include a broad set of terrestrial and aquatic records that can provide data on past environmental and climatic changes at different time scales. A detailed study of these records may provide the linkage between the observed patterns and the response of ecosystems to recent climate variability. In addition, a better comprehension of the past dynamics in a permafrost region can result in a more accurate understanding of permafrost properties, such as the spatial distribution of ground ice and carbon as well as a reference for Martian analogues. We welcome abstracts from all terrestrial and aquatic environmental archives, such as lake sediments, periglacial deposits, ground ice, etc.

The objective of this session is to examine the state of the art and on recent achievements on understanding past environments in permafrost regions in large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as to detect gaps and areas where permafrost research needs to be improved.