In September 2006, the IGBP Science Steering Committee granted NEESPI the status of the IGBP External Project.

In April 2008, The NEESPI research foci on regional modeling and studies of climate impacts and adaptation capacity became a part of The Memorandum of Understanding for Collaboration in the Fields of Meteorology, Hydrology, and Oceanography between the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet).

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Book by G. Gutman and A. Reissell (Eds.), 2010 "Eurasian Arctic Land Cover and Land Use in a Changing Climate" , VI, 226 pp. will be released by Springer Publishing House in October 2010. The book is a compilation of studies on interactions of land-cover/land-use change with climate in a region where the climate warming is most pronounced compared to other areas of the globe. The climate warming in the far North, and in the Arctic region of Northern Eurasia in particular, affects both the landscape and human activities, and hence human dimensions is an important aspect of the topic. Environmental pollution together with climate warming may produce irreversible damages to the current Arctic ecosystems. Regional land-atmosphere feedbacks may have large global importance. Remote sensing is a primary tool in studying vast northern territories where in situ observations are sporadic. State-of-the-art methods of satellite remote sensing combined with GIS and models are used to tackle science questions and provide an outlook of current land-cover changes and potential scenarios for the future. The book is a truly international effort involving U.S. and European scientists. It is directed at broad science community including graduate students, academics and other professionals in this field. More details are HERE .

FUNDING OPPORTUNITY IN RUSSIAN UNIVERSITIES. The following Letter to the Association of American Universities has been sent by the Department of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on 22 June 2010. Similar letters were sent to the leading Universities worldwide. The objective of this Initiative is to bring the leading scientists outside and inside Russia to Russian Universities to conduct research on a broad spectrum of disciplines. This Letter advertizes the first wave of grants with a very short application deadline but it is planned that there will be two more such announcements (and thus, the grant opportunities) before the end of 2010. While it is not explicitly stated but it is assumed that the applicant scientists have to have a working experince in Russian language.

SAD NEWS. Our friend and one of the NEESPI founders, Dr. Donald Deering, passed away on February 15, 2010. We are posting here a personal In Memorium note written by Dr. Garik Gutman.

The entire Focus Issue on 'Climatic and Environmental Change in Northern Eurasia' has now been published in Environmental Research Letters (ERL), Vol. 4, No. 4 and and Vol. 5, No. 1. The articles are permanently free to read at at the journal web site, where the Annotation to the Focus Issue is followed with links to 32 research and 2 editorial papers. Looking at the ongoing climatic and environmental changes in Northern Eurasia, this NEESPI Focus Issue of ERL introduces an assortment of varied studies of different aspects of contemporary change in Northern Eurasia, most of which have been presented at one of the NEESPI Workshops and/or American Geophysical Union and European Geosciences Union NEESPI Open Sessions during the past 12 months. The Focus Issue Editorial with reduced resolution for quick download is here .

Selected papers of the Non-Boreal Eastern Europe NEESPI Meeting (Odessa, Ukraine, August 2008) were published as a Book: P.Y. Groisman and S. V. Ivanov (Eds.) "Regional Aspects of Climate-Terrestrial-Hydrologic Interactions in Non-boreal Eastern Europe" by Springer Publishing House. The book chapters cover five topics: Observational issues in nonboreal Eastern Europe, Regional climate changes, Air pollution aspects, Land cover and land use changes, and Changes in the Black Sea and its coastal zone. More details are on http://springer.com/978-90-481-2240-0. The Book annotation is here .

September, 2010, National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and NASA Langley Research Center. The Fulbreight Fellowship. Dr. Elena Kukavskaya, SB RAS Sukachev Institute of Forest (SB RAS IF), Krasnoyarsk, Russia, won a Fulbright Fellowship for her proposal entitled “Using GIS, Satellite and Field Data to Estimate and Enhance Biomass Burning Emissions in Siberia”. Dr. Kukavskaya will begin serving as a Fulbright Fellow in September 2010 at NIA. Ph.D. advisor of Dr. Kukavskaya was Prof. Galina Ivanova (SB RAS IF). Over the years, Elena has developed as a scientist through NEESPI, working on several projects that include NASA LCLUC FIREBEAR (PI: Dr. Susan Conard) and WildFireClims (PI: Dr. Amber Soja).

8-10 September, 2010, Lanzhou, Gansu, P.R. China. The Third International Symposium on Arid Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ISACS-3). More Information is available at the Symposium web site. NEESPI is co-sponsoring the Conference and the NEESPI scientists are cordially invited to contribute to its Scientific Program. Deadline for submitting abstract was passed.

December 13-17, 2010. NEESPI Session GC07 at the Annual Fall AGU Meeting, San-Francisco, California, USA. The NEESPI Session: GC07; "Bringing Together Environmental, Socio-Economic and Climatic Change Studies in Northern Eurasia" is sponsored by Global Environmental Change AGU Focus Group and is Co-Sponsored by Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeosciences, Cryosphere, Hydrology, and Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, Natural Hazards, and Public Affairs AGU Sections and Focus Groups. The deadline for Abstract Submissions is September 2, 2010. **************************************************************************** 5-11 July 2010, Tomsk, Russia. "ENVIROMIS 2010" Event (International Conference on Environmental Observations, Modeling and Information Systems). For scope of the ENVIROMIS events see http://www.scert.ru/en/conferences/. More information is available at the SCERT web site. NEESPI has co-sponsored the Event and the NEESPI scientists contributed to its Scientific Program. Event program and selected presentations (oral and posters) are posted HERE. May 2-7, 2009, Vienna, Austria. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2010 . The NEESPI scientists significantly contributed to the Scientific Program of the Assembly and in particular to the special NEESPI Session (BG5.1; "Environmental, socio-economic and climatic changes in Northern Eurasia and their feedbacks to the Global Earth System") scheduled at the Assembly. The POSTER and ORAL NEESPI sessions were held on May 4th. June 14-18, 2010, Miedzyzdroje, Wolin Island, Poland. The 6th Study Conference on BALTEX. NEESPI has co-sponsored the Conference and the NEESPI scientists contributed to the Scientific Program of the Conference. Selected NEESPI presentations at the Conference are available here. More information (including abstracts of the Conference presentations) is available at the BALTEX web site. June 8-12, 2010, Oslo, Norway. "Polar Science - Global Impact", International and Interdisciplinary Science Conference devoted to the International Polar Year Research Results. More Information. The NEESPI scientists contributed to the Scientific Program of the Conference. March 16-19, 2010, Miami, Florida, USA. "2010 State of the Arctic Conference". More Information. The NEESPI scientists substantially contributed to the Scientific Program of the Conference. January 28-29, 2010, Tsukuba, Japan. "APN Workshop on Building Asian Climate Change Scenarios by Multi-Regional Climate Models Ensemble ". More Information. The NEESPI scientist, Dr. Igor Shkolnik, presented at the Workshop plenary talk "The role of unforced climate variability in RCM simulations for northern Eurasia ". December 14-18, 2009, San-Francisco, California. 2009 AGU Fall Meeting More Information. The NEESPI science was mostly presented at two dedicated GC (Global Environmental Change) Sessions with a common name "Environmental, Socio-economic and Climatic Changes in Northern Eurasia and Their Feedbacks to the Global Earth System: How Far Have we Advanced in our Ability to Describe Them?". The poster GC31A and oral GC43B NEESPI sessions were held on December 16th and 17th respectfully. September 9-15, 2009, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic. The seven-day-long scientific and educational Event was held. It included (a) an International Young Scientists School on on Environmental Studies at High Elevations (September 9-10, 2009) and (b) an International Workshop devoted to Climatic, Environmental, Land Cover-Land Use Change Studies at High Elevations and a Regional NEESPI Science Team Research Workshop focuses on discussion of existing projects results and development new research within mountain regions of the NEESPI domain . (September 11-15, 2009). General information on the Event. Workshop Presentations and Reports. July 5-15, 2009, Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The eleven-day-long scientific and educational Event that included (a) an International Young Scientists School on Computational Information Technologies for Environmental Sciences CITES-2009 (July 5-10, 2009; Bene: the Working language at the School is Russian, (b) an International Conference on Computational Information Technologies for Environmental Sciences CITES-2009 (July 11-13, 2009; Bene: the Working language at the Conference and at the following NEESPI Workshop is English, and (c) a Regional NEESPI Research Workshop devoted to Climatic, Environmental, Land Cover-Land Use Change Studies in Siberia. (July 14-15, 2009). Conference and Workshop programs and presentations. April 19-24, 2009, Vienna, Austria. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2009 . The NEESPI scientists contributed to several Sessions of the Assembly and in particular to the special NEESPI Session (BG2.2; "Land-Atmosphere-Cryosphere Interactions in Northern Eurasia") . Three Oral and one Poster NEESPI Session were held. December 15-19, 2008 "NEESPI Session at the Fall AGU Meeting, San-Francisco, California, USA. Three Global Change NEESPI Sessions: "Land-Atmosphere-Cryosphere Interactions in Northern Eurasia" were sponsored by Global Environmental Change AGU Focus Group and is Co-Sponsored by Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeosciences, Cryosphere, Hydrology, and Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology AGU Sections and Focus Groups. Forty seven presentations were submitted. The Poster Session GC41A was held on the 18th of December. Two oral Sessions (Session GC52A) and (Session GC53C) were held on the 19th of December. August 23-28, 2008, Odessa, Ukraine. NATO Advanced Research Workshop “Regional aspects of climate-terrestrial-hydrologic interactions in Eastern Europe“ (NEESPI Regional Non-boreal Europe Meeting). Hosts: Odessa State Politechnical and Environmental Universities, Odessa, Ukraine. The Workshop Materials. The Workshop Statement. June 2-6, 2008. NEESPI Regional Science Team Meeting devoted to the High Latitudes of the NEESPI domain, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. By invitation only. The Meeting Agenda. The Meeting List of Participants. Meeting presentations and materials are posted here. Extended abstracts of selected oral and poster presentations have been prepared for publication in iLEAPS Report Series No 1. Estimated date of publication: December 2009. April 13-18, 2008, Vienna, Austria. NEESPI Session at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2008. Session BG2.8: "Land-atmosphere interactions in Northern Eurasia" (co-sponsored by NEESPI and iLEAPS) is listed in Biogeosciences and Cryospheric Sciences Sections. BG2.8 was divided into five Sessions throughout the entire day on Wednesday, March 16th, 2008: Four Oral Sessions, Lecture Room 20, 08:30 to 17:00 AM and Poster Session, BG Area, 8:00 to 19:00. Abstracts of the presentations are available by clicking on the Sessions' links above. March 17-19, 2008 Workshop of the NEESPI Focus Research Center for Biogeochemical Cycles. Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany. By invitation only. The Workshop Agenda. The Workshop materials (oral presentations and posters) December 10-14, 2007 "NEESPI Session at the Fall AGU Meeting, San-Francisco, California, USA. Session GC02: "Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI): Integrated Approach to Regional Climate and Environment Change Studies" is sponsored by Global Environmental Change AGU Focus Group and is Co-Sponsored by Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeosciences, Cryosphere, Hydrology, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, and Public Affairs AGU Sections and Focus Groups. Three NEESPI Sessions have been scheduled for the 11th of December: Oral Session GC21B, Moscone Center West, Room 3002, 08:00 to 10:00 AM ; Oral Session GC21A Moscone Center West, Room 3002, 10:20 to 12:20 AM , and Poster Session GC23A, Moscone Center Exh. Hall B, 13:40 to 17:00 AM. December 4-6, 2007 The 3rd International Conference "Earth from Space - the Most Efficient Solutions”. Moscow, Russia. Conference_program and materials. November 12-14, 2007 Eurasian Hydroclimatology: observations, change, attribution, and impacts, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. International Arctic Research Center, University of Alaska - Fairbanks. By invitation only. Workshop materials. October 22-26, 2007 The Second Asia CliC Symposium "The state and fate of Asian Cryosphere". Symposium materials. September 16-19, 2007. NEESPI Regional Science Team Meeting devoted to the Dry Land Areas of the NEESPI domain (by invitation only), Urumqi, China. The Meeting was held in conjunction with the Regional NASA Land Cover Land Use Change (LCLUC) Science Team Meeting. First Announcement at the LCLUC web site. Program, Meeting Materials September 11-13, 2007. The Second International Symposium on Arid Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ISACS), Lanzhou, China. Symposium Program. August 12-17, 2007 Workshop "Northern Eurasia Land Surface Properties and Change and its Role in the Global Earth System", Aspen Global Change Institute, Aspen, Colorado, USA. By invitation only. List of Participants, Workshop Report. The Forth ESSP Global Land Project Information Letter was distributed on December 20, 2007. The Letter is filled with the latest information about conferences and other activities related to Land Studies. To read the Letter click here. NEESPI was endorsed by GLP in January 2007. After testing, a new NEESPI data access portal has been launched on April 2, 2007. The GES DISC NEESPI portal is a multi-sensor, online, easy access data archive and distribution system to provide advanced data management capabilities in support of the NEESPI scientific objectives. Its tools include data analysis and visualization, data mining and other techniques for better science data usage. The portal integrates remote sensing data from MODIS, AVHRR, and other instruments on board polar-orbiting satellites, with customized data products from climatology data sets and models into a single “one-stop-shopping” interdisciplinary NEESPI Data Center for Remote Sensing Products. Visit the portal. The International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in collaboration with A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Moscow, Russia organized a two-week summer Workshop-School on environmental studies in the boreal forest zone on 14-28 July 2007. The Workshop was held in Fedorovskoe, Tver’ region, Russia, at the Central Forest Biospheric Reserve. The Workshop Booklet, Participants' List, Group Picture, and Final Workshop Agenda. More details is available at the IARC web site. The International Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) generated a bibliographic database with dissertation and master theses related to permafrost research. Its first version (created in 2008) contains more than 900 references, mostly from EU, Russia, USA, and Canada. However, the bibliography compilers are still missing input from China, Mongolia and central Asian countries and invite further contributions to the database (contact person: Dr. Guido Grosse, ggrosse@gi.alaska.edu). The NEESPI community is welcome to use the database. Complete citation of the bibliography is: Grosse G, Lantuit H (2008): PYRN-Bib 3.2: The Permafrost Young Researchers Network Bibliography of Permafrost-Related Theses. Permafrost Young Researchers Network, 72 pp. (Permanent handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.31101) . NEESPI in the News: The 6th issue of the AGU Atmospheric Science Newsletter published an article about the NEESPI International Summer School "Environmental Studies in the Boreal Forest Zone" (July 2007, Fedorovskoe, Tver area, Russia) see page 4. After an electronic version of the paper by Dr. Amber Soja and her colleagues (Amber J. Soja, Nadezda M. Tchebakova, Nancy H.F. French, Michael D. Flannigan, Herman H. Shugart, Brian J. Stocks, Anatoly I. Sukhinin, E.I. Parfenova, F. Stuart Chapin III and Paul W. Stackhouse, Jr. "Climate-induced boreal forest change: Predictions versus current observations" in the Special NEESPI Issue of Global and Planetary Change, 56, Issue 3-4, April 2007) became available at the www.sciencedirect.com, she was interviewed by Associate Press journalist (cited in ~100 national and international newspapers) and thereafter by U.S. National Public Radio 1.30 min mp3 file. On January 5, 2007, tens of millions of viewers of one of the central Russian TV channels, NTV, observed in the prime-news-time (program "Segodnya") an interview with Prof. Vladimir Romanovsky (University of Alaska-Fairbanks) about the impact of the ongoing climatic changes on the permafrost thaw. ************************************************************************* Introduction The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative, or NEESPI, is a currently active, yet strategically evolving program of internationally-supported Earth systems science research, which has as its foci issues in northern Eurasia that are relevant to regional and Global scientific and decision-making communities (see NEESPI Mission Statement). This part of the globe is undergoing significant changes – particularly those changes associated with a rapidly warming climate in this region and with important changes in governmental structures since the early 1990s and their associated influences on land use and the environment across this broad expanse. How this carbon-rich, cold region component of the Earth system functions as a regional entity and interacts with and feeds back to the greater Global system is to a large extent unknown. Thus, the capability to predict future changes that may be expected to occur within this region and the consequences of those changes with any acceptable accuracy is currently uncertain. One of the reasons for this lack of regional Earth system understanding is the relative paucity of well-coordinated, multidisciplinary and integrating studies of the critical physical and biological systems. By establishing a large-scale, multidisciplinary program of funded research, NEESPI is aimed at developing an enhanced understanding of the interactions between the ecosystem, atmosphere, and human dynamics in northern Eurasia. Specifically, the NEESPI strives to understand how the land ecosystems and continental water dynamics in northern Eurasia interact with and alter the climatic system, biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth. The contemporaneous changes in climate and land use are impacting the biological, chemical, and physical functions of the northern Eurasia, but little data and fewer models are available that can be used to understand the current status of this expansive regional system, much less the influence of the northern Eurasia region on the Global climate. NEESPI seeks to secure the necessary financial and related institutional support from an international cadre of sponsors for developing a viable understanding of the functioning of northern Eurasia and the impacts of extant changes on the regional and Earth systems. Many types of ground and integrative (e.g., satellite; GIS) data will be needed and many models must be applied, adapted or developed for properly understanding the functioning of this “cold” and diverse regional system. Mechanisms for obtaining the requisite data sets and models and sharing them among the participating scientists are essential and require international and active governmental participation. NEESPI additionally seeks to operate synergistically in concert with a variety of national and international science programs – particularly those relevant to Global change research. Ultimately, NEESPI-developed enhanced knowledge of this region will be able to be applied to addressing specific concerns that face national and international decision-makers of the partnering institutions and countries. Privacy, Security, Notices WEB CURATOR: N. Stroumentova, Hydrology Science and Services Corporation (HS&S)