Ocean Sciences 2020 - San Diego
Yixi Zheng
University of East Anglia
It was the first mega-meeting in my life. I tried my best to not get too overwhelmed by more than one hundred of sessions. The poster hall is giant and it took most people 5 mins to find their own poster boards. My poster focusing on recent work, the meltwater pathways from an Antarctic ice shelf revealed by seals, drew many people’s attention, with a very large portion from other disciplines. I normally prefer a talk than a poster but this time, poster did provide me more time to have deep conversations to other researchers and discussed about some useful feedbacks and potential future collaborations.
It was a really good conference for people who have a broad interest. I attended most sessions about high-latitude environments, which are closely linked to my research; and some sessions about data-management skills and data-driven techniques, which I have never touched before. I spent a long time visiting other people’s posters as well. Unlike a talk, which allows the speak to present her/his work for 15 mins and disappear forever, posters gave me a good chance to actually discussed with the presenters, ask questions, and share opinions.
San Diego is an amazing city with lovely sunshine and coastal city view. I met many old friends there : ) some of whom I haven’t seen for more than 3 years… We also had a nice social evening with people from our session (people from other sessions sneaked in and had fun together as well!) and had a very relaxed time.
It was a tiring week but I benefited a lot from Ocean Sciences Meeting 2020 and enjoyed my trip very much. I am very grateful for receiving the financial support from the generous Challenger Society.
I am a second-year PhD student at the University of East Anglia with Karen Heywood, Ben Webber and David Stevens. My research focuses on the ocean-ice shelf interactions in the Antarctic. Many ice shelves are melting rapidly in Antarctica which exports an increasing amount of meltwater and influences the upper ocean hydrography. My recent work aims to reveal ice-shelf meltwater’s pathways in different seasons and figure out how this seasonality can affect the sea ice formation.
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NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. The agenda will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join.
To participate, please complete your registration here.
For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk
Townhall on UK Arctic Ocean contribution to International Polar Year 32/33
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly-changing regions on our planet, with impacts on global sea-level rise, changes to our climate and weather patterns, and threats to our shared biodiversity and ecosystem services. With the international community rapidly mobilising towards the International Polar Year 32/33, and with new international programmes and initiatives now being shaped, it is timely for the UK Ocean Science community to come together and articulate what its unique offerings could be to Arctic research and technology.
This hybrid 2-day meeting, to be held at NOC Southampton, is intended to start this process. Recognising the Arctic Oceans role in global Earth and Human systems, anticipated outcomes include a high-level shaping of what the UK Arctic Ocean community would like to achieve over the course of the IPY, stimulation of new collaborations and proposals for grand Arctic challenges and a baseline from which wider integration with terrestrial, atmospheric and cryosphere communities, both in the UK and overseas, can be built. Discussions will continue in diverse forums, including the UK Arctic Science Meeting in September and at Challenger 2026.
This action is supported by the UK Arctic Office and UK Arctic and Antarctic Partnership
Further details and meeting registration link will be circulated in April together with a questionnaire to help shape the agenda and discussion
In the meantime…SAVE THE DATE
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.