A meeting of minds.

• Author: Jackinsky, McKibben
• Position: Includes developmental history of the research center - Worldwide support on Fairbanks' International Arctic Research Center

A strong show of worldwide support and involvement goes a long way toward ensuring success for Fairbanks' new International Arctic Research Center.

At a lease agreement signing ceremony last winter, years of careful and dedicated planning solidified the space arrangements and operations of the $32 million International Arctic Research Center on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The 100,000-square-foot building, constructed for UAF and the Japanese government, provides office and research space for scientists from around the world.

The mission of the center is to reveal the roles of the arctic region in global change, to predict the impact of global change on the arctic region, to understand the mechanisms of climate variability particular to the arctic, to contribute and support international arctic research, and to train the next generation of arctic scientists. Eight initial arctic research projects have been selected:

* Detection of contemporary change: temperature and precipitation trends, oceanographic parameters (snow, ice, permafrost), ecosystems and biota, and climate fingerprint.

* Arctic paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions: (cover both climate and environment) ice core analysis, tree rings, lake/ocean sediments, and permafrost temperatures.

* Interactions and feedbacks: atmosphere ice/ocean interactions, thermohaline circulation, albedo feedbacks, cloud feedbacks, atmosphere ice/land interactions, trace gas feedbacks and calving mechanism of glaciers.

* Atmospheric chemistry: sources and sinks, transport of contaminants, chemical transformations, deposition mechanisms, ozone and UV radiation and auroral effects.

* Socio-economic, environmental and the ecosystems: (impacts and consequences of change) environmental impacts, ecosystems responses, socioeconomic effects, adaptation strategies and mitigation measures.

* Solar influences on global change and space weather prediction: solar flares, propagation of shock waves and magnetic clouds, interaction of magnetic clouds and the magnetosphere, and effects of magnetospheric disturbances on the thermosphere/ionosphere.

* Climactic effects of tectonic activities and tectonic hazards: volcanic eruptions and climatic effects and tectonic hazards in the arctic.

* The integration of the above seven areas.

IARC receives guidance from two international committees, an implementation committee responsible for setting general policy, and a science advisory committee...