The NGEE Arctic project is keen to collaborate with scientific partners from around the world. This makes sense for any number of reasons, but especially as it relates to our ultimate goal of improving pan-Arctic simulations of ecosystem-climate feedbacks. We need to work closely with others to make this happen.
Scientists from the Arctic Research Center, Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI) have an active interest in the Arctic with research sites in Cambridge Bay, Canada; Zackenberg, Greenland; and Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard. Interestingly, they also have a research site on the Seward Peninsula not far from our field site near Council, AK. We have met with representatives of KOPRI in the past and prior to this field campaign had coordinated with them to share information and possibly conduct a few measurements at their site.
Yoo Kyung Lee and Youngwook Kim arrived at our site after a 2 hour drive from Nome and Margaret (LBNL) spoke briefly with them about conducting a geophysical transect near their field site, along with plot-scale measurements of energy balance and NDVI. Sebastien (LBNL) had flown his UAS equipped with an optical camera over the KOPRI site several days ago, so we already had (once processed) a high-resolution digital elevation map (DEM) for them.
Although we have just a few days left before everyone departs, we will be able to undertake the measurements in the next two days. Once completed, we can share the data and then discuss other ways in which we can collaborate in the future. We look forward to the interaction and welcome collaboration with other international partners!
