ARCTIC ICEBREAKER PLANNING MEETING
FRIDAY, 15 DECEMBER 2000
5:00-6:00 PM
MOSCONE CENTER (AGU MEETING SITE)
ROOM 276

The UNOLS Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee (AICC) is an
NSF/USCG-sanctioned committee whose purpose is to provide Arctic marine
science projects with planning and scheduling assistance and to facilitate
communications between scientists, science funders, and facility providers.
Particular concerns of this committee at present are the US Coast Guard
icebreakers Polar Sea, Polar Star, and Healy.  Additional information about
the AICC is available on the UNOLS web site

(http://www.unols.org/committees/aicc/) or
the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States
(http://www.arcus.org/AICC/AICC.html).

To advance expeditionary planning for 2002-2006 and to keep the community
at large informed of the status of US icebreakers for Arctic marine
research, the AICC will hold a public information and planning meeting at
the 2000 AGU Fall Meeting on Friday, 15 December, from 5:00-6:00 pm in Room
276 of the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The Committee's goal for these meetings is to provide US icebreaker
information and to help pull together a critical mass of scientific
planning to give direction for scientists in writing proposals.  At each
planning meeting the AICC will discuss with the science community various
advance propositions for Arctic marine research use of the Healy and
Polar-class icebreakers submitted in person or by email.  Investigators
will not be bound by their submitted planning ideas.  Plans received by the
AICC from past solicitations will be retained, and can be modified or
dropped at any time by the submittors.  These will be incorporated into a
rolling 5-year community science plan for these vessels which considers
scientific focus, region, season, year, and additional logistics
considerations.  During early 2001 the community Arctic vessel use plan
will appear on the UNOLS web site.  The AICC will repeat a call for Healy
vessel use ideas and plans - and hold similar planning meetings - on an
at-least annual basis.  Planning ideas can be submitted at any time and
still be considered.

These community plans will help guide the AICC and give the Coast Guard and
US funding agencies a rough advance measure of community interest in using
USCGC Healy and the Polar-class icebreakers for Arctic marine research, but
the planning process is in no way meant to influence agency funding
decisions.

For plans or ideas submitted in person or by email, the following
information is useful:

Investigator name:
Investigator email address:
Investigator telephone:
Working title of research project:
Likely support agency:
Region:
Year(s) preferred:
Season(s) preferred:
Approx. number of in-Arctic days needed (not including transits from/to
Seattle):
Approx. size of science party:
Foreign EEZs in which you need to work:
Short description of seagoing activities:

The AICC reminds all that a formal ship-time request for Arctic science
missions on the Polar-class vessels and the Healy must be submitted as part
of the proposal process.  Information submitted for the community Arctic
vessel use plan described in this message does not constitute such a
ship-time request.  A ship-time request form is available from
http://www.gso.uri.edu/unols/ship/mainmenu.html.

Please attend the planning meeting and/or reply by email to the UNOLS
Office (office@unols.org).

James H. Swift, Chair
UNOLS Arctic Icebreaker Coordinating Committee
jswift@ucsd.edu