In recent days, the 2017 Forum for ArcticModeling & Observational Synthesis (FAMOS) was successfully held at theWoods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the United States, one of the largest andmost influential Arctic scientific conferences in the world. The symposium aimsto bring together Polar experts and scholars from all over the world to conducta comprehensive discussion on the two main methods for contemporary Arcticresearch, the numerical modeling and on-site observation, exchange and share thehot issues and latest scientific progress in Arctic circulation, sea ice,climate, ecology and environment. At the conference, the Organizing Committeeannounced that Zhang Yu, a young teacher at the International Marine ResearchCenter of the College of Marine Sciences of Shanghai Ocean University (SOU), wonthe 2017 International Award for the Predicative Study on Arctic Sea IceChange.
According to the tradition of theconference, the Organizing Committee of the conference will require allparticipating experts and scholars to submit their own predications on thecoverage area, the time of the minimum value and the distribution of the seaice during the rapid thawing period of the Arctic ice two years from theconference based on their own studies and will announce the final results atthe meeting two years later. SOU Teacher Zhang Yu submitted his predication on themelting of sea ice in 2017 at the 2015 meeting and eventually stood out fromhundreds of participants from all over the world with his results very close tothe actual sea ice coverage and was awarded the second prize for hispredicative study on the Arctic sea ice change.
In the past 40 years, the coverage ofArctic sea ice has been declining at a rate of about 4.4% every 10 years. Amongthem, the Arctic sea ice coverage witnesses the most significant change inSeptember, decreasing by about 12.0% every 10 years. The dramatic changes insea ice will not only have a profound impact on the marine environment andecosystem, but also exert great influence on regional and even larger scaleweather and climate through complex feedback process, which is an importantindicator of global climate change. Under the guidance and leadership of Prof. ChenChangsheng, chief scientist of the Polar Oceanographic Research Team of the InternationalMarine Research Center of Shanghai Ocean University of Shanghai, the team appliesthe world's leading ocean numerical model FVCOM to establish a global oceandigital information system suitable for polar research, focusing on how theArtic sea ice responds to the global climate change and the impact of climatechange on the global multi-scale ocean physical and ecological processes, havingsuccessfully made a number of breakthroughs in Arctic scientific research, withall the results published in the top oceanographic journals and contributinggreatly to China’s scientific research on polar ocean, sea ice and climate.
In addition, the Polar Oceanographic ResearchTeam is also involved in the special Arctic research on major nationalscientific research projects and organs, organizes scientific expeditions inthe Arctic together with a number of cooperative units, obtains valuable datafor China's scientific research in the Arctic, which is of great importance inunderstanding the response and feedback of climate change in China to Arcticclimate change.