Foreword for Special Issue: Proceedings of Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFoPS) 2012

This special issue is based on the presentations at the 13th Annual General Meeting of the Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFoPS-13) in New Delhi on 6-7 August 2012, chaired by Dr. Shri Rasik Ravindra, Director of National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research of India. To strengthen both scientific and logistic collaboration among Asian countries involved in polar research is AFoPS’s main purpose. During the AFoPS-13, it was decided to publish the AFoPS proceedings annually by each member countries in turn to demonstrate progresses in Polar Science of Asian countries. On the meeting, China was given the great honor to publish the first AFoPS proceedings as a special issue of the Advances in Polar Science (APS), which is a peer-reviewed journal, published in English. APS is a comprehensive scientific journal dedicated to polar research in all scientific disciplines. The AFoPS-13 proceedings contain 16 original scientific papers from authors of all AFoPS countries, namely: China, India, Japan, Korea and Malaysia. It covers disciplines of oceanography, atmospheric science, geology, biology and ecology. Many new findings and interesting results in these fields are presented and discussed. I would highlight some examples for your kind attention, such as: new descriptions of the Arctic marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. BSw20308, by Zeng et al. from China; the research of the phenotypic plasticity in Bacillus cereus strains by Sinha et al. from India; using of VHF meteor radar to improve the accuracy of temperature measurement near the mesopause by Kim et al. from Korea; the study of the absolute gravity in East Antarctica by Doi et al. from Japan; and the investigation of tele-connection of climate patterns in high- and low-latitudes by Mohd Nor et al. from Malaysia. I am sure that these studies will surely provide a foundation and greater space for further co-operation among AFoPS community and beyond.I would thank all the authors and reviewers who have contributed to this special issue and acknowledge all the members of nominated editorial board for their great supports. I would also like to thank Dr. Yea-dong Kim, the director of the Korea Polar Research Institute, for his leadership to make the proceedings reality. Finally, as the guest editor in chief of this special issue, I’d particularly thanks Prof. Ruiyuan Liu, the editor in chief, and the editorial office of APS for their great efforts and cooperation to make the first proceedings a success.