Partners:
Focus On:
What is IPY
Popular Tags
IPY Search
RV Polarstern Expedition: The Ship--An Abundant Island
Written by Melissa DeetsA ship or boat is an extraordinary invention! It could be as simple as a plain wooden or rubber raft with paddles that can tread the seas (albeit with some difficulty) or it could be as complex as a research vessel with multiple engines, winches and holders to put scientific instruments up and down the water column, composite laboratories that hold even more intricate instruments, living facilities that can be compared to a cruise ship and safety control devices required to pace the rough polar waters and ice. I am happy to say that we're on the latter on this expedition, which endures through some jagged Antarctic conditions!
Abhinav Gogoi & Ulrich Breitsprecher
Activities on Board - Working together - Christmas - Weight
The last few days saw the beginning of the daily routine that is to be followed for the next two months. The testing of various scientific equipments began and first few cores were collected. To name a few and explain the basic parameters of these systems:
Sunday, November 29th
Polarstern left the port of Cabo Negro near Punta Arenas on the evening of Friday, November 27th, 2009. It was to pass through the narrow Magellan Strait to reach the open waters of the Southern Pacific. As we maneuvered through the narrow strait, only the fading distant lights of the coastal towns were to be seen under the twilight. As all would agree, it was a pleasant yet an anxious feeling, as we wouldn’t see land for the next 8 weeks.
Ulrich Breitsprecher, a polar teacher from the Cool Classes programme accompanies the current expedition of RV Polarstern. The RV Polarstern left the port of Punta Arenas, Chile on November 27th, 2009 and will be ending in Wellington, New Zealand on January 27th, 2010, after 61 days at sea. For more information, please visit http://www.awi.de/en/
M. Schueller, Alfred Wegener Institute
Education, outreach and communication (EOC) has been a central part of IPY and teachers and other educators will be given the opportunity to share their experiences as part of the IPY Oslo Science Conference. Please visit the PolarTEACHERS conference website for more details.
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat organized a lecture on 8th October where Dr. Veijo Pohjola, Uppsala University, talked about his IPY research and experiences in Svalbard at the “revived” research station Kinnvika. The research at Kinnvika is multidisciplinary, including glaciology and meteorology etc., and it is mainly focused on Arctic warming and its impact.
Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Caribou IPY Project Launches Website
Written by Melissa DeetsThe Arctic Peoples, Culture, Resilience and Caribou IPY project has just launched its website. Basic information on the project is available now and more content will be loaded over the coming months.
The site can be viewed at: http://www.ipycaribou.ca/home
The future of the Arctic hits the radio waves!
Written by Melissa DeetsSubmitted by Kirsten Murphy
As part of the October Polar Week CKLB radio (Yellowknife, Northwest Territories) hosted a panel discussion on the future of the Arctic on October 8th. Students from around the globe joined this live radio discussion about the complexity of the situation in the Arctic and the conflicts of interest between economic, environmental and social issues. Listeners heard classes around the globe share their concerns about the future of the Arctic and the reactions of a panel of regional elders, permafrost researchers, environmentalists, and politicians. Questions were received from students from Brazil and northern Canada as well as from bloggers in Norway, Antarctica and Greenland.