Alex Gaffikin

You can find Alex deep in the labyrinthine bowels of the Natural History Museum in London. She is beavering away with her team on the next blockbuster exhibition ‘Ice Station Antarctica’. Aimed at a family audience, it’ll see if they’ve got what it takes to be polar heroes. And she’s always on the look out for stuff for the exhibition…

ANDRILL Team

ANDRILL (ANtarctic geological DRILLing) is a multinational drilling project on the Antarctic margin to recover stratigraphic records. It is comprised of more than 200 scientists, students, and educators from five nations (Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). The ARISE Program (ANDRILL Research Immersion for Science Educators) provides unique experiences to educators as part of ANDRILL projects. For more information visit: http://andrill.org

Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province Project

The AGAP project uses airborne geophysics to image through the ice in the interior of East Antarctica. Two teams of international scientists from six nations are gathering information that will help in determining the size and age of the largest remaining ice sheet, and help image the large alp sized mountain range hidden beneath the ice. The mountains hold information on the early history of the Earth, their role in the formation and ongoing stability of the East Antarctic ice sheet, and their connection to the area's subglacial lakes.

APECS

The Association of Early Career Polar Scientists (APECS) brings together young researchers and early career scientists with an interest in natural and social sciences of polar regions. This network provides a forum to begin international and inter-disciplinary collaborations, to exchange information and experiences about research programs, research opportunities and work conditions, and to assure that the importance of polar regions for global dynamics will be made public knowledge. We invite scholars to become members of the network, participate in discussions, meetings and educational initiatives and help foster understanding for the complexity of Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Arctic Portal

The Arctic Portal is a gateway to Arctic related information as it relates to the Arctic Council, its Working Groups, Permanent Participants and Observers. It is endorsed IPY project 388.

ASPECT

Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate, ASPeCT, is IPY project 141.

Belle Dume

Belle is a science journalist based in Moscow and Paris.

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is a free, multimedia online magazine written for elementary educators. Each month’s thematic issue explores an aspect of the polar regions and provides online resources to develop teachers’ background knowledge as well as lesson plans, activities, printable books, and suggested children’s literature to use with students. While a new issue is available at the start of each month, old issues are archived and always available. Explore the cyberzine at http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/.

BirdHealth

Maarten Loonen is senior scientist at the Arctic Centre and Willem Barentsz Polar Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He is also station manager of the Netherlands Arctic Station in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. For over 20 years, Maarten has been ringing and observing geese in the arctic. He tries to understand the problems and dangers in a bird's life in the arctic and the difficulty to produce offspring. He has been studying behavioral decisions (when to fight, run or nest), availability of food (grass and moss) and risk of predation (arctic foxes and gulls) and is now looking at the role of diseases. All these factors vary a lot and respond to climate change. Check out his Arctic Station website with a wealth of stories and pictures in the weblog.

Camilla Hansen

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it works for the IPY International Programme Office and is the first point of contact for IPY Events. She is a physical geographer, completing a PhD on the Quartenary era in Tierra del Fuego. Her keen interest is to raise public awareness of the physical world around us. She believes IPY can become a milestone in many scientific fields and to many, many people.

CAML- Tangaroa

From February until mid- March 2008, New Zealand scientists are embarking on an eight-week voyage to the Ross Sea to survey the marine environment and explore the variety of life forms (biodiversity) in the region. This is part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life and scientists on board will also contribute to the NZ Science Learning Hub for teachers and students. Follow their route on the CAML-Cousteau Expedition tracking page.

CAML-CEAMARC

CAML-James Clark Ross

From February 19th until April 10th 2008, British scientists are embarking on the British Antarctic Survey’s research ship RRS James Clark Ross. This project is part of the British Antarctic Survey (British Antarctic Survey) program known as BIOFLAME (Biodiversity, Function, Limits and Adaption from Molecules to Ecosystems). Scientists onboard are studying marine fauna from the ocean shelves and slopes from a little-known region, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas. This is part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life. Follow their route on the CAML-Cousteau Expedition tracking page.

Canada IPY

For more news and stories, please visit IPY Canada.

Cape Farewell

Cape Farewell brings artists, scientists and educationalists together to collectively address and raise awareness about climate change

CLIVAR Section I6S

CLIVAR (Climate Variability) and Carbon Cycle Science Program Repeat Hydrography Section I6S (Indian Ocean #6 South) is an integrated approach to a global observational program for carbon, hydrographic and tracer measurements. The program is driven by the need to monitor the changing patterns of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the ocean and provide the necessary data to support continuing model development that will lead to improved forecasting skill for oceans and global climate.

There is broad consensus based on a variety of atmospheric, oceanic and modeling constraints that the ocean that the ocean took up 2.0 +/- 0.6 Gt carbon annually during the last decade. This is equivalent to 1-2 years uptake of anthropogenic carbon in surface waters. The total anthropogenic inventory of carbon in the ocean can be determined using concurrent, hydrographic, alkalinity, oxygen nutrient and tracer measurements. Utilizing transport estimates, the fluxes of carbon within and between oceans and ocean basins can be better constrained, particularly interhemispheric exchange of carbon through the ocean.

Funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Cynan Ellis-Evans

Cynan Ellis Evans has extensive arctic and antarctic experience, is a polar microbiologist, and currently coordinates UK and international IPY activities. He works for the British Antarctic Survey and also as senior advisor to the IPY International Programme Office.

DAMOCLES

DAMOCLES is a large IPY project studying the ice-atmosphere-ocean system in the arctic. Participants from several of the DAMOCLES platforms will share their stories here.

David Carlson

David Carlson is director of the International Polar Year programme office. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Environmental Legacy

Tina Tin is project leader of the IPY Environmental Legacy project.

Exploring Subglacial Lake Ellsworth

Neil Ross is a post-doctoral researcher in the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh. He is part of an active project to explore Subglacial Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica. Led by Martin Siegert (University of Edinburgh), this project involves collaboration with glaciologists at the British Antarctic Survey and Northumbria University. Subglacial lakes like Lake Ellsworth are important for several reasons: i) they are likely to contain unique lifeforms that may have been isolated for millions of years; ii) the water they release influences the speed at which ice sheets flow; iii) sediments beneath subglacial lakes will contain records of ice sheet history.

By making measurements using geophysical equipment deployed on the ice surface scientists have been able to gather data on the shape and size of Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, located 3200 m beneath their feet. Data collected by a 4-man team during the first field season (Austral Summer 2007-08) shows that Lake Ellsworth is 12 km long, 2-3 km wide and is, in places, up to 150 m deep. This information confirms that Subglacial Lake Ellsworth is an ideal candidate for future exploration, and will be used to establish the optimum location for direct access and sampling of Subglacial Lake Ellsworth.

A second season of geophysical surveys in West Antarctica will commence in late December 2008. A two man field team (Neil and his field assistant Dave) will be deployed at Lake Ellsworth (S78º58’42” W090º30’04”, elevation ~1930m), to make GPS measurements of how the overlying ice flows over the lake, and to use radio-echo sounding equipment to map the lake and the surrounding bedrock topography below the ice sheet. The team would really appreciate some slightly better weather than last year, when the wind blew nearly constantly and average temperatures were approximately -20?C! During his 4-6 week ‘camping holiday’ on the ice Neil will be writing a blog describing what it is like to live and conduct science on the top of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. He promises a well-illustrated blog with lots of cool photos - although unfortunately there won’t be any explosions this year!

Neil’s blog from the 2007-08 from his field season can be found here.

Glenn Stein

Glenn "Marty" Stein is a Life Member of the American Polar Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. One of his primary objectives is to interest and educate the public in polar history — this is vital if people of today and the future are going to appreciate and preserve not only human cultures and historical sites, but the vast variety of plant and animal life. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Global Snowflake Network

Guest Contributor

Writing from IPY Guest Contributors.

IASOA Project

The International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere, IASOA, is an IPY project that aims to establish a network of permanent Arctic atmospheric observatories. You can chart the progress of IASOA scientists on this blog.

ICED-IPY

ICED-IPY is IPY Project 92. ICED-IPY is a unique collection of polar scientists from different backgrounds willing to pool their collective talent to unravel how the Antarctic marine ecosystem operates, particularly in the face of changing physical conditions and fisheries pressure.

ICESTAR IHY

ICESTAR, IPY project number 63, comprises many projects looking at the Heliosphere impact on Geospace—How is the Earth influenced by phenomena in our solar system? Mor information at the ICESTAR website.

IGLO

IGLO (International action on GLObal warming) is an initiative of the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC), an international organization of science centers and museums dedicated to furthering the public understanding of science. As a major component of the 4th International Polar Year (IPY) scientific program, IGLO represents the first cooperation of science centers worldwide on a single topic of global significance - climate change. Since March 2007, IGLO has organized international interactive videoconferences, a worldwide Conversation on Climate Action, and the Albedo Experiment, which uses NASA satellites to illustrate the importance of the Polar ice caps.

For institutions who participate in IGLO’s common activities and exchange best practices, this initiative creates opportunities for science centers to increase local visibility, apply innovative technologies and techniques to projects, and develop new partnerships to advance science communication. Communications efforts include monthly newsletters, a web site, a blog, and a database of more than 1,500 science center professionals. We also maintain an online Toolkit of educational activities and resources.

Ultimately, IGLO will demonstrate the crucial role science centers play in science communication and education and emphasize their influence on shaping individual behavior.

INCATPA

Hayley Hung is on board the Amundsen research icebreaker from July 17 to August 8 2008 to collect air samples for the INterContinental Atmospheric Transport of Anthropogenic Pollutants to the Arctic (INCATPA) program.

International Polar Foundation

The International Polar Foundation (IPF) communicates and educates on Polar research as a way to understand key environmental and climate mechanisms. The IPF also promotes innovative responses to the complex challenges raised by the need for action on sustainable development.

IPF runs 3 other websites: SciencePoles, EducaPoles and ExploraPoles

IPY

Stories and announcements by "IPY" are posted by the IPY International Programme Office on behalf of others.

Recent Entries

Why are diatoms so successful? Alfred Wegener Institute finds some clues
Research vessel Polarstern starts 24th Arctic season
New record Arctic sea ice cover minimum in 2009?
Longest climate archive of the terrestrial Arctic retrieved
Call for Abstracts: NCP / AMAP Symposium on Human Health and Arctic Environmental Contaminants
Research aircraft Polar 5 finishes Arctic expedition

IPY Alaska

University of Alaska IPY Office was established to promote UA research, education, and outreach activities and to ensure that the benefits of IPY extend to everyone in Alaska.

IPY Australia

Information and stories about IPY activities in Australia.

IPY NL

IPY NL aims to coordinate the IPY activities happening in The Netherlands. For more information, please visit the IPY NL website.

IPY Portugal

LATITUDE60! is the educational and outreach programme of the Portuguese Committee for the IPY. The programme intends to involve students and teachers from kindergarden to the university level in IPY activities and promotes the linkage between polar environmental and societal issues with issues affecting the mid-latitudes, with a focus in Portugal. It is a cross-disciplinary programme with the objective of motivating students for science, arts and sports using the IPY as the central theme for the activities. Portuguese polar scientists are the organisers of the event and they will be in close contact with students. Several activities are planned: environmental exhibitions, science-art exhibitions, theatre plays, national contests, science talks at schools, interaction with polar scientists, educational packages, field weeks with students in the Portuguese mountains and participation of students in polar expeditions. The project is supported by FEDER and POCI funding in the framework of the agency Ciência Viva and is organized by the Centre of Marine Sciences (Univ. Algarve), Centre for Geographical Studies (Univ. Lisbon) and Association of Geography Teachers. Contacts: José Xavier ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and Gonçalo Vieira ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

IPY Sweden

Please consult the IPY Sweden websitefor more information.

John Wood

John Wood is a middle school teacher in Orange County, California, selected go to Antarctica with a team of scientists this season. The project he is accompanying involves deploying as many as 100 small seismic stations in various locations on Ross Island, near Mount Erebus. Dr. Phil Kyle, from New Mexico Tech, is the principal investigator on the project and has been working on this active volcano for nearly 30 years.

Juanita Urban-Rich

Juanita is co-developer of Windows Around the World, a web-based exchange program for elementary students that uses visual images. She will use this Blog to suggest ways you can teach polar science with this tool.

Karen Edwards

Karen works for the IPY Canadian Secretariat and international Programme offices.

Karin Granqvist

Karin Granqvist leads IPY Project 30, Representations of Sami in Nineteenth Century Polar Literature: The Arctic 'Other'.

Live From The Poles

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has partnered with eight science and natural history museums across the United States to bring the stories of IPY science to a broad audience. During four scientific expeditions to the polar regions, a professional photographer and science writer will chronicle the process of conducting scientific fieldwork “on the ice” through stunning still photographs, insightful written essays, podcast audio interviews, and video clips posted to the educational Polar Discovery website. In addition, at select times during the expeditions, the media team will place satellite phone calls to the partner museums so that the public can ask the science team questions in real time.

lizthomas

Lizzy Hawker

Lizzy is an Antarctic Oceanographer, and athlete, and also helps the IPY International Programme Office with content on this website.

Louise Huffman

Louise Huffman is a middle school educator and chair of the IPY formal education subcommittee. She spent a research season in the Dry Valleys, Antarctica, in 2002-03 through the Teachers Experiencing Antarctica (TEA) program. She will retire from teaching in June, 2007, and is looking forward to working on IPY related projects.

Lucia Simion

After getting a degree in Medicine, Lucia Simion decided to pursue a career as a science journalist and photographer. She has journeyed to Antarctica seven times to cover the building of the French-Italian station Concordia at Dome C, the EPICA project, and daily life at Mario Zucchelli station, Dumont d'Urville, Scott base and McMurdo. She is Italian, based in Paris since 1996.

Mark McCaffrey

A native of Colorado, Mark McCaffrey is an associate scientist and science communications specialist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder. He is an associate of the International Polar Foundation and serves as a member of the IPY Education, Outreach, and Communications Subcommittee. Mark has worked with the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program as an education and outreach specialist, and he led the development of the Climate Change Collection, a digital library of reviewed and annotated resources.

Mark Parsons

Mark Parsons is co-chair of the IPY Data Management and Policy Subcommittee and leads the IPY Data and Information Service. Mr. Parsons is a program manager at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). He studies geography and likes to ride bicycles.

MATE International ROV Competition

Jill Zande at The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Centre organizes and manages a network of regional and national student ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) competitions. In this blog, you will hear stories from various participants in the competition. Her website has more details.

Matt Nolan

My professional interests are primarily trying to assess and understand the impacts of climate change in the Arctic, primarily to glaciers. I work with a great group of international collaborators, at a time when great changes are taking place in the Arctic. From April to September in 2008, we will be living and working on or near McCall Glacier, located in a remote eastern Brooks Range. Hopefully we can send posts from the field so that you can follow along with our progress. I've lived in Fairbanks for over 15 years, and could not think of a better place to live and work, at least in civilization anyway...

McMurdo Sound Winter Sea Ice

Winter sea ice growth processes in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

During the southern winter of 2009 (February-October) we will carry out an extensive program of sea ice and ocean measurements in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. This is a collaborative project between the University of Otago, NIWA, IRL and VUW. Our research is aimed at understanding the interaction between the Ross Ice Shelf and the ocean and the effect this interaction has on the growth of the sea ice. We will be based at Scott Base (NZ), but we will also establish a research camp on the sea ice from where we will carry out most of our fieldwork.

The winter-over science team consists of Dr. Andy Mahoney and Alex Gough from the University of Otago and Brian Staite from Antartcica New Zealand. Andy is a postdoctoral fellow who is more used to studying sea ice in the Arctic. Alex is a PhD student who has already spent two winters on the ice with the British Antarctic Survey. Brian is an old hand in the Antarctic and will focus on keeping us safe so we can maintain the blog. This work is part of the IPY Antarctic Sea Ice project, which is an international effort to increase our understanding of sea ice and the processes that influence the changes we have been seeing in the recent past.

In addition to maintaining this blog, we will be posting data and results on the University of Otago Sea Ice Group pages

Nicola Munro

Nicola works at the IPY International Programme Office. If you ever call or email us, it's likely she's the friendly voice at the end of the line.

NOMAD

IPY project 408, NOMAD is reindeer herding from a reindeer perspective. An interdisciplinary group of researchers is following the annual migration of semi-domesticated reindeer in Kola Peninsula, Northwest Russia. The NOMAD website has more information.

Polar Artists

The POLAR ARTISTS group showcases journals and artwork from international artists — visual artists, writers, film makers, and musicians — who are dedicated to promoting awareness of the poles and the effects of climate change. They have all experienced the poles first hand, and share their art projects and visions with you. To submit articles, please contact the IPY International Office Art Liaison, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Polar Books

Polar Books is an IPY project featuring an online collection of books about the Arctic and Antarctica that reflect IPY themes – from books on Polar science, history, travel and exploration, to educational books for children, and books of stunning photography. Polar Books endeavours to collect and promote these books to a wider audience and to share outreach and educational resources from them, such as book excerpts, photography, artwork, maps & graphics and digital presentations.

Polar Field Services

Polar Field Services is part of the CH2M HILL Polar Services team. As the arctic logistics provider to the US National Science Foundation, our team's motto is "Let us plan the logistics so you can focus on the research." The work we support is interesting, germane to some of the most important issues of our day--and a great adventure. With our newsletter, "field notes", we share our view of the research with a lay audience.

Polar Historians

These are weblogs from different authors about Polar History.

Polar Research Journal

Polar Research is the international, peer-reviewed journal of the Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway's central institution for research, environmental monitoring and mapping of the polar regions. Aiming to promote the exchange of scientific knowledge about the Arctic and Antarctic across disciplinary boundaries, Polar Research serves an international community of researchers and managers.

Polar Teachers

These are entries by different authors of relevance to teachers interested in the polar regions.

Polarstern Expedition

Angelika Dummermuth is Coordinater for public outreach on board of RV Polarstern. The Polarstern Expeditions are organised by the Alfred Wegener Institut in Germany.

POLENET Team

POLENET is an IPY-endorsed science initiative aimed at dramatically improving the coverage in geodetic, magnetic, and seismic data across the Polar Regions. With 24 different nations involved, POLENET is a fantastic opportunity to strengthen international science collaboration. While this collaboration undoubtedly includes input from some of the best and most well-known researchers in the world, it also includes the participation of countless students and young scientists, working to become the next generation of top-tier researchers. In our blog posts we intend to highlight the experiences of this younger POLENET generation with stories coming from around the globe.

Rhian Salmon

Rhian worked in Antarctica as an atmospheric chemist and is now responsible for education and outreach during IPY.

Roswitha Stolz

I am an assistant professor at the Department of Geography of the University of Munich. My research fields are remote sensing and hydrology of the land surface (including snow and ice). At the Department we are working in the global change research. I am currently joining a leg of the Pangaea Expedition (www.mikehorn.com), a four-year effort organized and led by the well-known explorer Mike Horn. At the moment, there is a junior program attached to Pangaea, called YEP – Young Explorers Program, with the motto explore - learn - act. At 12 stops during the expedition, 6 to 10 young adults will join Mike to gain insight into scientific research supervised by experts from the University of Munich or other research institutes. Young people can apply via the Pangaea webpage. The first stop will be the Antarctic Peninsula, where we will conduct snow measurements along transects on several glaciers. The plots will be positioned using GPS and the snow measurements will be conducted using scientific standards. Everybody who is interested in the data should feel free to contact us for the data.

SIKU

Stories from researchers involved in IPY project 166: Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU)

Stefan Geens

Stefan edits Ogle Earth, a weblog about Google Earth, and now also blogs for IPY, as well as helping with the development of this site. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Students on Ice

Students On Ice is an educational organization offering youth expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic. Our mandate is to provide students from around the world with inspiring educational opportunities at the ends of our earth, and in doing so, help them foster a new understanding and respect for our planet. Visit our website for a comprehensive list of IPY activities and to read about our SOI-IPY Expedition series starting this summer in the Canadian Arctic.

Svalbard Students

This blog is written by Eike, Mathilda, Mikko, Sanna and Tine, a group of science students at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). UNIS is located in Longyearbyen at 78 N in the high Arctic and specializes in studies of biology, geology, geophysics and technology. Students from more than 20 countries study at UNIS every year. During winter the sun is gone for almost four months, while during summer the sun is up all the time from April to August.

Sweden/Japan Traverse

Tara Expedition

Tara and its crew are sailing to the North pole and back during 2006-2008. During that time, Tara will be used as a platform for a range of scientific observations and experiments. More about the expedition at Tara Expeditions.

The NISSE Team

In the NISSE student rocket experiment the impact of a water release on the upper polar atmosphere will be studied. More information can be found on the NISSE website.

Tom Litwin: On Thin Ice

On Thin Ice in the Bering Sea, an education project featuring a four-part vodcast series, focuses on two connected Bering Sea stories – the Yupik people of St. Lawrence Island and the 2008-2009 USCGC Healy scientific expeditions in the Bering Sea. During the 2009 USCGC Healy scientific expedition scientist Tom Litwin and Alaska writer and photographer Tom Walker will be on the Healy reporting for the IPY Polar Oceans Days. From the Bering Sea, their posting include photographs, interviews with the Healy scientists, and blogs describing the ecology, wildlife, and stark beauty seen during the scientific icebreaking mission

UAB Antarctica

Leading marine researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are among the first U.S. teams diving into the icy Antarctic waters during the International Polar Year. The team, working out of Palmer Station, is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs. It includes veteran Antarctic researchers and UAB biologists Charles Amsler, Ph.D., and James McClintock Ph.D., and University of South Florida chemist Bill Baker, Ph.D. The expedition continues a quest to understand predator-prey dynamics in the unique Antarctic marine communities. The team has discovered several compounds with potential uses against cancer and other diseases. Students of all ages can join the team and ask questions via the Antarctica UAB website. The UAB team also includes research assistant Margaret Amsler, M.S., and Ph.D. students Craig Aumack, M.S., and Philip Bucolo, M.S.

US National Parks Service

The US National Parks Service, Beringian Arctic, IPY Project 21, is studying change in the Arctic.

US-Norway Traverse

Scientists from Norway and the U.S. are working together to measure climate indicators in a traverse across the least explored part of East Antarctica. Starting at the Norwegian Troll Station in November 2007, team will travel overland to the U.S. South Pole Station, arriving in late January 2008, the return traverse will start at South Pole in November 2008 and finish at Troll Station in February 2009. Our team aims to investigate the response of this most remote portion of the Earth to anthropogenic activity and climate change. Join us! Read more about our traverse, historical traverses in this region, educational activities, and daily updates from the field.

WMO

WMO, the World Meteorological Organisation, is one of the co-sponsors of IPY.