The bibliography "International Polar Year 2007-2008 Resources on Polar Research in the NOAA Central Library Network : A Selected Bibliography" has been prepared to support NOAA Central Library (NCL) activities during International Polar Year 2007-2008. It reflects the NCL network’s unique print and online resources on exploration and research in Polar Regions. It includes citations organized “by title” from NOAALINC, the library's online catalog, and from the library's historical collections. The data and listings are comprehensive from the 18th century to the present. The formats represented in this resource include print, CD-ROM, online full-text documents, digital videos, digital images, online cruise data and Web resources. This document provides full-text access, copyright ...

You are invited to participate and contribute to the first Virtual Observatories in Geosciences Conference (VOiG). The conference will be at The Curtis Hotel, Denver Colorado, USA - June 12-15, 2007 Each day features plenary and parallel (breakout) sessions to cover areas of broad interests as well as the opportunity for detailed discussions. Time will be allowed for posters, with breaks to facilitate interactions amongst the worldwide VO community. The conference is sponsored by the Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY), USGS, NASA, NSF, SCOSTEP and NCAR. While this conference focuses on geosciences, all interested disciplines are invited to participate. ...

Climate Change "Magic": Disappearing Lakes and Reappearing Artifacts New Climate Change Issue of Alaska Park Science Now Available In the summer of 1999, artist Hamish Fulton took a hike through the icefields of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST). One highlight of his journey was a traverse near Iceberg Lake on the Bagley Icefield. Imagine his surprise when he crested a low pass expecting to see the lake, but all that remained was a small creek emerging from the melting terminus of a small alpine glacier. Icerberg Lake had disappeared. While in another area of WRST, scientists were discovering rare archeological materials melting from ancient glaciers. How and why these events happened is covered in the latest issue of Alaska Park Science....

DRAFT 19th April, 2007 The Smithsonian Institution will host a polar science symposium as one of the inaugural U.S. contributions to celebrate the International Polar Year 2007-2008. "Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science" is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, May 3-4 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Building (Castle) in Washington, D.C. The symposium, which is also supported by the National Science Foundation, will present research findings by Smithsonian scholars and their collaborators from Arctic and Antarctic research, with particular attention to changes in polar systems past, present and future, and their global impact. The symposium will ...

I wrote in my first blog how lucky I was to have a chance to work in Antarctic and that experience has changed my life in many ways and continues to. I credit this to one of my dearest mentors and a true inspiration to me, Dr. Diane McKnight. Diane has been conducting research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys for two decades and has been inspiring new scientists for even longer. Diane continues to inspire new polar scientists through her recently completed children's book describing the first encounter with a live seal in the Dry Valleys. I encourage all of you to check out the Lost Seal website and share this great adventure with the schools you visit and the children you know. “Resear...

Dr. Diane McKnight, Antarctic Scientist at the University of Colorado - Boulder, has been inspiring people to study the Antarctic region for nearly two decades. She continues to do so through her wonderful new book The Lost Seal. The Lost Seal children's story describes the first documented encounter with a live seal in the remote McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. This educational story tells of one seal's travels in the Antarctic desert and provides an engaging framework for conveying how different Antarctica and the Dry Valleys are from the environments with which children are familiar. "Research scientists camped at the desolate McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica studying the local lakes and streams are one day surprised to find a young Weddell seal in t...

The first pair of scientists left on April 20 for the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO), flying from Resolute Bay to Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island. After refueling and a check of the weather conditions at the North Pole, the two scientists and two pilots flew on to the Russian-operated Borneo ice camp at 89º15’ N latitude, 0º22’W longitude. It was the end of a long year of preparation and a long week of waiting for weather and ice conditions to allow planes to fly this sometimes treacherous journey. (View the travel map) Weather conditions at the Pole have improved, with lighter winds, greater visibility, and temperatures around -15ºC—colder than yesterday, but much better when you are trying to live and work on ...

The first pair of scientists left on April 20 for the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO), flying from Resolute Bay to Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northeastern tip of Ellesmere Island. After refueling and a check of the weather conditions at the North Pole, the two scientists and two pilots flew on to the Russian-operated Borneo ice camp at 89º15’ N latitude, 0º22’W longitude. It was the end of a long year of preparation and a long week of waiting for weather and ice conditions to allow planes to fly this sometimes treacherous journey. (View the travel map) Weather conditions at the Pole have improved, with lighter winds, greater visibility, and temperatures around -15ºC—colder than yesterday, but much better when you are trying to live and work on ...

IQALUIT, NUNAVUT TERRITORY, CANADA—“Traveling to the Canadian Arctic requires a lot of patience.” Those were the sage words of a fellow weary traveler as we stood at the airport ticket counter at 3:45 p.m. on April 16 in Iqaluit, Canada. Chris and I had missed our connecting flights to points farther north, as had Andrew Brown, a resident of Resolute, Canada who was returning from a month of vacation. We had all been slated for six hours and 1,120 miles of air travel north and west to Igloolik, Pond Inlet, and finally to our North Pole staging base in Resolute (see a map of our travel plans). Our goal is to document what scientists are learning about the Arctic Ocean and how it regulates global climate. But now we were standing in Iqaluit (ik-COW-lu-eet). It was a fitting, and ultim...

The Dry Valleys lack many of the higher organisms generally considered "interesting". The mummified seal and penguin remains remind us that the occasional ill-fated visitor makes its way from the sea out to here, as six Adelie penguins did this season. Unfortunately, their attempts at colonizing the barren, frozen lakes have always ended tragically. On first glance, the Dry Valleys appear to be devoid of life altogether. But after a little while, I came to realize that despite the desert climate and extreme cold, the Valleys are teeming with life. I compare wildlife viewing in the Dry Valleys to looking at one of those 3-D picture books: readjust your eyes and after a while you simply cannot avoid seeing life all around you. Microscopic creatures live in the soils, lichen...