The US Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Office announces the launch of the new SCAR website. The new and improved US SCAR Office website is easy to navigate and allows viewers to quickly find specific items of interest. The site provides links to: US SCAR Team contact information, a guide to SCAR, data and information resources, early career opportunities, SCAR communications plans, SCAR partners network, SCAR Scientific Research Programs, and a photo gallery. The site has many direct links to the main SCAR website and provides the latest information on SCAR News and Forthcoming Events. ANSWER email digest items are posted on the website's front page directly above a series of "Links of Interest."...

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has released a second set of sea ice animations for Google Earth. As before the images are available in 30- 60- and 90-day animations of sea ice concentration and extent. While the first set of animations, released in late August, are based on data from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite, the new set is based on data from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) sensor on NASA's Aqua satellite. The significant differences between the two datasets are: AMSR-E has twice the resolution as SSM/I (12.5km vs 25km) and AMSR-E has a wider swath so there is better coverage near the pole. Monthly average sea ice...

Wired Magazine's online edition looks at several upcoming expeditions in the second half of 2008 and early 2009. Among them: the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS Divide) Ice Core, LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica (Larissa), Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Research Station, ...

At Cape Farewell HQ we are busy answering last minute questions from our intrepid crew; it seems that nine months of preparation have gone all too quickly and we're counting down the hours and not days or months to departure. Our launches are launched and so we set sail. On 25 September we are departing on the seventh Cape Farewell expedition.cOur Disko Bay expedition crew includes musicians KT Tunstall, Laurie Anderson, Feist, Martha Wainwright, Vanessa Carlton, Jarvis Cocker, Robyn Hitchcock and Ryuichi Sakamoto, beatboxer Shlomo, poet Lemn Sissay, comedian Marcus Brigstock, artists Michèle Noach, Sophie Calle, Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Julian Stair and Tracey Rowledge, architect Sunand Prasad, engineer Francesc...

Bremerhaven, September 19th 2008. The Arctic summer nears its end and the minimum extent of sea ice is reached. The Arctic ice cover amounted to 4.5 million square kilometres on September 12th. This is slightly more than the lowest ice cover ever measured:  4.1 million square kilometres in the year 2007. Scientists are anxious about the development of sea ice because the long-time mean is 2.2 million square kilometres higher. This development did not come about completely unexpectedly, however. A model calculation conducted at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in early summer showed that the ice minimum of the year 2008 would lie below that of the year 2005 with almost one hundred per cent probability. A new minimum bel...

The Prince Albert II of Monaco foundation is financing the participation of scientists and students in the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting to be held in Nice, France, Jan 25-30, for the Topical Session 054: Impacts of Climate Warming on Polar Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. As a result of this financing, 12 fellowships worth 1000 euros each are available, to be used to finance the participation in this polar session of 12 scientists from developing countries, countries bordering the southern Mediterranean, or students. If you are eligible, please, contact the co-chairs of the 054 Topical session after confirmation of your abstract submission (...

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting Nice, France, 25-30 January, 2009 Two special sessions at the upcoming ASLO meeting that may be of interest to those involved with the International Polar Year. Session titles are below, followed by a session summary.   Abstract deadline 3 October, 2008 Special session 099: IPY-GEOTRACES: Trace Elements and Isotopes in Polar Oceans Convenors: Marie Boye, LEMAR, IUEM, Technopole de Brest-Iroise, France, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; H.J.W. De Baar, Department Ocean Ecosystems, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, debaar@ni...

The scientific conference of Arctic Frontiers 2009, Arctic marine ecosystems in an era of rapid climate change (18-23 January 2009 in Tromso

The EUROPOLAR ERA-NET Consortium in association with the European Science Foundation launches the first call for Pre-Proposals under the PolarCLIMATE Programme call. This Call is supported by 20 ministries and national funding agencies from 18 European Countries with cooperation from the US National Science Foundation. There are 10 Million Euros (14.9 Million US$) committed under three major Science themes covering transnational Arctic and Antarctic Research and access to research infrastructures (Arctic and Antarctic stations, research vessels and air support) .   Submissions are accepted from 26th September 2008 to Friday 24th October 2008, 12.00 hrs Central European Time. Detailed information: The EUROPOLAR ERA-NET Consortium is launching the...

Researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute on Spitsbergen investigate the reaction of seaweeds to increased ultraviolet radiation Bremerhaven, August 21st 2008. It is red, it burns and itches: a sunburn on our skin. However, too much sun is not only bad for humans. Many plants react sensitively to an increased dose of ultraviolet radiation, too. Yet they are dependent on sunlight. With the help of pigments absorbing solar energy and light, plants produce their vitally important building blocks by means of photosynthesis. However, this has its limits: too much sun means an over-abundance of energy and thus the destruction of the sensitive pigments. The result are black spots, pale leaves and rotten parts. Since algae cannot apply sun lotion like we do, they de...