Uncovering mysteries at Earth’s poles Plenty — April 7 — One hundred and twenty-five years ago, Austrian explorer Karl Weyprecht called on scientists around the world to study the Earth's polar regions. Only through such concerted effort, believed Weyprecht, could problems of meteorology and geophysics be solved. Weyprecht's enterprise has since become the International Polar Year, held every 50 years and involving thousands of scientists from more than 60 countries. The latest kicked off in March 2007 and will last until March 2009-yes, it's two years long; keep reading to learn why-and it's now climate change that demands global solutions, with Antarctica and the Arctic hit first...

NOAA Probes Arctic Pollution For Global Warming Clues NOAA — April 7 — NOAA scientists are now flying through springtime Arctic pollution to find out why the region is warming - and summertime sea ice is melting - faster than predicted. Some 35 NOAA researchers are gathering with government and university colleagues in Fairbanks, Alaska, to conduct the study through April 23. Called ARCPAC (Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate Change), the project is a NOAA contribution to International Polar Year 2008. Ringed seals key to polar bears' fate: researchers Winnipeg Free Press — Apr...

River delta's rise puts Arctic's future in flux VANCOUVER, April 4, 2008 Globe and Mail In the Mackenzie River Delta, where there are about 45,000 lakes separated by thin arms of land, researchers have found that global warming is causing water-level increases three times greater than expected. The study, Effects of Global Change on Canada's Mackenzie River Delta, is part of an International Polar Year investigation into changes in Arctic freshwater systems. Experimenting with scientific fun Queens University Journal Bottles of strangely named ch...

NASA Launches Airborne Study Of Arctic Atmosphere And Pollution NASA April 3, 2008 NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory departed the NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, CA Tuesday for Fairbanks, AK to participate in one of the largest international atmospheric studies ever attempted. ARCTAS is NASA's contribution to an international series of Arctic field experiments that is part of the International Polar Year. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Energy also are sponsoring research flights from Fairbanks this month in collaboration with NASA. UAS to host sustainab...

Symposium held to mark International Polar Year April 2 Chinese Academy of Sciences With an objective of better analyzing the recent developments of polar research, upgrading China research capacity and presenting strategies and priorities for polar research and capacity building in the future, a session of the Xiangshan Science Conferences opened on 2 April in Shanghai. Under the theme of "Scientific frontiers of International Polar Year (IPY) and future polar research, the three-day meeting will invite scholars from various disciplines to have an in-depth discussion on various topics, ranging from Dome A science, astronomy in the Antarctic, Arctic Ocean Science, and Antarctic geology....

Arctic researchers go with the floes march 31, 2008 ABOARD CCGS AMUNDSEN Canada's peripatetic polar researchers are about to roll the dice in hopes of a bigger scientific payoff. Current plans call for the Amundsen icebreaker to shake free of its frozen berth later this week and knife farther west through the ice-encrusted Arctic. … Barber is a driving force behind the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, Canada's largest project for International Polar Year which runs from March 2007 to March 2009. More than 200 scientists from 14 countries are involved and making exhaustive use of the Amundsen. Earth f...

February 15, 2007

The news that global concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) increased last year has heightened concern about the vulnerability of polar regions amongst scientists managing International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. IPY is co-sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). "The rise in global concentrations of CO2 and nitrous oxide (N2O) over the past few decades will continue to stoke global warming, which has a pronounced effect in polar regions," says Dr David Carlson, Director of the International Polar Programme Office that oversees IPY. "IPY next year, and the associated launch of hundreds of scientific research projects focussed on polar conditions and polar ecosystems comes none t...