Thank-you to everyone who was involved with launch events, who launched virtual balloons, who launched real balloons (see the Swedish launch web-cast!), those behind the scenes, and those on stage. IPY Celebrations around the world on March 1st, and throughout this week, have been a huge success. You can watch those you missed on the Arctic Portal, or still launch your virtual balloon now, and throughout IPY, to recognise the importance of the polar regions to the whole planet. Here is a map showing balloons that have been launched around the world (you can zoom in on where you live or zoom out to see the world map!): ...

The International Polar Year Publications Database (IPYPD) is now available at the IPYPD website. The IPYPD will attempt to identify and describe all publications that result from, or that are about, the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 and the three previous IPYs. The IPYPD currently describes 60 publications. This number is expected to grow to approximately 20,000 publications ten years from now. The IPYPD will be updated four times per year. The records in the IPYPD contain citations, detailed subject and geographic indexing terms, abstracts, and, in most cases, links to the online full text of the publications. The IPYPD is part of the IPY Data and Information Service (IPYDIS). The success of t...

IPY launch events around the world can be viewed live at the Arctic Portal. We also encourage everyone to launch a virtual balloon and show how many people around the world care about the polar regions and are interested in IPY. Everyone is welcome to join in, young or old, polar or tropical! The Official Opening Ceremony takes place in Paris at 11am local time. That is UTC 10:00, or, 1am in Anchorage, 5am in New York, 7am in Santiago, 3.30pm in Calcutta, 7pm in Tokyo, and 9pm in Sydney. You can watch it live or after the event on the web at the Arctic Portal, where you will also find webcasts of other national launch events from around th...

For the official launch in Paris at Palais de la d'couverte on 1st of March, the french postal administration, in connection with the french branch of the International Association for Polar Philately, "A.I.Phi.Pol", will open a special postal station with a special cancellation and postal stationary (pre-stamped envelope) especially designed for this historic day. The special postal station will be open in the morning for the conference attenders and in the afternoon for the public. The "A.I.Phi.Pol" have also arranged to have a small quantity of booklets available containing IPY stamps from the eight arctic countries. The booklets will be available on the opening day at the face value. To reserve a booklet, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it "

The following two postdoctoral fellowships are available on International Polar Year 2007-2008 projects led by the Environment and Natural Resources Institute at University of Alaska Anchorage: Soil Ecology, Soil Biogeochemistry The incumbent will conduct and supervise experimental work elucidating the consequences of deeper snow, shrub increases, and effects on soil-plant dynamics. The fellow will join a team that has conduced long-term experiments at Toolik Lake, Alaska since 1994 as part of ITEX (International Tundra Experiment) and has established a new set of experimental snow depth treatments that will be used in this research. A significant port...

A kick-off meeting of the IPY Core Project "Heliosphere Impact on Geospace" (IPY ID#63) was arranged in Helsinki on February 5-9 2007, with about 40 scientists from 14 different countries attending. The meeting was held at the facilities of the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The "Heliosphere Impact on Geospace" project coordinates multinational research on solar-terrestrial events which affect the composition and dynamics of the earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and atmosphere in the Polar regions. This is a consortium of 29 research projects from 22 countries which expressed their interest to the IPY, and the consortium's management responsibilities are carried by two complementary programs:"...

The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) is hosting its kick-off meeting at the Abisko Scientific Research Station, Sweden on the 22nd to 24th of February 2007. PYRN (www.pyrn.org) is an international effort under the patronage of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) to bring young permafrost researchers together during the international polar year and beyond. The first phase of the PYRN project saw more than 300 young researchers from 31 countries join the network. It rapidly became the largest young researcher-driven network in the field of cryospheric science. PYRN offers, news, information and support to its members. It has sent 17 monthly newsletters since its start in 2005, maint...

The 8th International ACUNS Student Conference on Northern Studies, titled Melting Boundaries: Carrying Out Effective Research in the Circumpolar World will be held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on October 19-21, 2007. We are expecting participants from around the circumpolar world, including Canada, United States, Finland, Norway, Russia, and other countries. Additionally, an International Polar Year (IPY) themed workshop will be held on Thursday October 18, 2007 to provide an opportunity for students to interact with leading Arctic and Antarctic researchers. The intent of this conference is to showcase student rese...

The IPY Youth Steering Committee is pleased to announce the launch of a ipyyouth.org, new youth website for the IPY. The site is an interactive online community where young people can learn more about the Polar Regions, the IPY and how to get involved. By joining this online community you can contribute to discussion forums on Polar Issues, submit artworks and photos to a Polar Gallery, view Podcasts by our members and submit your own, start projects with other members, and get involved in the YSC’s activities! Text: Mel...

European Union International Polar Year - Arctic Research Opportunities at the European Centre for Arctic Environmental Research (Ny-