Press release: Scientists report major steps towards first census of marine life Meeting in Spain, global crew shares progress towards historic Census in 2010; Among revelations in fourth interim global report: Antarctic ancestry of many octopus species, Behemoth bacteria, colossal sea stars, mammoth mollusks, more The 2,000-strong community of Census of Marine Life scientists from 82 nations today announced astonishing ex...

Press release: Scientists report major steps towards first census of marine life Meeting in Spain, global crew shares progress towards historic Census in 2010; Among revelations in fourth interim global report: Antarctic ancestry of many octopus species, Behemoth bacteria, colossal sea stars, mammoth mollusks, more The 2,000-strong community of Census of Marine Life scientists from 82 nations today announced astonishing ex...

IPY Report: November 2008 1. Conferences and Workshops 2. Above The Poles 3. Norway 2010: thanks for submissions 4. APECS 5. IPY in photos: share your images 6. Polar Books Report no. 19, November 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Conferences and Workshops The completion of field campaigns in IPY necessarily means an increase in workshops to discuss the outcomes. Please check the calendar on http://ipy.arcticportal.org for workshop information, and send any information about workshops for the calendar t...

The Arctic has always been a difficult place to do any extensive monitoring and data collection. Until recently, there have only been a limited number of projects that have taken any significant, long-term, and coordinated observations of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent bodies of water. This is due in part to the extensive sea ice cover that persists over Arctic waters for a good part of the year, which makes it difficult to conduct ship surveys or deploy weather buoys and moorings to measure deep water currents. Arctic ROOS (Regional Ocean...

By Falk Huettmann and Sue Hazlett The Arctic represents a region of the globe directly affected by climate change, human disturbance and natural variation. In addition to acting as the global weather machine, it is considered one of the last remaining “wilderness” areas. However, the warming of the Arctic, a prospect of an ice-free maritime route across the top of the world, and the International Polar Year (IPY), has piqued an interest in the Arctic not previously seen. Prospects of shipping routes, tourism, oil and gas development, and new commercial fisheries have started a land rush by various nations to claim a piece of the northern oceans. The Arctic is in danger of being given away piecemeal as each nation asserts claims and then rushes to develop or exploit their...

My name is Lucia Simion, I am a science writer and a photographer, specialized in the Antarctic. I love that continent because I always liked snow, it’s a magic element of nature, like wind, fire and ice. All these elements are to be found in Antarctica. But there is another reason too: As a child I used to live close by the home of Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot, explorer of the Antarctic as well as the Arctic. One year ago, in November 2007, I was deployed to the Ice to cover the ANDRILL SMS international project. ANDRILL stands for Antarctic Geological Drilling and SMS for Southern McMurdo Sound; the project has dr...

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has published several further issues of the Australian Antarctic Magazine: The latest issue of the Australian Antarctic Magazine (Issue 15, 2008) looks at the changes wrought in Antarctica by the signing of the Antarctic Treaty 50 years ago; ocean acidification; and Australia's science program for 2009. It is also available as a PDF. Issue 13 looks at the connections between Antarctic science and policy and how the Australian Antar...

Under the auspices of the SCAR project Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate (ASPeCt) and the Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY project for International Polar Year, we are holding a workshop on 22-24 March 2009 in Il Ciocco, Lucca, Italy. The main purpose of the workshop is to review and establish joint data analyses from two late-winter cruises to the Antarctic Sea Ice Zone both made during Sept-Oct 2007. An extensive satellite remote sensing campaign with designated IceSAT altimetry, RadarSAT images, and EnviSAT ASAR images coincided with the surface measurements. SIMBA (Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic) activities along 90W longitude in the Bellingshausen Sea are summarized here, while SIPEX (Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem...

IAMAS, IAPSO and IACS invite the international atmospheric, oceanographic and cryospheric research community to MOCA-09, their Joint Assembly, to be held 19th July to 29th July 2009 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. The call for Abstracts is now open.  Please note the following session: Session: J03 International Polar Year – Early Results Convenors: Michel Béland (IAMAS), Ian Allison (IACS), Karen Heywood (IAPSO) Abstract: This symposium provides the first opportunity after the official end of the observing period of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (1 March 2007 to 1 March 2009) to report new results from IPY projects. The session will particularly highlight interdisciplinary results ad...

While most biologists relish field studies, computer scientists are more known to spend long hours indoors, logged on the Internet, eating pizza. What happens when computer scientists and biologists team up to deploy an advanced monitoring system in the arctic? No pizza, no Internet, and beautiful, unpredictable nature — how does a computer scientist cope in the arctic? This is the story of the MANA diary, which gathered the impressions of an outsider during a 10 days stay at Zackenberg, Greenland, last August: from the logistics problems, the encounter with a polar bear, or outdoors volleyball to the amazing sight of a three-mast. ...