In May and June 2007, Mary Albert (CRREL) and Jeff Severinghaus (Scripps) led a team of 9 researchers and 3 drillers in a 3-week project to drill down through nearly 125 meters of "firn" and ice close to NSF's Summit Station, Greenland. "Firn" is multi-year snow before it's transformed into solid ice through the pressure of layer upon layer of new snow each successive year. Understanding the physical structure of the firn and the gases trapped in it, is essential to properly interpreting the ice core record, and understanding what cores reveal about Earth's past climate. As Jeff Severinghaus says, with a more accurate understanding of snow, firn and ice you can take climate data from ice cores "to the bank" - such as the fact that sometimes Earth's climate can jump 18 degrees F in just a decade - and make more accurate predictions of the future.

One can hardly imagine a more interesting time for Arctic sea ice, or a more challenging time if one wishes to predict the minimal extent of the sea ice at the end of this year's melting season (the Arctic melting season generally ends around 20 September). Sea ice in 2007 reached a minimum of 4.2 million square kilometres on 21 September, an extent 40% below the average for the past 28 years and so low that it surprised all observers and called into question many of the assumptions we might use to estimate 2008 conditions. We now understand that an unusual weather pattern of warm winds and clear skies played a large role in 2007 melting, and we know that we started 2008 with an unusually large amount of new (first year) ice. An international group of researchers has, f...

Call for Researcher Applications Host a PolarTREC Teacher (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) Researcher Application Deadline: Monday, 8 September 2008 Teacher application information will follow shortly. For further information, please contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 907-474-1600 or visit the PolarTREC website: http://www.polartrec.com -------------------- APPLY NOW TO PARTICIPATE AS A 2009/2010 POLARTREC RESEARCHER PolarTREC is currently accepting applications from researchers for the third year of teacher research experiences. Researchers are invited to submit an application to host a PolarTREC teacher in the Arctic o...

The first black explorer to set foot on the Antarctic ice shelf garnered a posthumous honor August 5, when the school board of Rochester, Minnesota, confirmed the name of the George W. Gibbs Jr. Elementary School. George Washington Gibbs Jr. was born on Nov. 7, 1916, in Jacksonville, Florida. He was also raised in that port city and many years of his life were connected with service at sea. Enlisting in Macon, Georgia, in 1935, four years later Gibbs was chosen from of hundreds of applicants for the 1939-41 US Antarctic Expedition. Serving as a Mess Attendant 1st Class aboard the Bear, Gibbs attracted official attention before the ship ever departed American shores: Especially commended by the Commanding Officer at meritorious mast...

Press release Bremerhaven August 7th 2008. The German Research Vessel Polarstern had to prove its ice breaking capabilities in Arctic waters to gain data on two series of long-term research measurements. After working in regions up to latitude 82° N, Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will enter port in Reykjavik (Iceland) on August 10th. “This year, we had to cope with exceptional heavy ice coverage”, says chief scientist Prof. Gerhard Kattner. The sea ice covered the Arctic almost down to latitude 72° in southern direction. Perpetual winds from the Northwest have moved the ice into the central area of the Fram Strait since the beginning of summer. The main focus of the expedition lied ...

Return to Main Land and Life Pages Courtesy of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the coldest and driest desert system in the world and represent 2% of the Antarctic Continent that is free of ice. This polar desert is a configuration of barren ground, alpine, terminal, and piedmont glaciers, and ephemeral streams. The high winds and bitt...

Investigating sea ice decline A revised outlook for the Arctic 2008 summer sea ice minimum shows ice extent will be below the 2005 level but not likely to beat the 2007 record. DAMOCLES will dispatch eleven research missions into the Arctic this autumn to better understand the future of the sea ice. Chances that the 2008 ice extent will fall below last year's record minimum is about 8 percent, researchers forecast after having run a number of different models predicting the fate of the Arctic sea ice this summer. But there is still reason for concern; the scientists are almost certain the ice extent will fall below the minimum of 2005, which was the second lowest year on record. With a probability of 80% the minimum ice extent in 200...

Contents: 1. IPO in August 2. September 24th: People Day 3. Oslo Science Conference, June 2010: Call For Session Ideas 4. AGU 5. Arctic Field Season Report no. 16, August 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPO in August Please note that the IPO will not be working at full potential during the month of August as Nicola, Dave, and Rhian are away from the office at different times. Please be patient if the response time is slow, and call our mobile phone numbers if an immediate response is required. 2. September 24th: People Day The next Polar D...

I am traveling from Toronto to Ottawa and the train has just started moving. I'm passing a familiar skyline of the CN Tower, downtown, the Don Valley, and hopefully soon I'll see Lake Ontario on my right. I lived in Toronto for 5 years and though I haven't been back often, the scenery remains a home from home. Ottawa will be all new to me, and I'm glad to have grounded myself in the familiar for my first jet-lagged evening. I will be met by someone from Students On Ice at the train station, and presumably a handful of soon-to-be-friends also arriving on this route. (The heavens have opened, so much for my scenic train journey.) How do I feel? Excited, apprehensive, confident, intrigued, honoured, calm. I love th...

A new issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears magazine is ready to view! Issue Five, Water, Ice, and Snow, uses the polar regions to better understand the water cycle as well as states and changes of matter. As always, the issue includes: Science and Literacy content knowledge ...