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...

Contents: 1. Publications Database 2. Satellite Data 3. IPY Celebrations, February 2009 4. APECS information 5. UNEP Children's Conference,- call for material 6. IPO update Report no. 12, April 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Publications Database Already, many researchers prepare publications of their IPY work. As described in the IPY Data Policy, we encourage all IPY researchers to acknowledge IPY and its sponsoring agencies (ICSU, WMO) in all of these publications and to provide bi...

Published quarterly in March, June, September and December, the multiple writing award winning journal "The Fan Hitch", now in its tenth year, has been enjoyed not only by Inuit Dog enthusiasts, but also has been appreciated as a valuable resource for information as well as a connection to other people, by scientists, historical researchers (including IPY contributors), tourism businesses, filmmakers, authors, veterinarians, universities, government agencies and NGOs. In addition to being principally a free "e-zine", "The Fan Hitch" is also available in paper form, which is imaged and distributed by the IPL students of the Ulluriaq School, Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik. As part of our mission to help restore and pr...

Antarctica receives almost 50,000 visitors a year, if you count both those who disembark and those who sail or over fly the continent without landing. Is it now for the Antarctic Treaty or the governments involved to regulate Antarctic Tourism? Should we start talking about quotas and/or other measures to protect the most pristine region in the world? Photographer, cruise manager and guide Juan Kratzmaier summarizes a conference talk he gave on the topic at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona for the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in ...

SciencePoles recently interviewed Dr Cynan Ellis Evans of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on the subject of Antarctic sub-glacial lakes: Large bodies of water that have accumulated beneath the vast ice sheet of Antarctica. In his interview, Dr Ellis Evans answers questions about how these lakes formed, how they are being studies, and what their significance is for Polar researchers including glaciologists, geologists, biologists, and paleo-climatologists. In addition, he sheds light on the nature of the international effort to research these lakes, and addresses more contentio...

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...

Antarctic expedition a success The Prague Post, March 26

A number of research projects during the current International Polar Year are using the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic as well as sociological studies of these societies in conjunction with research in the natural sciences on climate variability and change. With climate change rapidly altering the face of the Arctic, it is particularly important to document indigenous knowledge while it is still available. The inherent knowledge of snow and snow conditions that reindeer herding communities have accumulated over the centuries can be of great value to researchers studying snow and ice conditions in these regions. In the IPY EALÁT project (n°399), researchers are examining reindeer herding societies and how they are coping with climate change wh...

In April of 2008 a team of scientists and Canadian Rangers will traverse the northern coast of Ellesmere Island to study the state of the ice shelves and associated ecosystems in this remote region. The Canadian high Arctic is undergoing substantial climate-related changes; ice shelves along Ellesmere's northern coast that have been attached to the shore for thousands of years, some over 30 meters thick, and thousands of square kilometers of land-fast sea-ice have been breaking-up. The loss of these dominant features has dramatically changed the coastal landscape, leading to the drainage of massive volumes of freshwater from fiords previously dammed by the ice shelves and the creation of vast ice islands. These physical changes are altering the habitat of aquatic microbial communities ex...