In cooperation with the approaching Sea Ice Day, IPY project ICED talks about relationships between sea ice and marine life in the Southern Ocean: Some of the strongest expressions of climate change have been noticed in Antarctica. In some areas sea ice has markedly decreased, in others it has increased. Sea surface temperatures in the west Antarctic Peninsula region have increased significantly over the last 50 years. These and other such changes affect the delicate balance of life in the Southern Ocean ecosystem. Changes in sea ice can have a direct impact on ecosystems through shifts in the amount of habitat available for ice-associated animals. Recent research revealed a decline in tiny shrimp-like creatures (krill) across the Scotia ...

July 11, 2007 Canada's New Government and University of Manitoba Launch Canada's Largest International Polar Year Research Project WINNIPEG -- Today the Honourable Vic Toews, President of the Treasury Board, joined the University of Manitoba for the official launch of the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System (CFL) Study, the largest project in Canada's International Polar Year research program. The CFL Study is based aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research icebreaker, CCGS Amundsen, and includes project team leaders from the University of Manitoba, the Universite Laval, the Universite du Quebec, the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), and DFO. "The Circumpolar Flaw Lead System project will provide us with vital scientific knowled...

Five research ships with scientists from 16 countries are currently in the Arctic performing groundbreaking research to better understand climate changes. The European Union Programme DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modelling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environment Studies), which is part of the International Polar Year, is concerned with the potential for a significantly reduced sea ice cover, and the impacts this might have on the environment and human activities, both regionally and globally. -Polarstern reports: The sea ice is getting thinner- Large areas of the Arctic sea ice are now only one metre deep, which means the thickness of the ice has halved since 2001, initial findings from the research ship Polarste...

Schools on Board is an outreach program of ArcticNet that focuses on Arctic marine science and research. The program is based out of the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada). It was developed to bridge Arctic research with science education in high schools across Canada; to increase awareness of issues related to climate change in Canada, and to excite young Canadians about the challenges and career opportunities of Arctic research. The main thrust of the program is the Field Program ³on board² the CCGS Amundsen. Schools are given the unique opportunity to send students and teachers to the Arctic, on board the CCGS Amundsen to participate in an educational experience completely in...

PolarTREC 2008/2009 Teacher Application Deadline: Friday, 5 October 2007 For further information, please contact: E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Phone: 907-474-1600 or visit the PolarTREC website Please note, international applicants are allowed to apply however preference is usually given to US teachers. International applicants will be dealt with on a case by case basis by NSF if they make it into the final pool of applicants. -------------------- APPLICATIONS FOR POLARTREC 2008/2009 TEACHERS ARE NOW AVAILABLE PolarTREC is currently accepting applications from teachers for the second year of teacher research...

September is a great time to study Sea Ice, in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. Below are details of three expeditions happening at the moment that welcome contact from press and educators. Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY (ASPECT) (IPY Project 141) ASPeCT has a number of associated expeditions investigating Sea Ice. These include: SIPEX: Sea Ice Physics and Eco-system eXperiment SIPEX website International SIPEX flyer (44KB PDF) ...

Submitted September 7: A dirty little secret. Its 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside just now. I guess I am not in Tasilliq anymore! The last weekend we waited for the weather to clear but the view was the same as always - rain and fog. Sunday wasn't even nice, a change for the books. Monday was worse! It was snowy and rainy. I had booked a ticket to leave Tasilliq on wednesday so we hoped that Tuesday would be better. When I woke up on Tuesday morning the view was blue skies, no clouds and majestic snow capped mountains all around. The autumn was officially here, and frosty nights would be coming very soon. Tuesday was my last chance to go and finish off the two sites to the south that had not had enough batteries installed. ...

Press Releases: DAMOCLES including details of current Arctic expeditions on the following vessels: Polarstern, Tara, Akademik Fedorov, Lance, and Viktor Buinitskiy. POLARSTERN Press Release (English) PDF (German) SIPEX: Sea Ice Physics and Eco-syste...

When asked about this IPY Day, sea ice scientist, Don Perovich (IPY project 95), replied: September 21 is excellent timing for a sea ice day. There is a tremendous amount of sea ice activity going on. There was an international sea ice summer school with more than 100 students from dozens of countries in July. There is currently a tremendous amount of sea ice activity going on in IPY. This summer there have been icebreakers from Canada, Sweden, Russia, and the U.S. conducting research in the Arctic and deploying autonomous sensors to monitor the changing sea ice cover. There have been ice camps at the North Pole and in the Beaufort Sea, along with work out of terrestrial...

How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts? Download this activity as a PDF: What Happens When Sea Ice Melts How does ice floating on the ocean act as it melts? Main photo: Salt water on left and fresh on right Materials per pair of students: 2-2 oz. blue ice cubes (In a small plastic cup, freeze 2 ozs of water mixed with 6 drops of blue food coloring) 2-16 ounce clear cups (Fill one with tap water and one with tap water saturated with salt) Directions: 1. Draw two glasses on a piece of paper. 2. Label one “fresh water” and the other “salt water.” 3. Draw a predict...