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...

Anne Aghion, an Emmy award winning filmmaker fascinated by people who survive extreme circumstances, was recently interviewed by SciencePoles.org about her latest film, ICE PEOPLE, a feature-length documentary that explores the physical, emotional and spiritual adventure of living and conducting science in Antarctica.  In 2006-07, Aghion and her crew spent four months on the ice to film the documentary. This included seven weeks camping in the "deep field" with a small team of geologists searching for fossilized vegetation on Antarctic lakebeds estimated at 14-20 million years old. ICE PEOPLE was made with the support of the National Science Foundation's ...

The Prince Albert II of Monaco foundation is financing the participation of scientists and students in the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting to be held in Nice, France, Jan 25-30, for the Topical Session 054: Impacts of Climate Warming on Polar Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. As a result of this financing, 12 fellowships worth 1000 euros each are available, to be used to finance the participation in this polar session of 12 scientists from developing countries, countries bordering the southern Mediterranean, or students. If you are eligible, please, contact the co-chairs of the 054 Topical session after confirmation of your abstract submission (...

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) - Sixth Continent Initiative fellowship 2008 award has just been granted to the Hungarian Ramón Hegedüs. The marine environment around Antarctica offers unique possibilities for studying the adaptations of visually-based animal navigation systems and foraging techniques. Currently working on a PhD in statistical and biological physics, this 26-year-old intends to investigate 'The role of polarized skylight in animal navigation and foraging in the Antarctic'.In his abstract research plan, Ramón explains that migration between h...

Sooty particles emitted during the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (petroleum, coal), biofuels, and biomass (wood, animal dung, etc.) can do more than just create unsightly pollution and provoke respiratory problems. Known within the scientific community as black carbon, research and modelling conducted in recent years shows that this dark-coloured aerosol has been playing a significant role in climate warming through its absorption of solar radiation. Its impact is heaviest in the cryosphere, where its presence can reduce snow albedo and can lead to faster melting of snow on land and on sea ice. ...

On the occasion of the 31st Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting held in Kiev, Ukraine, from the 2nd to the 13th of June 2008, SciencePoles looks at one of the lasting legacies of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08: A series of high-tech scientific research stations recently completed, or in the process of being constructed in Antarctica. Never since the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58 has the frozen continent seen suc...

Back in late February and March, at the end of an unusually intense melting season, several hundred kilometres of ice broke off of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and several thousand square kilometres more are still hanging by a narrow strip of intact ice. Ever since the break-up occurred, experts from around the world have been keeping a close eye on it. As a specialist in ice shelf dynamics and ice mechanics who has done research on a number of different ice shelves in Antarctica, Dr. Angelika Humbert from the University of Münster in Germany is amongst these experts....

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...

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...

Over 4.5 months, from November 2007 to March 2008, the BELARE expedition built the Princess Elisabeth Station's outer shell and set up the seven remaining wind turbines at Utsteinen, East Antarctica. Princess Elisabeth Station: From Tour & Taxis to Utsteinen After the success it encountered during its pre-assembly and public viewing in Brussels, the elements of the Princess Elisabeth station were dismantled and packed into containers. They were then loaded onto a Russian ice-class cargo ship on November 6, 2007 for their twenty day journey ...