Drawing South is a website documenting the visual communication of artist Nicholas Hutcheson from on board the ship Aurora Australis as it visits 3 of the Australian bases on one of the annual re-supply trips. Nicholas will be heading to the Antarctic as part of the Australian Governments Antarctic Arts fellowship progam. Each week of the 8 week voyage, a new set of drawings will be uploaded featuring the weather, interviews with people working in the Antartic, answers to viewers questions and the daily observations of things around him. Part of this project is working with school students who are following the journey, asking him questions and learning about Ant...

The Last Polar Bear records and celebrates one of nature’s most majestic creatures — the polar bear — and examines how global warming is affecting the fragile, complex Arctic environment. Polar bears use sea ice to move about, find mates and hunt for seals. As temperatures warm, the loss of the pack ice directly impacts their ability to survive. Scientists agree that Arctic ice is disappearing at an alarming rate. Last summer, sea ice levels plummeted to their lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979. And a new scientific study by the U.S. Geological Survey, released last fall, predicts that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears, including Alaska’s entire population, may disapp...

Denali Education Center Executive Director Willie Karidis began his 70-day winter expedition to retrace, research and celebrate the steps of pioneering naturalist Charles Sheldon on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. The trip has been a dream of Willie's for over twenty years, since he first read "Wilderness of Denali". That book chronicles Sheldon's experience as he spent the 1907-08 winter in the heart of the Alaska Range along the banks of the Upper Toklat River. It was during that time that he had a vision for a National Park to preserve the unique natural ecosystem he experienced for future generations. Willie is working as a park volunteer (VIP) during his expedition and is being provided support by the National Park Service. Willie planned to camp in the v...

Contents: 1. IPY Science Day: Changing Earth, March 12th 2008 2. Send us your stories! 3. St Petersburg SCAR/IASC Meeting, July 2008 4. End of IPY Celebrations 5. Workshop and summer school opportunities for students 6. The Legacies of IPY Report no. 10, February 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY Science Day: Changing Earth, March 12th 2008 The IPY Science Day on March 12th will focus on change over geological time, especially the glacial and interglacial periods that have occurred during the past million years, and cycles of ocean- atmosphere interactions that give rise to r...

The NASA HOW (History of Winter) program is held each February (since 2000) in Lake Placid, New York, USA. The HOW Program brings together teachers and learning professionals from around the United States to study SNOW, ICE and the WINTER ECOSYSTEM through intensive classroom and fieldwork exercises led by experts in the field. This year the program is held February 10-16. Also this year, The Global Snowflake Network (GSN) will be launched. Peter Wasilewski and Robert Gabrys created and developed the NASA HOW (History of Winter) program held each February since 2000. The primary foci of the weeklong program (February 10 - 16, 2008) are threefold: 1) SNOW - in the air and on the ground 2) ICE - crystal structure and axial orientation 3) WINTER E...

Two nights ago three of us left Patriot Hills to go and install the GPS and seismic site at Dufek Massif, or more correctly Cordiner Peaks (82° 51’ 41.6”S, 53° 12’ 00.4”W), just to the south of Dufek. The weather at Patriot has been strangely nice, low winds, warm sun and warm tents. People have been sleeping on top of their sleep kits and complaining of the heat (it was 83°F in one tent earlier). To get to Dufek is a bit of a haul. We flew about an hour and a half to a site where the New York Air National Guard had kindly pushed 40 barrels of fuel from a low flying Hercules. Troubl...

POLENET is pioneering podcasts on IPY.org.... and IPY.org is rapidly developing to be able to show not only videos, but also audio. Keep checking over the next few weeks... but in the mean-time, enjoy the first POLENET podcast here. All subsequent podcasts can be viewed at the POLENET podcast feed. If you would like to contribute to this material, please email Rhian Salmon, IPY Educati...

Course Announcement International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise Yukon College and University of the Arctic 1 February-30 April 2008 For further information, please go to: http://dl1.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ipy/216info or contact: Amanda Graham Yukon College E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -------------------- Yukon College and University of the Arctic announce an international offering of the online course, International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise. This second-year-level, multidisciplinary course presents an overview of the historical and scientific context...

Press release Exploration of lake hidden beneath Antarctica's ice sheet begins 15 January 2008 PR No. 1/2008 A four-man science team led by British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Dr Andy Smith has begun exploring an ancient lake hidden deep beneath Antarctica's ice sheet. The lake - the size of Lake Windermere (UK) - could yield vital clues to life on Earth, climate change and future sea-level rise. Glaciologist Dr Smith and his colleagues from the Universities of Edinburgh and Northumbria are camped out at one of the most remote places on Earth conducting a series of experiments on the ice. He says, "This is the first phase of what we think is an incredibly exciting project. We know the lake is 3.2km beneath the ice; l...

The Last Polar Bear records and celebrates one of nature’s most majestic creatures — the polar bear — and examines how global warming is affecting the fragile, complex Arctic environment. Polar bears use sea ice to move about, find mates and hunt for seals. As temperatures warm, the loss of the pack ice directly impacts their ability to survive. Scientists agree that Arctic ice is disappearing at an alarming rate. Last summer, sea ice levels plummeted to their lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979. And a new scientific study by the U.S. Geological Survey, released last fall, predicts that two-thirds of the world’s polar bears, including Alaska’s entire population, may disapp...