Contents: 1) Joint Committee Assessment, for October 2007 2) AGU Sessions and Activities, for December 2007 3) IPY Science Day - 21 September 2007 4) IPY Youth International Planning Workshop, for September 2007 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1) Joint Committee Assessment The IPY Joint Committee will hold their sixth meeting in Canada in late October 2007. With most national funding decisions known, and with most IPY Projects underway or in late stages of planning, the Joint Committee will make an initial assessment of the overall programme. The IPY Expression of Interest (EoI) data...

The site we installed at Koge Bugt was incomplete. The kind of helicopter we used meant that we just couldn’t take all the batteries with us. It's still running on a single battery just now, which won’t do much good with winter fast approaching. We’re going to need a second trip out there to put more batteries in. We started planning to do that over the next couple of days. Because, you know? What could go wrong? In the meantime more people we know had arrived in Angmassalik, and were staying at the Hotel Nansen. The hotel is owned by the same people as the one we’re in (I think) but allows you to cook for yourself. So Abbas was basically press ganged into cooking a curry, with pakora no less, for everyone. Thomas made a Swedish apple pie and I threw together a sala...

Submitted September 2: So its been a long time since I wrote anything, or at least it feels like a long time. To be blunt, not a huge hell of a lot has happened since then. The main feature has been rain, a little more rain and then some more rain, followed by rain and a little bit of wind. We have managed to get another site installed and partially installed a couple of other sites, but weather has not been friendly. I think we last left off on the 23rd of August, something to do with a boat trip to Isertoq if I can remember that far back correctly. That was over a week ago, so what has happened since then? Hmm. We fixed the antenna at the Helheim site, same kind of deal as the last visit to Helheim, crammed into a 212 helicopter this time. The first and only time we've be...

Conference Announcement and Call for Papers: Arctic Frontiers 20-25 January 2008, Tromso, Norway Abstract Submission Deadline: Sunday, 30 September 2007 For further information, please go to: http://www.arctic-frontiers.com or contact:

Invitation to a press conference: On September 3, 2007, The Federal Minister of Education and Research, Dr Annette Schavan, will inspect the new Antarctic station Neumayer III, as well as the new research aircraft Polar 5, in Bremerhaven. Dear Sir or Madam, dear colleagues, The new German Antarctic station Neumayer III is currently under construction in Bremerhaven. It is scheduled to replace the present station in 2009. Neumayer III has been designed and will be constructed by the two Bremerhaven companies JH Kramer and Kaefer Isoliertechnik (Kaefer Technology) by order of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. In order to assure subsequent trouble-free assembly on the ice, a large section of the building will be test-const...

Final opportunity to submit an abstract to the AGU 2007 Fall Meeting

Submitted by Glenn Morris and Stephen Doughty: The Arctic Voice Team has reached the end of the 2007 leg of their journey by kayak through Canada’s Northwest Passage. We are currently in Kugluktuk in the Coronation Gulf, and are spending the weeks before our return to the UK strengthening links between the schools in Kugluktuk and their twin schools in the UK. This part of the Arctic Voice project has proved extremely successful, and the work has attracted media attention from Canadian News North and the BBC. We arrived on August 14 and only one night was spent in a tent before comfortable accommodation w...

Submitted by Mike Willis on Monday, Aug 27: There's something about what's happening here In Greenland. I keep having unforgettable days. On Thursday we changed our modus operandi in a direction I really did not expect. The helicopters were totally booked up with shuttle service to Kulusuk and for some more local science projects up on the Helheim Glacier. Abbas the ever inventive therefore chartered a boat to take us to Isortoq, about 20 minutes by helicopter to the south, but 2 hours by boat. Again here in Greenland we had another absolutely unforgettable day. With help from Meredith Nettles from L...

Submitted Friday, August 24: Okay so lets see. Last blog update was ... Sunday. Sunday? Sunday was brilliant! Monday. what happened on Monday? Ah yes, it rained. And rained. And was foggy and windy. So we sat in the hotel and watched the rain. Tuesday was like Monday, only more so. Here's a consolation picture of a couple of sled dog puppies. Wednesday. Hmm Wednesday. That was... hmm two days ago! Feels like it was a long time ago. It rained and had low clouds and fog. But only for half the day. The rest o...

(Written on Sunday, submitted on Monday) Yesterday, which was Saturday, and today have been no fly days. Not due to the weather mind you, just the helicopter has been busy doing other things. Yesterday it had to take a party of New Zealand school girls up to Helheim Glacier, the weather wasn’t great so they didn’t go. Today it was a day off for everyone all round – no planned flights. So a couple of non weather-caused day offs. What to do, what to do, what to do? Hmm dissertation? Lets see, I could sit here at the hotel and stare out at the bay and the mountains and the icebergs while trying to finish another chapter… or Thomas could knock on my door and say “lets go for a hike up the flower valley walk." Oooh tough decisions. Oh listen, Thomas just knocked on my ...