After a night of repositioning the drill and coring about 20 meters, the drill crew slept during the day as Jason and I headed downglacier to explore the lower valley to prepare for a hydrological monitoring during summer. Most of the snow and ice that melts on the glacier during summer ends up at the stream which emerges from under the terminus. By studying the stream and its dynamics, we can potentially learn many things about how the glacier works. For example, we know from previous studies using GPS to measure ice velocity, that the glacier moves faster on hot sunny days than it does on cloudy days. The reason has something to do with meltwater reaching the bottom of the glacier and by studying the stream that comes out we can gain more clues about exactly how this increased meltwater ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 11, 2008 The Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than previously calculated according to a scientific paper by University of Alaska Fairbanks researcher Sebastian H. Mernild published recently in the journal “Hydrological Processes.” The study is based on the results of state-of-the-art modeling using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as well as satellite images and observations from on the ground in Greenland. Mernild and his team found that the total amount of Greenland Ice Sheet freshwater input into the North Atlantic Ocean expected from 2071 to 2100 will be more than double what is currently observed. The current East Greenland Ice Sheet freshwater flux is 257 km3 per year from...

Students on Ice is currently accepting applications for the 2008 International Polar Year Arctic Youth Expedition, taking place August 2nd-17th, 2008. The ship-based program joins students aged 14 to 19 from around the world with a team of 30 world-renowned scientists, environmentalists and polar educators. The experience serves as a powerful platform to create change, inspire, educate, give cause for hope, and raise awareness about the impacts of climate change and other environmental issues facing the Arctic region. Applications are being accepted until all spots are filled. ...

There is no way one web site can report on all IPY activities around the world. That's why we started Friends of IPY, a list of regularly updated news and blog sites dealing with the poles and IPY-related activities. You can see the most recently published stories from all these sites on the right hand side column of the front page of IPY.org. This makes it easy to keep up to date on all things polar. With the recent addition of the Students on Ice Blog to "Friends of IPY", a list of regularly updated news and blog sites dealing with the po...

Press release: Bremerhaven, June 9th 2008. Research ice breaker Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research of the Helmholtz Association puts out to the Arctic on June 12th after three weeks in the dockyards. The expedition of four months length is divided into three stages and leads via the Greenland Sea to Spitsbergen and up to the Fram Strait. The journey through the Northwest Passage up to the East Siberian Sea is planned as the third stage. Two days earlier, on June 10th, the research vessel Heincke leaves the island of Helgoland towards the Orkney Islands. Research is centred on marine biological investigations in the North Atlantic. The emphasis of research of the first part of Polarstern's journey are oceanographic read...

By Antony Jinman (Read the full report, with photos and a map, via this downoadable PDF. This is an expedition that I put together to take part in the International Polar Year. I put this together because I’m a strong believer that one person can help make a difference. Its aims are to promote The International Polar Year and our charity British Schools Exploring Society and its 75 anniversary, by conducting school visits both on Baffin Island and here in the United Kingdom. It took 12 months to put together, over which time there where many highs and many lows and in true expedition style it didn’t exactly all go according to plan. Many decisions were hard to make and...

The main objective of the weekend was to emphasize the importance of the polar regions, and to showcase the various Portuguese science and education outreach activities currently underway. The weekend proved to be a wonderful opportunity for the wider public to get to know the Portuguese polar science community...

Andrea Burke, a second year graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program discusses her interest in paleoceanography, past climate change, and her excitement about going to Antarctica to learn more.

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...