There were a lot of filmmakers in and around McMurdo this season, but none were there longer than the Whiskey 218 trio. Producer and Director Anne Aghion and her crew - Sylvestre Guidi at the camera and Richard Fleming recording sound - arrived on the first flight of Winfly, August 20th and stayed for four months, until just before Christmas. Aghion says: "I wanted to be there during Winfly to get the feeling of the station waking up," and indeed they did. After two months filming in and around McMurdo, the three set up camp with four geologists for another couple of months, first in the Olympus Range and then in the Asgard Range. The focus of the film, which was made possible by a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers grant, is on...

In three weeks time, IPY will have officially started! Every few weeks, I write to my various colleagues and contacts around the world letting them know about the latest plans for IPY Education and Outreach. Lately, this has clearly been dominated by plans for the launch on March 1st, but I'm pretty excited about the following months as well. We'll soon hopefully have packs for Press, materials for teachers, navigation of IPY via geobrowsers like Google Earth and live connection to the polar regions through various IPY partners. if you would like to know more about these activities, keep a track of this website or {encode=" This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it " title="let me know"} if you'd like to be added to the Teachers or Journalists email lists. Thanks to all of you ...

On the 2nd of February 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 1 released a contribution to the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report: "Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policy Makers". Sciencepoles has produced a summary of the polar aspects contained in this document. Here is a short synopsis, the full article is available on our website. Overall, the report concludes that global average temperature will rise between 1.1°C to 6.4°C by 2100, and that it is 'very likely' (90% certainty) that human activities and emissions are causing global warming As key components and contributors to the global cl...

The permafrost regions occupy 24% of the Northern Hemisphere’s land area and all glacier-free areas of the Antarctic continent. To obtain a snapshot of ground temperatures, thawing rates, and organic carbon contents of the permafrost regions, four coordinated IPY permafrost programmes are underway, involving 50 individual projects from 28 countries and hundreds of researchers and students. Geographically, the programme includes both polar regions and covers the mountains and plateau regions of the mid- and low-latitudes. The major focus of the programme is to observe and document current changes in permafrost conditions. These measurements serve as a baseline against which to evaluate future changes and to validate current models. Existing networks include boreholes for ...

If you want to get involved in International Polar Year right from the start now is your chance!! The IPY Youth Steering Committee is asking young people from around the world to write to their political leaders (and send a copy to us) about their concerns for the Polar Regions and what they personally are doing to make a difference (biking to school, recycling, starting a polar club in their school, doing a polar science project). The YSC will present these letters at the official launch of IPY in Paris on March 1st and on our website. Throughout the Polar Year we will follow up with youth to see how they are doing with their commitments. To find out more download the launch package. Text: Melian...

The I-TASC Reconnaissance and Communication Expedition crew has successfully installed the Groundhog AWS at 71 deg 40.433 S 02 deg 48.700 W ahead of the IPY launch on 1 March. The data generated by the Automatic Weather Station is transmitted daily by the Groundhog unit and will be used as the basis for sound pieces, music and animations that are being prepared by artists for the I-TASC IPY launch events in South Africa and Brasil on 1 March. The data is viewable, and downloadable as ascii text on the front page of the I-TASC website together with regular updates about hew I-TASC projects for the IPY. ...

Good news for IPY and for our Danish colleagues! The Finance Committee of the Danish Parliament has approved additional funding for IPY. The following is an unofficial translation of the official notes associated with the approval of the IPY funding: 'In 2007-2009 the International Polar Year (IPY) will take place and on this background 30,000,000 DKK will be allocated in 2007 and in 2008 in order to accentuate the IPY opportunity. The funds will supplement the current grants for Arctic research and logistics support and will be issued by the Commission for Scientific Reseach in Greenland and the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation, respectively.' For more information, visit the ...

You can track the Polarstern research vessel in a number of ways as it traverses Antarctic waters. You can view the raw coordinate data here on www.sailwx.info's tracking map. You can also track it in Google Earth by downloading this constantly updated file from the SCAR MarBIN portal. The file in turn accesses position data from this page on the Polar View website, which al...

Boulder, Colorado is home to some of the world's leading polar and climate experts, and so to help celebrate the beginning of the International Polar Year we'll be holding Ice Fest, which may, if successful, become an annual event. This year it will be held March 8-11th on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus, with "Arts & Sciences Day "on Thursday March 8th showcasing phenomenal photograph from both polar regions, a special keynote talk on Friday followed by "An Evening with Michael Brown," an award-winning Boulder filmmaker, "Family Day" on Saturday t...

Although perhaps only a few of you can actually attend, I hope you share my enthusiasm for IPY events such as the Arctic Journey dance performance at Grand Valley State University in early February. "Arctic Journey" relates an Inuit story about a walrus hunting tragedy and includes Inuit Drum Dancing, Inuit Throat Singing and performances by dancers from the Grand Rapids (Michigan) area. This event celebrates Western Michigan's kick-off to International Polar Year. Grand Valley State University serves as host for one of IPY's Education projects: IPY a...