STELLA ANTARCTICA is a 9-nation IPY project to investigate the feasibility of establishing an observatory at Dome C in Antarctica – potentially the best astronomical site in the world. The team will conduct several small-scale astronomical experiments at Dome C, as well as holding international discussions that could pave the way for an ambitious, multi-million Euro observatory at Dome C.

The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) is hosting its kick-off meeting at the Abisko Scientific Research Station, Sweden on the 22nd to 24th of February 2007. PYRN (www.pyrn.org) is an international effort under the patronage of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) to bring young permafrost researchers together during the international polar year and beyond. The first phase of the PYRN project saw more than 300 young researchers from 31 countries join the network. It rapidly became the largest young researcher-driven network in the field of cryospheric science. PYRN offers, news, information and support to its members. It has sent 17 monthly newsletters since its start in 2005, maint...

Cape Farewell brings artists, scientists and educators together to bring about long-term change in cultural attitudes towards climate change. Created by artist David Buckland in 2001, Cape Farewell has lead three expeditions to the High Arctic, the frontline of climate change. From these expeditions has sprung an extraordinary body of artwork, a film co-produced by the BBC, Cape Farewell’s first major book title, The CD ARCTIC by Max Eastley, educational resources for GCSE Geography and Science and a UN award winning website. The project is widely acknowledged to be the most significant sustained artistic response to climate change anywhere in the world.

Hello! Word about the IPY site is starting to get around! We just received an extremely well-written and passionate note from one of our past participants. A Battle with Nature by Sharon Querido - SOI Antarctic past participant In late August 2005, a horrible tragedy struck the nation: Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. As the police lost control, anarchy in its worst form began to rise within the area. Though many people believe lawlessness can only lead to chaos, I have experienced anarchy as a utopia. Antarctica, exempt from governmental control by any country through the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, has become a peaceful, international territory. In December of 2005, I was invited to attend an education...

When the Discovery glided into the water at Dundee Dockyard on March 21, 1901, the air was crowded with the accompanying roar of cheers. The first ship built in Britain especially for exploration work was about to sail, and steam, into history. She was the principal vessel in the 1901-04 National Antarctic Expedition, at the end of which the ice sought to entomb her. The following years saw Discovery serving as a merchantman for the Hudson's Bay Company, and during the First World War as a supply ship. In 1916, she was sent south to rescue Sir Ernest Shackleton's men stranded on Elephant Island, but while at Montevideo, Uruguay, it was discovered that the Chilean naval vessel Yelcho had saved the marooned explorers. Ominous events eventually beckoned ...

HMS Endurance is an ice breaker in the service of the British Royal Navy. Every northern autumn she heads to Antarctica to support British Antarctic bases and projects. The ship has a website dedicated to it, Visit and Learn, which tracks its travels and posts updates on its doings. Now you can also track HMS Endurance in Google Earth. An enterprising coder has used the publicly available data on the website to create a constantly updated file pinpointing the ship's current and past locations on Google's popular virtual globe. Here's how to follow along with the HMS Endurance using Google Earth: If you haven't already done so, ...

If you're a lover of the novels of Magnus Mills, then you may have read his Explorers of the New Century, in which two rival expeditions traverse distinctly polar terrain. The expeditions are vying to be the first to arrive at the "Agreed Furthest Point" (AFP), the point furthest from civilization. Imagine my surprise to find out that there actually is such a point in real life, called the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility — it's the point on the Anta...

The Arctic sea ice cover is undergoing significant climate-induced changes, resulting in a reduction in ice extent and a net thinning of the sea ice cover. During IPY researchers from 10 nations will be studying the properties and processes that govern this sea ice cover and exploring its role as an indicator and amplifier of climate change. Numerous techniques will be brought to bear on this task, including expeditions, satellite remote sensing, autonomous rovers, buoys, ocean moorings, and numerical models.

ICEFISH: International Collaborative Expedition to collect and study Fish Indigenous to Sub-antarctic Habitat.

The Antarctic and the sub-Antarctic offer natural laboratories for understanding the evolutionary impact of climate changes on the marine polar fishes, but there has been lack of access to sub-Antarctic fishes, critical for understanding evolution, population dynamics, eco-physiology and eco-biochemistry of their Antarctic relatives. ICEFISH, the first comprehensive international survey of the Sub-Antarctic marine habitat, is designed to fill these gaps.

The 2007-2008 International Polar Year (IPY) provides an international framework for improving our understanding of high-latitude climate change and enhancing our skill in predicting world-wide impacts. Recent, well documented observations of the dramatically changing high-latitude components of earth’s cryosphere (e.g., those areas where water is frozen either seasonally or permanently) make IPY science investigations particularly timely and relevant to scientists, policy makers and the general public. Effective IPY investigations require a range of commitments of resources: from providing support to individual field activities, to those which require the international coordination of complex systems and their operations. During IPY, to date considerable progress is being made towards characterisation of key high-latitude processes by means of spaceborne snapshots of the polar regions. A number of ongoing efforts are described below which are designed to coordinate these satellite acquisitions, to help demonstrate the benefits of a cryospheric observing system component, and to develop IPY data legacy comprising critical climate benchmarks.