Return to Main Land and Life Pages Courtesy of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the coldest and driest desert system in the world and represent 2% of the Antarctic Continent that is free of ice. This polar desert is a configuration of barren ground, alpine, terminal, and piedmont glaciers, and ephemeral streams. The high winds and bitt...

In this SciencePoles interview, Dr. Bell provides an overview of what is currently known about the Gamburtsev Mountains in East Antarctica, and of how the research is unfolding. As a geophysicist specialised in Antarctic glacial and sub-glacial environments, Dr. Robin Bell has led seven major research expeditions to Antarctica and is one of the original instigators of the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08. She is Director of the ADVANCE program at the ...

Bremerhaven, August 19th 2008. German research vessel Polarstern, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, transits the Northwest Passage for the first time. Polarstern left the port of Reykjavik on August 12th, sailed around Greenland on a southern course and is located right now at the beginning of the Northwest Passage. Its destination is the East Siberian Sea where geoscientific measurements at the junction between the Mendeleev Ridge and the East Siberian Shelf are at the focus of the participants of this expedition. The measurements striven for in the framework of the International Polar Year shall help to understand how the undersea ridges and basins were built. This expedition takes the researchers in 68 days around the No...

Press release Bremerhaven August 7th 2008. The German Research Vessel Polarstern had to prove its ice breaking capabilities in Arctic waters to gain data on two series of long-term research measurements. After working in regions up to latitude 82

Return to Main Land and Life Pages Courtesy of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research Program The McMurdo Dry Valleys are the coldest and driest desert system in the world and represent 2% of the Antarctic Continent that is free of ice. This polar desert is a configuration of barren ground, alpine, terminal, and piedmont glaciers, and ephemeral streams. The high winds and bitt...

On occasion of the IV International Polar Year, Italian researchers of the Project “Map of Arctic People set up a touring historical-photographical exhibition focused on polar regions, called The Lords of Tundra, in order to spread the knowledge over arctic populations and lands. Protagonists of the lens are the Ural Mountains chain, the Arctic ocean being objects of significant transformations produced by the recent climate changes - and, above all, Nenets (or Nency) population, inhabiting the ice of Jamal Peninsula, in Siberia. Nency people are nomadic breeders founding their existence on reindeer breeding, thus constituting one of the last...

“Friends from the World is an intercultural exchange project conceived, within the project Map of Arctic People, aimed at promoting the reciprocal knowledge among children belonging to different cultures. The project was originally dreamt up as a bridge between the arctic world and the rest. Over the years, also thanks to the collaboration of the Italian nonprofit association Perigeo Onlus, engaged in the safeguard and valorisation of indigenous peoples cultural heritage, it succeeded in involving children belongin...

The Map of Arctic People (MAP) project has been set up to study the culture and the lifestyles of the peoples of the Arctic and subarctic regions and to establish lasting relations based on reciprocal cultural exchanges. The project is promoted within the IV International Polar Year, in collaboration with the Geographic Polar Institute of Fermo, CNR-Polarnet and under the patronage of CAI (Italian Mountain Sports Association) Executive Presidency. The purpose of the project is to draw up a map meant to be a work of reference for students and researchers, where the concept of Arctic is defined not only from the geographical viewpoint but especially in its essence as the cultural backbone of the peoples who live there. Many fundamental elements will serve to ma...

Session announcement and Call for Abstracts American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 15-19 December 2008, San Francisco, California Papers are invited for Session A35: Cooperative Studies Incorporating Measurements from Land-Based Atmospheric Arctic Observatories The main mission of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) is coordination of atmospheric data collection and observatories. The effort supports the International Polar Year (IPY, www.ipy.org), but is intended to establish a continuing network consortium into the foreseeable future. Data of interest to the IASOA consortium include measurements of standard meteorology, greenhouse gases, atmospheric radiation, clouds, pollutants, chemistry, aeros...

Session announcement and Call for Abstracts American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 15-19 December 2008, San Francisco, California Papers are invited for Session A35: Cooperative Studies Incorporating Measurements from Land-Based Atmospheric Arctic Observatories The main mission of the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) is coordination of atmospheric data collection and observatories. The effort supports the International Polar Year (IPY, www.ipy.org), but is intended to establish a continuing network consortium into the foreseeable future. Data of interest to the IASOA consortium include measurements of standard meteorology, greenhouse gases, atmospheric radiation, clouds, pollutants, chemistry, aeros...