Because of their cold, dry and stable air, the polar regions are the finest locations on the planet for making frontline astronomical observations. AstroPoles is a 15-nation project to assess the astronomical conditions at four polar sites – Dome A and Dome C in Antarctica, and summit Station and Ellesmere Island in the Arctic. By measuring sky brightness, optical seeing, water vapour content and the meteorological conditions at these sites, AstroPoles will provide baseline data to assess what astronomical facilities could be built in the polar regions, and the kind of science they could tackle.

The local non-state-bearing languages found in the Arctic are used in various degrees, but are all crucial for the ethnic identity as used in communication, media, literature, etc. The question of general sustainable development in the local regions of the Arctic includes also the question of sustainable development of intellectual culture and language competence. The 'glocalization' as covering both ‘globalization’ and ‘localization’ is the process where the impact of global cultural tendencies is seen as partly opposed by local tendencies. Even at the utmost remote settings one finds the co-presence and interplay of both universalizing and particularizing tendencies. The question is how exactly globalization takes place: How much impact do local cultural policy, local media policy and local language policy have on the development? Who are the decision-makers formally as well as informally? Arctic research is important in an international perspective as it may contribute to mainstream research revealing quite different results as to ideas of identity, culture, mobility, and world view.

The overall focus of the ECOGREEN consortium is to establish the scientific basis for a long-term ecosystem-based management of marine resources in West Greenland. The West Greenland society relies almost entirely on marine resources for industrial as well as subsistence utilisation. Today, the West Greenland marine ecosystem is very productive and sustains fisheries which contribute 95% of Greenland’s total export value. The Greenland Marine ecosystem also sustains seals and whales who feed in the area during summer, and, from the entire North Atlantic, seabirds by the million find a critical winter habitat resource in the ice-free area. Human use of the West Greenland marine ecosystem presents a complex mosaic of small- and large-scale commercial fishing, as well as subsistence and recreational fishing and hunting.

Some of the most dramatic weather events – including spring thaws, sea ice movements and the strong winds and high seas associated with severe winter cyclones – occur in the polar regions, and being able to forecast these events more accurately is crucial for mitigating their impact on local communities, fisheries, wildlife, energy production and transport. Using satellite data, this 15-nation project will help design the next generation of observing networks that are needed to improve our ability to forecast “high impact” weather events in polar regions.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is an outstanding archive of information about what the Earth’s climate was like in the past, and the water locked in its ice will have a major impact on sea level rise due to climate change. Because of this, understanding how Greenland will react to global warming is crucially important. By gathering seismic data, ice cores and using radar, laser ranging and echo sounders, this project will shed new light on the Greenland Ice Sheet and improve scientists’ ability to model how it will react to climate change.

International summit and working group conference on the development and deployment of energy resources in the Arctic including remote and rural villages Focusing on the Arctic as an emerging energy province, the Arctic Energy Summit is comprised of a web-based educational program, an international technology conference to be held in Anchorage, Alaska Oct. 14-18, 2007 and the creation of an arctic energy task force to develop a vision and programmatic way forward related to the development and deployment of Arctic energy.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is currently undergoing rapid change, in particular over the Amundsen Sea Emabayment (ASE) region, and this may lead to accelerated future sea-level rise. Previous aerogeophysical investigations over the Siple Coast reveal that the geology of the West Antarctic Rift System may strongly modulate the dynamics of fast-flowing glaciers that drain the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. But what are the interplays between the virtually unknown sub-ice geology and the apparently thinning and retreating ASE glaciers, such as Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier? We will utilise new airborne geophysical data collected by UK, US and German teams over the ASE region to provide a unique window on the lithospheric cradle for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and to study the geodynamics of the largest glaciated rift system on Earth.