Written Sunday 16th December 2007 By Margot Foster V3 finally left the Macquarie wharf in Hobart at 7:00pm after a delay of some hours. We are sailing along the south-east coast of Tasmania. I spent some time on the bridge watching the coast slip by and houses thin out into the bush. It's now nearly ten at night and this is the last glimpse of land until we hit the Antarctic continent, pretty well due south. This trip is all science and climate change. There are 52 on board involved in a range of projects. There are scientists from all over Australia, from France and the United States. The teams are setting up labs on the ship and running through gear because the first mooring deployment takes place tomorrow. I ha...

Terrestrial ecosystems in ARctic and ANTarctic: Effects of UV Light, Liquefying ice, and Ascending temperatures. (TARANTELLA, IPY project no. 59) IPY project page TARENTELLA website Predicted changes in climate and ozone concentrations in Polar regions, make it critically important to understand how changes in key environmental factors influence Polar terrestrial ecosystems via the modification of their individual but interconnected components. Observational and experimental research on the effect of climate change and ozone depletion is affiliated to international research programmes to t...

Submitted by Cristina Millan on November 12, 2007. Most people’s idea of a drill rig is that of the giant off-shore oil platform we are used to seeing in movies and in the media. The ANDRILL rig is nothing like that… This one is small, at least as rigs go, and can be put up and taken down in just a few days with a small crew. It is pretty compact and maneuverable, which were the main specifications when it was commissioned. It can be moved easily from one place to another, and is transported on skis almost everywhere within the continent, on roads that are groomed by bulldozers on the sea ice and on top of the ice shelves. ...

Astronomy from the Polar Plateau The polar plateaus provide the best sites on the Earth's surface to conduct a wide range of astronomical observations, due to the extremely cold, dry and stable air found there. This project aims to quantify these conditions at Dome A on the Antarctic plateau, and begin the process of turning the site into a front line observatory. An automated observatory,which can gather data over the winter, will be delivered to Dome A through a Chinese-led traverse in early 2008. More information. Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) This major IPY project will determine species biodiversity, abundan...

SIPEX Update: 28 September – 10 October We have bid a fond farewell to the sea ice as we have reached the edge of the ice zone and are now in the open ocean heading for Hobart and home, so it is time for a short review of the last couple of weeks. When I last wrote, we were pretty much stationary in an area of heavily deformed ice, waiting for the ice pack to break up a bit and make travelling easier. Some of the biologists on board had noticed that the ice we were breaking through in that area was very brown on the underside. The brown colouring comes from the algae that live in and on the underside of the ice and are an important part of the sea ice ecosystem. There had been little algae in the sea ice we had sampled so far on this voyage and the biologist...

Who says you can't be green in Antarctica? At the Australian Mawson station in East Antarctica, two wind turbines have been generating part of the station’s electricity since 2003. At wind speeds above 12 m/s — a common occurrences during eleven months of the year — the wind turbines are capable of generating 100% of the electricity needed by the station for long periods of time. The wind turbines have led to monthly savings in diesel fuel use of up to 58%. Over 10,000 litres of fuel are saved per month, significantly reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide that contribute to global warming. For more information on renewable power sources tried and tested for the polar regions, check out the ...

By Sandy Zicus, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre We’re now a bit more than three weeks into our six-week Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystems eXperiment (SIPEX) adventure. On 18 September, we entered a section of land-fast ice surrounded by huge grounded icebergs, some of which have walls up to 50 metres high. It was impossible to capture the true scale with a camera (although most of us kept trying), especially when there was nothing of a known size in view to serve as a reference. Land-fast ice, often called just ‘fast ice’, is sea ice that is attached to land or to grounded icebergs. Fast ice is a bit different in character from regular sea ice. It is more or less permanent in one area and is generally not moved arou...

MEDIA RELEASE Media Release, 20 September 2007 Sea ice under scrutiny from space Lasers from helicopters and space satellites are being used in Antarctica, for the first time, to determine whether sea ice in the Southern Ocean is changing in response to climate change. Sea ice plays an essential role in regulating global climate as well as supporting the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and there are concerns that Antarctic sea ice may be getting thinner. A team of international researchers, led by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC), is on a six-week expedition in the Southern Ocean aboard the Antarctic research ship Aurora Australis, which left Hobart earlier this month. ...

SIPEX: The first two weeks After 6 days and nights of rocking, rolling and bouncing our way through the Southern Ocean from Hobart, there was an abrupt change just before dawn and we were treated to a gentle rocking motion. Strong south-westerly winds during the previous day and night had pushed the sea ice to the north and caused more to form, so we reached the beginning of the ice a bit sooner than anticipated. First light revealed that we were going through bands of pancake ice - ice that forms as irregular roundish patties - separated by open water, some of which had an oily sheen to it. The sheen was caused by grease ice that forms when tiny ice crystals, known as frazil, are mixed through the top few meters of water. This is the first stage of sea ice de...

MEDIA RELEASE For more information, visit the SIPEX expedition website. An earlier than usual foray into far southern waters will help scientists understand the connection between Antarctic sea ice and the ecosystems that depend on it for survival. The voyage is Australia's first in around 10 years to head into the Southern Ocean while the sea ice remains in place before the summer thaw. The Sea Ice Physics and Ecology eXperiment (SIPEX*) voyage, jointly organised by the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (Antarctic CRC) and the Australian Antarctic Division, will sail from Hobart at the beginning of September 2007. Eighty-six scientists from eight nations will use a suite of...