A new satellite image of the Antarctic continent is now ready for all to see and use. The IPY Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) project has been completed and its stunning result is freely available for the first time today. Compiled from over 1000 Landsat scenes, the result is a 15-metre resolution, near seamless and cloudless image mosaic of the continent. A team from NASA, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National science Foundation and the British Antarctic Survey have worked together for more than a year to produce this uniformly and rigorously processed surface reflectance dataset. In addition to providing sci...

Permafrost underlies up to 20% of the world land surface and is highly sensitive to changes in air temperatures. Large parts of the world’s uppermost permafrost are likely to disappear with increasing global air temperatures. This can lead to the release of additional greenhouse gases (in the form of carbon dioxide and the more powerful greenhouse gas methane) to the atmosphere from carbon pools that are currently stored in the permafrost. In addition, permafrost degradation will pose threats on infrastructure built on frozen ground. Paradoxically, permafrost temperature evolution is relatively unknown and global approaches to monitor ground temperatures are lacking. The location of permafrost areas in often remote areas of the Arctic and the Antarctic makes it a challenge to provide a c...

Polar bear family feeding on a seal, Northwest Passage, 1999. © Hinrich Bäsemann, www.polarfoto.de In the September issue of Polar Research, the politics of science is one of the themes in an essay by historian Stian Bones, who examines Norway's role in past International Polar Years, starting with the first one in 1882-83. Bones describes the strengths of the scientific traditions of this polar nation, and he examines the varying motivations that have driven Norwegian involvement in International Polar Years. Also in this issue, scientometrician Prabir Dastidar presents the results of his research on sc...

Ice sheets, the large, thick and permanent frozen masses that cover most of Antarctica and Greenland, represent a distinctive feature of our planet. Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets contain almost all of the world's ice and most of the world's fresh water. Ice sheets accumulate new layers of snow at the surface. They slowly flow toward coastlines, often in large ice streams, and can extend over adjacent oceans as ice shelves. During cold climates (ice ages), the mass and area of ice sheets grow, and the global sea level decreases. During warm climates, the mass and area of ice sheets decrease and the sea level rises. ...

An immediate reduction of methane, tropospheric ozone and black carbon may delay the melting of the Arctic, is the unanimous recommendation from a group of leading climate scientists after an international conference in Oslo, Norway. The 2nd Short-lived Pollutants and Arctic Climate Workshop, gathering 40 leading climate scientists from Europe, Asia and the U.S., was hosted by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) in Oslo, Norway, 5-7 November. Reductions in the atmospheric burden of CO2 are the backbone of any meaningful effort to mitigate climate forcing. But, even if swift and deep reductions were made, given the long lifetime of CO2, the reductions may not be achieved in time to delay a rapid melting of the Arctic. Hence, the goal of constraini...

The IPY International Programme Office (IPO) has recently received some sponsorship to seed a meeting of the IPY International Youth Steering Committee (IYSC), including the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). This meeting will occur in Stockholm at the end of September. Below is background material for this meeting. Meeting Details (252 KB DOC) includes participants, overview, agenda, and logistics Planning Information and Summary (128 KB PDF) APEC...

EcoKids is Earth Day Canada’s program for kids who care about the planet. Our website has tons of fun and educational games and activities on a range of environmental topics. Our 2007 theme is ‘Exploring Canada’s North’. We have created a new informational section for this theme along with the following online features: Northern Seasons – A glimpse of the landscape through the four seasons in Canada’s north. Mush Rush – A game that puts you in the driver’s seat of a dogsled team. Canada’s North Quizzes – Three challenging quizzes about the environment, wildlife and people in the north. Eco-Field Guide Northern Organisms – Information about 24 different species of fl...

More than 150 enthusiastic students and their parents took a trip to Antarctica on Saturday, October 27, 2007! ANDRILL Education Coordinator Louise Huffman organized the virtual field trip with the help of Polar Trec teacher, Mindy Bell, using ARCUS’s web seminar technology. Gathered in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, 75 fifth grade girls and their parents listened to a presentation by Louise and Mindy and scientists Tracy Frank, Sandra Passchier and Staci Kim while watching a powerpoint presentation depicting the frozen south and the science being done there. The Girls + Science + Math = Success Confere...

The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 officially started on March 1 2007. Below you will find information on the many international and national launch events, as written before the events. Also, please visit the Educators Icy IPY Activities Page to learn how teachers, students, and local communities got involved around the world. For more details about specific events, please consult this list of press officers (PDF) or see contacts below. We have also made these ...

Mark Speight and Simon Webbe honour young artistic talent in charity pavement art competition Monday 22 October 2007 -For Immediate Release- On Friday 19 October at The Royal Society in London, young people across the UK were honoured for their exceptional artistic talent and creative achievements in the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign’s Young Pavement Artists Competition 2007. TV presenter and competition president, Mark Speight was joined by R & B singer, Simon Webbe, at the special awards ceremony. Arthur Morris wit...