IPY Data Stories - Sea Ice Learn about the "who, what, where, when, how and why" of sea ice research in the first installment of the IPY Data Stories series. This event was on September 18, 2007 and is available as an archived webcast . WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH THE ARCHIVED WEBSTREAM. WE HOPE TO HAVE THIS RESOLVED SOON. In conjunction with the first International Polar Day on September 21, 2007, scientists studying sea ice from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at CU Boulder, the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven,...

As part of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) web seminar series on IPY, a free web seminar will be held June 5th from 6:30 to 8:00 PM Eastern Time. Entitled "The Fragile Ice" and presented by Mark McCaffrey from the University of Colorado in Boulder who is a member of the IPY Education, Outreach and Communications subcommittee, this web seminar is geared for teachers interested in learning more about the 125 year legacy of IPY and current IPY activities that they can use in classroom settings. The seminar will be interactive and archived for later viewing, and those interested in participating will ...

The National Science Teachers Association begins a series of Web Seminars that are free and available to educators around the world on May 3rd, and several of the seminars are directly focused on IPY science. The first, Fragile Ice, will feature a keynote presentation by Dr. Mary Albert, a senior research engineer at the U.S. Army ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, New Hampshire. Her presentation, "Snow: a Winter's Tale- or - Evidence of the Past from Snow on the Ground" will help provide the scientific background for the seminar. This and the other IPY seminars, "...

The current issue of the Canada Foundation for Innovation's online magazine, appropriately titled InnovationCanada.ca focuses on IPY and features an essay on "Securing An IPY Legacy" by David Hik, Executive Director, Canadian IPY Secretariat and Ian Church, Chair, Canadian IPY National Committee. The essay gives an overview of Canadian involvement with past IPYs and how the $150 million that the Canadian Government has dedicated to this IPY is having a ripple effect throughout the north. There is also a painful story written by Susan Aglukark entitled "...

The third IPY, held between 1957-58, was expanded into the International Geophysical Year (IGY), and a small team in Boulder at the University of Colorado have been working for months with a number of colleagues, including the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, to get permission to put a series of films about IGY research online. The 13 films, which are now up on the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics website, complement the IGY posters and accompanying booklet, providing an opportunity to compare and contrast today's science, technology... and science education... with the stat...

The dust has settled from the Ice Fest held at the University of Colorado-Boulder in early March to celebrate the start of IPY. Presentations and other resources from some of the participants are now available online, including slideshows about "Tales from Tiski," the Ice Trek expedition in 2007 to chase an ice berg off the Antarctic Peninsula, an update on the state and fate of Arctic sea ice from two of the world's leading authorities, and an overview of what we...

The highlight and keynote of Ice Fest will be Astronaut Dr. Don Pettit, who heads an IPY project (proposal #78) involving the International Space Station (ISS) and studies auroras and other polar phenomenon from the vantage of the International Space Station and from field work on the ice in Antarctica. Dr. Pettit's official NASA bio makes o...

Boulder, Colorado is home to some of the world's leading polar and climate experts, and so to help celebrate the beginning of the International Polar Year we'll be holding Ice Fest, which may, if successful, become an annual event. This year it will be held March 8-11th on the University of Colorado at Boulder campus, with "Arts & Sciences Day "on Thursday March 8th showcasing phenomenal photograph from both polar regions, a special keynote talk on Friday followed by "An Evening with Michael Brown," an award-winning Boulder filmmaker, "Family Day" on Saturday t...

The world has changed dramatically in the 125 years since Karl Weyprecht's death in 1881, and I often wonder what he would make of the global change. Alternating current has electrified the world. Radio communication, which didn't exist at the time, lead to television, GPS and wireless technologies. Internal combustion engines, then in their infancy, have revolutionized transportation and industry and contributed to altering the climate system. The world's population has grown sixfold. And our understanding of the Earth as a system has made leaps and bounds through diligent, scientific study and collaboration. Throughout this period-- a few short generations but beyond the span of all but the most robust lifespans-- the International Polar Years have provided vision and leadership, ...