The latest edition of field notes, the magazines of CH2M HILL's Polar Field Services, is out. In this issue (PDF): Learn how Shari Gearheard, a research scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC), is combining the rich ecological knowledge of the Inuit with scientific investigations to better understand just how the sea ice in three arctic communities is changing. Read about how Fairbanks residents celebrated their frozen habitat ...

Notes from Summit Station, Greenland: The spring equinox approaches, but up at Summit, the only thing blooming is the fern frost on the windows of this US National Science Foundation-operated research outpost. Still, signs of spring and the coming research period abound: brightening skies, a lengthy list of pre-season tasking, and, above all, the arrival last month of the phase-three winter crew. Like the few scouts who precede the swallows to San Juan Capistrano, this team focuses on readying the place for the coming legion of scientists. We asked manager Ken Jessen to tell us how the team is getting along. He offers a glimpse of what it’s like to be part of a foursome stashed away on the Greenland ice cap at the dawn of the second half of the fourth IPY....

In late December, Dr. Elena Sparrow of the UArctic IPY Higher Education and Outreach Office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) was pleased to help welcome Dr. Rhian Salmon, coordinator of education and outreach activities at the IPY International Programme Office in Cambridge, UK, as Rhian celebrated the new year with her first-ever trip to Alaska. Her two-and-a-half-week stay was filled with meetings, tours, and presentations, along with generous doses of Alaskan hospitality, as she became better acquainted with the IPY research and outreach activities in the state. Most of Rhian’s time was spent in Fairbanks, in Alaska’s interior. There she had numerous meetings and discussions with researchers, administrators and other staff at the University of Alaska Fairba...