As part of International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2009 the University of Alaska Fairbanks Marine Advisory Program and Northwest campus are hosting a speaker series in Nome, Alaska. This series is meant to facilitate discussions of current polar issues between local residents and academic experts. Topics will range from the effects of climate change on fisheries and the sea ice pack, to storm systems and coastal erosion, to preservation of Native languages and art. Despite the importance of many of these topics in our region, experts rarely have an opportunity to interact with local residents because of the remote location of these communities and limited communication systems. The potential for this series to reach rural residents is vastly expanded because ...

The October 2007 issue of the WMO Bulletin focussed on the International Polar Year 2007-2008. The issue contained an IPY overview and six articles covering polar weather, stratospheric ozone, polar atmospheric chemistry, polar oceans, cryosphere connections to hydrological cycles in the Arctic, and future space observations of polar regions. As part of its sponsorship of IPY, WMO makes the IPY articles (in English) available for free download on its website, see: http://www.wmo.ch/pages/publications/bulletin/october_2007.html These articles provide fresh reviews of many aspects of polar science. The I...

Watch the glaciers of Kenai Fjords transform before your eyes as nearly a century of change is revealed by repeat photography. Dr. Bruce Molnia, glaciologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, has been conducting repeat photography research throughout Alaska for the last decade. His work in Kenai Fjords National Park focuses on photographs shot in 1909 by U.S. Grant and D.F. Higgins. Between 1905 and 1909, they completed the first detailed survey of the glaciers of Prince William Sound and the Kenai Fjords coast. Their photographs, archived in Denver, Colorado, provide an opportunity to document a century of change. With support from the Park Service motor vessel Serac, Molnia traveled the Kenai Fjords coast, duplicating the 1909 photos. Using clues such as mountain ridge lin...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In a mission of unprecedented scale, scientists are about to cover West Antarctica with a network of sensors to monitor the interactions between the ice and the earth below -- 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The National Science Foundation (NSF) just awarded the collaboration, called POLENET, $4.5 million to plant global positioning system (GPS) trackers and seismic sensors on the bedrock that cradles the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Lead institution Ohio State University will receive more than $2.2 million, and the rest will be divided among partners in the United States as part of an International Polar Year project. As scientists have tried to understand how climate change is af...