Written Thursday 20th December 07 By Margot Foster A social day with the inaugural ‘Shipboard Seminar’ scheduled at 1300hrs These are to be held in ‘D’ deck recreation room twice a week. Today’s bill: “Dr Bryan G. Fry, from the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne is speaking on ‘Evolution of an Arsenal: Diversification of the Reptile Venom System’. Dr Fry will show some marvellous pictures of dangerous reptiles” We have more offers of talks than there are spaces for them so I’ll offer a ‘Speakers Corner’ in the evenings as well. We have crossed the line – the 60th parallel, and are officially in Antarctica. The event is marked by a vi...

Written Wednesday 19th December 2007 By Margot Foster Pleased to report that I've found my sea legs and am spending longer in the galley after a gingery start. I’ve been prowling the ship and everywhere you turn there's an experiment or research underway - whether it’s the continuous plankton recorder (CPR) or testing the water's chemical composition, every lab is busy. The temperature is down to 6 degrees now we are in mid fifty latitudes I watched the CPR being winched in from the trawl deck with its silk roll trapping plankton during an overnight trawl. What a remarkable contraption it is! It’s like a chunky little silver rocket with a propeller behind it. It’s so simple and elegant and successful that this piece of...

Written Tuesday 18th December 2007 By Margot Foster I am fragile this morning and take a simple breakfast of toast and vegemite. I find that keeping busy is the key so I head for the bridge and a chat with the ship’s master. Captain Ian Moodie has made dozens of trips into the ice. These conditions, ‘pitching in a 3 metre swell’, as he notes in the ship log, are perfect. We are very lucky to have such ideal conditions for the deployment of moorings. The crew on the exposed trawl deck man-handle large and heavy equipment into place for deployment into the sea assisted by winches, ropes and chain. Perfect conditions indeed. But why do I have the queasy creep? I think it’s because we are sloshing around in the swell; at time...

Written Monday 17th December 2007 By Margot Foster A queasy start. How can it be? We are rolling around in the swell because we are dead slow in the water deploying a mooring. One vomit and two tablets is the scale of my disaster. I should never have boasted about my last trip and my capacity for kippers at breakfast and the joyrides on the bridge in heavy seas. Scientists excel at providing acronyms. Today’s included ADCP - the Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. Work on the device delayed our departure by three hours but it’s now tested in the water and providing data to depths of up to500-700m. I watched the laying out of the PULSE mooring - a trial surface mooring. Three kilometres of line hold data collecti...

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...

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...

PRESS RELEASE Climate change and life in the Southern Ocean Research vessel Polarstern sets out for Antarctic research season Bremerhaven, November 27, 2007. A ten-week expedition to the Lazarev Sea and the eastern part of the Weddell Sea opens this years Antarctic research season of the German research vessel Polarstern. On the evening of November 28, just some two hours after an official ceremony at the Berlin Museum of Natural History honouring Polarsterns 25th anniversary of service, the research vessel will begin its 24th scientific voyage to the Southern Ocean from Cape Town. The 53 scientists from eight nations aboard Polarstern will focus much of their work on climate-related research as part of the International Polar Year. In additio...

Contents: 1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007 2. AGU 3. Data Coordinators 4. IPO in December 5. IPY Events and Conferences 6. Logos and Clothing 7. Two recent meetings 8. Blog on IPY.org From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007 December 13th marks the second IPY Science Day, focussing on Ice Sheets. You can find information from more than 20 IPY Projects researching various aspects of Ice Sheets on ipy.org, as well as an educational flier, in 16 languages, and information for teachers and media. Show your involve...

Contents: 1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007 2. AGU 3. Data Coordinators 4. IPO in December 5. IPY Events and Conferences 6. Logos and Clothing 7. Two recent meetings 8. Blog on IPY.org From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007 December 13th marks the second IPY Science Day, focussing on Ice Sheets. You can find information from more than 20 IPY Projects researching various aspects of Ice Sheets on ipy.org, as well as an educational flier, in 16 languages, and information for teachers and media. Show your involve...

PRESS RELEASE Bremerhaven, November 22, 2007. On December 9, 2007, the ice-breaking research vessel Polarstern will celebrate her 25th anniversary of service: since 1982, the world¹s most powerful polar research vessel has been venturing to the Arctic and Antarctic on behalf of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, part of the Helmholtz Association. 7600 scientist from 36 nations have gained insights into the polar oceans aboard Polarstern, facilitating our current understanding of the earth as a system. Polarstern provides ideal working conditions for international and interdisciplinary research teams and offers safe transport in polar seas. Currently, Polarstern is on her way to the Antarctic as part of the International Polar Year 2007/08. T...