Contents: 1. Reminder: Joint Committee Assessment 2. Reminder: AGU 3. IPY Science Days 4. Young and Early Career Polar Researchers 5. Polar Ambassadors 6. Observational Legacies From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Reminder: Joint Committee Assessment As described in our September 2007 report, we solicit input from IPY Project Coordinators and from IPY National Committees for the IPY Joint Committee meeting later this month. The Joint Committee will assess the overall IPY programme as it exists, and welcomes comment on any aspects of IPY, particularly on actions or changes that could he...

By Sandy Zicus, Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre We’re now a bit more than three weeks into our six-week Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystems eXperiment (SIPEX) adventure. On 18 September, we entered a section of land-fast ice surrounded by huge grounded icebergs, some of which have walls up to 50 metres high. It was impossible to capture the true scale with a camera (although most of us kept trying), especially when there was nothing of a known size in view to serve as a reference. Land-fast ice, often called just ‘fast ice’, is sea ice that is attached to land or to grounded icebergs. Fast ice is a bit different in character from regular sea ice. It is more or less permanent in one area and is generally not moved arou...

Educational posters for the International Polar Year: First announcement, and call for partnerships UNEP/GRID-Arendal For further information, please go to: http://polar.grida.no/ipyposters UNEP Key Polar Centre at UNEP/GRID-Arendal has received support from the Research Council of Norway (Forskningsradet) to prepare a set of posters for the International Polar Year (IPY). This project supports the education, outreach, and communication efforts of IPY. The posters will primarily present polar science and issues and secondarily create awareness of IPY and its research activities. The main objective is to try to answer the question: Why, and how, are the ...

New Generation of Polar Researchers (NGPR) Symposium, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 4-11 May 2008 Application Deadline: Monday, 15 October 2007 For further information, please go to: http://www.disccrs.org/ngpr/ Advanced students and PhD graduates conducting research in the Arctic or Antarctic during the International Polar Year are invited to apply for the New Generation of Polar Researchers (NGPR) Symposium being held on 4-11 May 2008 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Applications must be submitted by Monday, 15 October 2007. Complete application information is available at: ...

tagzaniapasteipy2007seaice tagged map - Tagzania September 21st, 2007, marked the first International Polar day... this time with the focus on Sea Ice. It was a great opportunity to involve both the scientific community, and the public around the world. Within a week of asking, a request to the IPY community resulted in translations of the flyer into eighteen languages: ...

MEDIA RELEASE Media Release, 20 September 2007 Sea ice under scrutiny from space Lasers from helicopters and space satellites are being used in Antarctica, for the first time, to determine whether sea ice in the Southern Ocean is changing in response to climate change. Sea ice plays an essential role in regulating global climate as well as supporting the Southern Ocean ecosystem, and there are concerns that Antarctic sea ice may be getting thinner. A team of international researchers, led by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC), is on a six-week expedition in the Southern Ocean aboard the Antarctic research ship Aurora Australis, which left Hobart earlier this month. ...

Sea Ice Knowledge Studies in Shishmaref, Alaska Part of IPY project 166: Sea Ice Knowledge and Use (SIKU) by Josh Wisniewski, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, PhD Candidate Department of Anthropology What do Iñupiaq hunters in the Northwest Alaska community of Shishmaref know about sea ice? How do they express knowledge in the context of hunting? And how can we come to know as directly as possible something of what people know about the environment and how they know it in relation to converging and diverging ontological and epistemological structures that shape local knowledge claims? To explore these questions I am c...

SIPEX: The first two weeks After 6 days and nights of rocking, rolling and bouncing our way through the Southern Ocean from Hobart, there was an abrupt change just before dawn and we were treated to a gentle rocking motion. Strong south-westerly winds during the previous day and night had pushed the sea ice to the north and caused more to form, so we reached the beginning of the ice a bit sooner than anticipated. First light revealed that we were going through bands of pancake ice - ice that forms as irregular roundish patties - separated by open water, some of which had an oily sheen to it. The sheen was caused by grease ice that forms when tiny ice crystals, known as frazil, are mixed through the top few meters of water. This is the first stage of sea ice de...

PRESS RELEASE The sea-ice is getting thinner - A closer look at the climate and ecosystem of the Arctic Ocean Bremerhaven, September 13, 2007. Large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one metre thick this year, equating to an approximate 50 percent thinning as compared to the year 2001. These are the initial results from the latest Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association lead expedition to the North Polar Sea. 50 scientists have been on board the Research Vessel Polarstern for two and a half months, their main aim; to carry out research on the sea-ice areas in the central Arctic. Amongst other things, they have found out that not only the ocean currents are changing, but community structures in the Arctic are also...

WIN A WEEK ABOARD AN ARCTIC ICEBREAKER!! (INCLUDING TRANSPORTATION FROM YOUR HOME COUNTRY) In April 2008, join journalists from all over the world for a week aboard the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen. The World Federation of Science Journalists—in collaboration with the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the International Polar Year Circumpolar Flaw Lead Project—announces a competition offering science journalists the chance to win one of three week-long trips aboard the Canadian research icebreaker Amundsen. You will fly all the way to Inuvik (Canada), and hop aboard a Twin Otter aircraft to the famous icebreaker, where you will get first hand experience of global warming where it is unfolding the fastest. ENTRY GUIDELINES...