The French claim, with some justice, that Dumont d'Urville can rank with James Cook as the greatest navigator of them all. Like Cook, he made three voyages round the world as well as important contributions to all the sciences, most of which were then in their lusty infancy.— Helen Rosenman, translator and editor of D'Urville's accounts of South Seas voyages Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville was born in Normandy in 1790, and his childhood saw the development of a keen intellect that served the makings of a future explorer. A lifelong passion for the study of languages first showed itself so early that by the age of ten d'Urville was fluent in Latin. Past voyages of discovery were also on the boy's mind and he de...

Thank-you to everyone who was involved with launch events, who launched virtual balloons, who launched real balloons (see the Swedish launch web-cast!), those behind the scenes, and those on stage. IPY Celebrations around the world on March 1st, and throughout this week, have been a huge success. You can watch those you missed on the Arctic Portal, or still launch your virtual balloon now, and throughout IPY, to recognise the importance of the polar regions to the whole planet. Here is a map showing balloons that have been launched around the world (you can zoom in on where you live or zoom out to see the world map!): ...

The International Polar Year Publications Database (IPYPD) is now available at the IPYPD website. The IPYPD will attempt to identify and describe all publications that result from, or that are about, the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 and the three previous IPYs. The IPYPD currently describes 60 publications. This number is expected to grow to approximately 20,000 publications ten years from now. The IPYPD will be updated four times per year. The records in the IPYPD contain citations, detailed subject and geographic indexing terms, abstracts, and, in most cases, links to the online full text of the publications. The IPYPD is part of the IPY Data and Information Service (IPYDIS). The success of t...

IPY launch events around the world can be viewed live at the Arctic Portal. We also encourage everyone to launch a virtual balloon and show how many people around the world care about the polar regions and are interested in IPY. Everyone is welcome to join in, young or old, polar or tropical! The Official Opening Ceremony takes place in Paris at 11am local time. That is UTC 10:00, or, 1am in Anchorage, 5am in New York, 7am in Santiago, 3.30pm in Calcutta, 7pm in Tokyo, and 9pm in Sydney. You can watch it live or after the event on the web at the Arctic Portal, where you will also find webcasts of other national launch events from around th...

Join the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) team on the redesigned Antarctica UAB website as we explore the spectacular marine life around Palmer Station on the western Antarctic Peninsula. As part of the celebration of the International Polar Year, we want to help showcase the diversity of international cooperation in polar research and validate its worth in the public's eye. We invite you to visit the site, post comments/questions and join us as we bring the world to Antarctica during our NSF-funded expedition. The site combines traditional Web features with social networking Web sites like Digg.com and Del.icio.us. You can contribute your own knowledge, images and viewpoints as well as fo...

Watch IPY launch events on-line at the Arctic Portal and elsewhere. Throughout this week, over twenty nations around the world are celebrating the launch of the International Polar Year 2007-2008. New Zealand, Indigenous People, Argentina, and the Ukraine have already held extremely successful events. This week, Monday will see Press and Participants gathering in London, Strasbourg, and Washington DC, and Portugal will be holding their kick-off event on Wednesday. Thursday is the big day, with the Global Launch occurring in Paris at 1000 UTC (1100 local Central European Time) and national celebrations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greenland, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Norway, ...

There is always something happening on the work deck; trip leader Hans-W. Hubberten of the Alfred Wegener Institute Potsdam and Captain Schwarze are continuously planning the Polarstern's course and the next stopping point. One tool for doing research is the ship's helicopter. For Australian geologist Duanne White and Swiss Minerologist Roland Oberhänsli (from the University of Potsdam), it is their first helicopter trip in the region. They head towards the southeast, in the direction of Casey Bay to the Rayner Glacier in Enderby Land. The researchers have maps with specific locations they would like to investigate and take samples from. The aim of the research is to investigate the retreating ice in this region, and the speed and impact it has had on climate change in th...

The course of the Polarstern has led the participants of the Alfred Wegener Institutes research expedition ANT-XXIII/9 from the Neumayer station further towards an easterly direction. Calm seas and mild winds resulted in a comfortable journey. The last days have been a continuous oscillation between deep blue waters and a sea of white, both with their own special characteristics. On the open sea, we are already seeing many more whales, sometimes we see whole pods on their journeys. They don't seem to be disturbed by the presence of the large blue research ship, and just continue to follow their own internal navigation systems. Sometimes, you can just see their backs with their fins poking out of the water, impressive sea mammals from the deep sea, coming to the surface and...

The German research vessel Polarstern, on the Alfred Wegener Institute's ANTXXIII/9 expedition, arrived at the edge of the ice shelf near the Neumayer station on February 12, 2007. It used the two days of good weather to remove waste and re-supply the research station. The fuel tanks were filled and food supplies were unloaded. The rubbish that could not be disposed of onsite needed to be loaded onto the Polarstern and taken away from the Antarctic. During this time the researchers on board were able to take a look at the working environment of their colleagues on the ice. It was an opportunity to learn more about the different research projects carried out at the station. During the summer, the Antarctic station offers living and working quarters to researchers from around...

ICSU and WMO launch the largest polar research programme in 50 years IPY Launch Press Release (PDF) 26 February, 2007 International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 officially gets underway on 1 March, 2007. IPY, which is a programme of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), will be the largest internationally coordinated scientific research effort in 50 years. During the course of IPY, thousands of scientists, from over 60 countries and a wide range of research disciplines, will carry out 220 science and outreach projects under six major themes: Status: to determine the present environmental s...