The Permafrost Young Researchers Network (PYRN) is hosting its kick-off meeting at the Abisko Scientific Research Station, Sweden on the 22nd to 24th of February 2007. PYRN (www.pyrn.org) is an international effort under the patronage of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) to bring young permafrost researchers together during the international polar year and beyond. The first phase of the PYRN project saw more than 300 young researchers from 31 countries join the network. It rapidly became the largest young researcher-driven network in the field of cryospheric science. PYRN offers, news, information and support to its members. It has sent 17 monthly newsletters since its start in 2005, maint...

There were a lot of filmmakers in and around McMurdo this season, but none were there longer than the Whiskey 218 trio. Producer and Director Anne Aghion and her crew - Sylvestre Guidi at the camera and Richard Fleming recording sound - arrived on the first flight of Winfly, August 20th and stayed for four months, until just before Christmas. Aghion says: "I wanted to be there during Winfly to get the feeling of the station waking up," and indeed they did. After two months filming in and around McMurdo, the three set up camp with four geologists for another couple of months, first in the Olympus Range and then in the Asgard Range. The focus of the film, which was made possible by a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers grant, is on...

Hi everyone! I have just embarked on a two month research cruise around the coast of Antarctica. Because I like to communicate, I've set up a blog where I can send email which can then be viewed by everyone! It's a little one-way -- I won't be able to see your comments and/or read email until I get back, but it'll have to do. I am participating in a research cruise as part of the US Antarctic Program on the Nathaniel B. Palmer (NBP) to coastal Antarctica. Hopefully I will post photos after we return. In the meantime, Laurie Padman's photos on previous Anslope research cruises should be pretty close to what we're looking at. Cruise background and goals The ...

Hello! Word about the IPY site is starting to get around! We just received an extremely well-written and passionate note from one of our past participants. A Battle with Nature by Sharon Querido - SOI Antarctic past participant In late August 2005, a horrible tragedy struck the nation: Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, Louisiana. As the police lost control, anarchy in its worst form began to rise within the area. Though many people believe lawlessness can only lead to chaos, I have experienced anarchy as a utopia. Antarctica, exempt from governmental control by any country through the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, has become a peaceful, international territory. In December of 2005, I was invited to attend an education...

The I-TASC Reconnaissance and Communication Expedition crew has successfully installed the Groundhog AWS at 71 deg 40.433 S 02 deg 48.700 W ahead of the IPY launch on 1 March. The data generated by the Automatic Weather Station is transmitted daily by the Groundhog unit and will be used as the basis for sound pieces, music and animations that are being prepared by artists for the I-TASC IPY launch events in South Africa and Brasil on 1 March. The data is viewable, and downloadable as ascii text on the front page of the I-TASC website together with regular updates about hew I-TASC projects for the IPY. ...

The IPY Youth Steering Committee is pleased to announce the launch of a ipyyouth.org, new youth website for the IPY. The site is an interactive online community where young people can learn more about the Polar Regions, the IPY and how to get involved. By joining this online community you can contribute to discussion forums on Polar Issues, submit artworks and photos to a Polar Gallery, view Podcasts by our members and submit your own, start projects with other members, and get involved in the YSC’s activities! Text: Mel...

January 2007 The Smithsonian Institution announces a polar science symposium in early May 2007, as one of the inaugural U.S. contributions to celebrate the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science is being convened by Smithsonian Under Secretary for Science David L. Evans. The symposium will present research findings by Smithsonian scholars and their collaborators from Artic and Antarctic research, with particular attention to changes in polar systems past, present and future, and their global impact. The symposium will carry on a tradition of polar science that began nearly 150 years ago and resulted in some of the worlds foremost collections and archives of Arctic an...

A few years ago thousands of icebergs calved from the Larsen A/B area. The fauna inhabiting the seafloor in this region was probably not disturbed on a large scale, but further north, where the icebergs ran aground with a higher frequency, iceberg scouring is now apparent. We reported earlier that the seafloor in the region where the collapse of the Larsen A and B ice shelves happened shows very little damage. However, in order to evaluate the specific conditions beneath the ice shelf we had to i...

You can track the Polarstern research vessel in a number of ways as it traverses Antarctic waters. You can view the raw coordinate data here on www.sailwx.info's tracking map. You can also track it in Google Earth by downloading this constantly updated file from the SCAR MarBIN portal. The file in turn accesses position data from this page on the Polar View website, which al...

Cetacean surveys by helicopter turned out to be a particularly efficient technique to identify the poorly known beaked whales and thus extend our knowledge of their geographical distribution in Antarctica. Have you ever heard of “Ziphiids”? This term refers to the cousins of dolphins which belong to the most mysterious family of all cetaceans. This family, also known as beaked whales, is one of the biggest among cetaceans. In the Southern Ocean, their size varies from five meters for the smallest to twice as long for the Arnoux’s Beaked Whale. Despite their enormous size, these 20 species are still very poorly known. Some of them have never been seen alive, and most of the information about their biology has been gained by investigating stranded specimens. Beaked whale...