We left early again today to install two more stakes, this time in locations we have previously installed stakes. The glacier is always in motion, and in these locations it moves about 15 meters per year. This means the stake we installed last year is now 15 meters down-glacier. We keep installing poles at the same initial location so that we can track how the glacier’s speed is changing with time. We cant just keep measuring the same pole because the glacier’s speed varies with location, and as the pole moves into a new location its speed will change. In this case the fastest moving part of the glacier is about 2/3s of the way towards the terminus, above and below this it moves slower. By installing poles each year in the same initial location, we can then tell whether that part of th...

Like a switch was flipped, we changed from winter to spring, in several ways. A few feet of fresh snow had fallen during the last week of May and early June. Then we had 3 days of warm, mostly sunny weather, just long enough to get the drill gear and team out and the newest member of team in. By the time Dirk took off with our final load of gear, a serious rain had begun and spring was here – the snow was melting, the streams were running, and we began scrambling to catch up on all of the winter work we had wanted to get done in the past month but just didn’t have the time or weather. With this new weather also came a change in work dynamics, with just five us now and all focused on our process studies, we are a much leaner and more focused team, concentrated on supporting Jason’s pr...

A 150-meter ice core pulled from the McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this summer may offer researchers their first quantitative look at up to two centuries of climate change in the region. The core, which is longer than 1 1/2 football fields, is the longest extracted from an arctic glacier in the United States, according to Matt Nolan, an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Northern Engineering who has led research at McCall Glacier for the past six years. The sample spans the entire depth of the glacier and may cover 200 years of history, he said. What we hope is that the climate record will extend back into the Little Ice Age,said Nolan. Up until the late 1800s these glaciers were actually gr...

Contents: 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference 2. Plans for February 25th, 2009 3. Upcoming Polar Days: People & Above The Poles 4. Call for Sessions at Oslo Science Conference June 2010 Report no. 15, July 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference Many members of the IPY Community are currently meeting in St Petersburg and Moscow for a range of business meetings as well as participation in the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference. So far, the events have been a great success. We have so far participated in meetings for the IPY Joint Committee...

Contents: 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference 2. Plans for February 25th, 2009 3. Upcoming Polar Days: People & Above The Poles 4. Call for Sessions at Oslo Science Conference June 2010 Report no. 15, July 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. Report from St Petersburg meetings and conference Many members of the IPY Community are currently meeting in St Petersburg and Moscow for a range of business meetings as well as participation in the SCAR/IASC Open Science Conference. So far, the events have been a great success. We have so far participated in meetings for the IPY Joint Committee...

Karen Harper, Adjunct Professor at the School of Resource and Environmental Studies at Canada's Dalhousie University, writes: As leader of a national IPY project on treeline, I thought it was essential to travel to the Arctic at least once during International Polar Year, but it was not easy. Last year, my daughter was born on February 14, 2007. (I had hoped for an IPY baby born at the start of IPY on March 1st since she was due March 5, but she decided to come early on Valentine’s Day.) Because she is breastfed and does not take bottles at night, I could not travel without her last year. In fact, she still nurses at night and I cannot travel without her this year either. Travel and field work in the North is difficult for everyone, and it is even more diff...

How will the Arctic sea ice cover develop this summer? ­ Climate scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute present their own prognosis for the first time Bremerhaven, July 7, 2008. The ice cover in the Arctic Ocean at the end of summer 2008 will lie, with almost 100 per cent probability, below that of the year 2005 ­ the year with the second lowest sea ice extent ever measured. Chances of an equally low value as in the extreme conditions of the year 2007 lie around eight per cent. Climate scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association come to this conclusion in a recent model calculation. They participate with their prognosis in an international scientific contest, in which some of the most renowned institutes on ...

In the International Polar Year, many people try to help with focusing on polar science. On June 26, we had a visit of Royal ambassadors, the heirs of the Scandinavian thrones: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Crown Prince Frederick of Danmark and Crown Prince Haakon from Norway. They were on a boat trip with the Swedish ice breaker Oden and arrived per helicopter. There was a program with informal presentations and an excursion to the Zeppelin and marine station. During the city walk, they visited the Netherlands Arctic Station. Victoria immediately noticed my wooden shoes. On the picture from left to right: Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, the Governor of Svalbard (Sysselmannen), Oddvar Midtkandal (director of Kings Bay), Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Kim Holm...

This year's TUNZA Children's conference took place in Stavanger, Norway from 16th 20th June, 2008 focusing on the theme Creating Change. It brought together 1000 people from 105 countries, including 700 children between the ages of 10 and 14 and 300 chaperones. The children gave presentations and produced some wonderful posters on climate change and energy issues. It was a truly inspiring event and one which IPY was privileged to be a part of. The week started off really well with a well...

An explorative and research expedition bordering on the inhabited world, in order to investigate the lands and the people living face to face with the ice. How could some hunter groups reach a remote area of Eastern Greenland, known as the Ammassalik District? The answer is not easy, but an Italian scientific expedition is trying to find a possible explanation to the question, while exploring the ice land. The expedition, called Saxum, is led by Gianluca Frinchillucci, director of the Polar Museum “S. Zavatti” of Fermo and responsible for the project CNR-Polarnet “Map of Arctic People”, on his seventh polar explorative mission, and involves several researchers and Italian universities. The initiative falls into the few Italian projects p...