NOAA Probes Arctic Pollution For Global Warming Clues NOAA — April 7 — NOAA scientists are now flying through springtime Arctic pollution to find out why the region is warming - and summertime sea ice is melting - faster than predicted. Some 35 NOAA researchers are gathering with government and university colleagues in Fairbanks, Alaska, to conduct the study through April 23. Called ARCPAC (Aerosol, Radiation, and Cloud Processes affecting Arctic Climate Change), the project is a NOAA contribution to International Polar Year 2008. Ringed seals key to polar bears' fate: researchers Winnipeg Free Press — Apr...

On March 12th, we celebrated the third International Polar Day --- Changing Earth in China. We chose three cities as our activity places, which are respectively located in North China, Middle China and South China. The Outreach Board and Poster In Beijing, capital of China, China Weather TV made a piece of news to introduce third polar day to Chinese audien...

On Tuesday, April 8, middle- and high-school students from Fairbanks, Shageluk and Wasilla, Alaska, will join with students from the other end of the globe, in Ushuaia, Argentina, in a live two-hour videoconference that is part of International Polar Year (IPY) activities at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). The students will respond to a focus question about the important seasonal indicators in their area (such as budburst, leaves changing colors, or river/lake freeze-up or break-up), and how those indicators may be impacted by climate change. They will then discuss their answers with each other and with several arctic and antarctic scientists who will be on hand. This videoconference, similar to one that was held a year ago on the UAF campus, is part of an Internat...

River delta's rise puts Arctic's future in flux VANCOUVER, April 4, 2008 Globe and Mail In the Mackenzie River Delta, where there are about 45,000 lakes separated by thin arms of land, researchers have found that global warming is causing water-level increases three times greater than expected. The study, Effects of Global Change on Canada's Mackenzie River Delta, is part of an International Polar Year investigation into changes in Arctic freshwater systems. Experimenting with scientific fun Queens University Journal Bottles of strangely named ch...

A number of research projects during the current International Polar Year are using the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic as well as sociological studies of these societies in conjunction with research in the natural sciences on climate variability and change. With climate change rapidly altering the face of the Arctic, it is particularly important to document indigenous knowledge while it is still available. The inherent knowledge of snow and snow conditions that reindeer herding communities have accumulated over the centuries can be of great value to researchers studying snow and ice conditions in these regions. In the IPY EALÁT project (n°399), researchers are examining reindeer herding societies and how they are coping with climate change wh...

A number of research projects during the current International Polar Year are using the traditional knowledge of the indigenous peoples of the Arctic as well as sociological studies of these societies in conjunction with research in the natural sciences on climate variability and change. With climate change rapidly altering the face of the Arctic, it is particularly important to document indigenous knowledge while it is still available. The inherent knowledge of snow and snow conditions that reindeer herding communities have accumulated over the centuries can be of great value to researchers studying snow and ice conditions in these regions. In the IPY EALÁT project (n°399), researchers are examining reindeer herding societies and how they are coping with climate change wh...

In April of 2008 a team of scientists and Canadian Rangers will traverse the northern coast of Ellesmere Island to study the state of the ice shelves and associated ecosystems in this remote region. The Canadian high Arctic is undergoing substantial climate-related changes; ice shelves along Ellesmere's northern coast that have been attached to the shore for thousands of years, some over 30 meters thick, and thousands of square kilometers of land-fast sea-ice have been breaking-up. The loss of these dominant features has dramatically changed the coastal landscape, leading to the drainage of massive volumes of freshwater from fiords previously dammed by the ice shelves and the creation of vast ice islands. These physical changes are altering the habitat of aquatic microbial communities ex...

Time lapse images of the Belcher Glacier.