The German research vessel Polarstern is now about 500km north of Prydz Bay. The engineer Konrad Kopsch from the Alfred Wegener Institute Potsdam is getting instruments (such as the so-called “bird”) ready, together with his colleagues and the geophysicist Detlef Damaske from the "Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe" (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Raw Materials) in Germany. "The bird" is a torpedo-shaped probe that is suspended by a cable a few meters below a helicopter flying over the ocean. The measuring equipment itself, which measures the magnetization at the ocean floor, is located inside the helicopter. The researchers are looking for anomalies in the magnetization data in order to be able to record and make detailed reconstructions of co...

Polarstern has arrived at Prydz Bay, the primary research area of the expedition ANTXXIII/9 of the Alfred Wegener Institute. The first task is to take sediment samples from the ocean floor at a depth of more than 700 meters. Geologist Bernhard Diekmann from the University of Potsdam stands on the ship's bridge and watches the monitor attached to the parasound equipment. This Sonar system graphically represents the layers of the sea floor sediment under the Polarstern. Diekmann is looking for areas where the sediment layers are even and parallel to each other, so that an interference-free baseline measurement can be taken. Icebergs dating back to the last ice age have left deep grooves in the ocean floor. The literature, however, does not describe the location of these areas very accuratel...

On March 1 2007, students at schools around the world marked the advent of International Polar year by conducting an ice experiment. They then told the IPY community and the world by pinning a virtual balloon onto a web-based map showing exactly where they were. It proved to be quite a success, with hundreds of schools contributing so far. IPY enthusiasts also joined in, turning the map into a riot of red balloons. See the whole map here. For technical reasons, browsers don't like it if you show too many balloons at one time, so only the most recent 200 balloons are shown. However, you can see all contributed posts directly by browsing the directory from ...

The International Polar Year has begun. What a week! With US and UK launches on the Monday stirring up media attention, followed by an event in Portugal on the Wednesday and over 20 more national events on the day itself, March 1st 2007, we definitely hit the news! While traveling to Paris with Nicola, to prepare for the international launch, the phone didn't stop ringing, both sides of the Channel Tunnel and even on the Paris subway system! I was contacted by journalists as diverse as New Zealand Radio, an In-flight magazine, BBC World Service, Vatican Radio, Al Jazeera English, an Italian science magazine, Chinese TV networks, and Scientific American to name a few. During the International Ceremony itself, my phone kept shaking, and afterwards, on a tour of Paris, I saw ...

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!): ...

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...

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...