A helicopter crash in Antarctica has claimed the lives of two people and injured three. Those of us involved in the International Polar Year express our deep sadness at the news. We hope for a speedy return to full health for those injured, and we remember with admiration and appreciation the skill and dedication of our partners. AWI press release (German) NIOZ press release (Dutch) ...

April 28-May 1, 2008 Houghton, Michigan USA This is the first announcement for the 2008 Workshop of the LASHIPA (Large-scale historical exploitation of Polar Areas) group. An international organization centered around the historical and archaeological study of industrialization in Polar Areas, the LASHIPA group has cooperated successfully on several seasons of research and teaching based in fieldwork on Svalbard (see www.lashipa.nl for details). LASHIPA members have garnered research funding from several national agencies and continue to pursue support for joint efforts during the next two years, at minimum. LASHIPA has been officially sanctioned as an IPY research activity, with explicit attention to international cooperation and...

Thousands of tourists visit the continent every year, most of them on board large, comfortable cruiseships. Dutch travel photographer Thijs Heslenfeld wanted true adventure. He boarded the Dutch threemast barque Europa for a journey of discovery to some of the loneliest, coldest and most beautiful places on earth. Heslenfeld sailed to Antarctica twice on board the Europa. Last year he did the full two month trip from Argentina all the way to South Africa. His Antarctica images have been published in magazines wordwide, including National Geographic Adventure and GEO Saison. Now his best pho...

Terrestrial ecosystems in ARctic and ANTarctic: Effects of UV Light, Liquefying ice, and Ascending temperatures. (TARANTELLA, IPY project no. 59) IPY project page TARENTELLA website Predicted changes in climate and ozone concentrations in Polar regions, make it critically important to understand how changes in key environmental factors influence Polar terrestrial ecosystems via the modification of their individual but interconnected components. Observational and experimental research on the effect of climate change and ozone depletion is affiliated to international research programmes to t...

The IPY International Programme Office (IPO) has recently received some sponsorship to seed a meeting of the IPY International Youth Steering Committee (IYSC), including the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS). This meeting will occur in Stockholm at the end of September. Below is background material for this meeting. Meeting Details (252 KB DOC) includes participants, overview, agenda, and logistics Planning Information and Summary (128 KB PDF) APEC...

Summary: The complete story of all IPY focuspoints, expressed in one videoart clip. No words, only moving pictures. Showing a silent but dramatic process in nature and culture. produced by Ap Verheggen, 2007 --------------------------------------------------------- The video is recorded in Nunavut, Canada, as well as at Cap Nez, France. --------------------------------------------------------- My name i...