Video release: Simultaneous Solstice, covering the summer solstice tag-up between the Phoenix Mars Mission and South Pole teams, as well as images from the Mars lander. Press release: Antarctic expedition prepared researchers for Mars project About half a year before the robotic arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging into soil and subsurface ice of an arctic plain of Mars, six scientists traveled to one of the coldest, driest places on Earth for soil-and-ice studies that would end up aiding analysis of the Mars data. ...

A study suggests that extreme weather events in the Arctic will become more common as the winter ice cover retreats, with potentially severe consequences for human activity. One of the most visible signs of climate change is the dramatically reduced ice cover in the Arctic. The retreat of the sea ice leads to rapid changes in the weather conditions in these areas. A new study published in Climate Dynamics reveals that regions that have been covered by sea ice until now will be exposed to new kinds of severe weather. This may have dire consequences for human activities in the Northern regions. The study was l...

http://ipy.arcticportal.org/index.php?option=com_k2&id=1997&view=itemPress release: Kinnvika - Arctic warming and impact research - Change and variability of Arctic systems, with focus on Nordaustlandet, Svalbard Kinnvika is a project within the International Polar Year 2007–2008 that focuses on Arctic warming and impact research. Its a multinational and multidisciplinary initiative to enhance the understanding of the Arctic climate systems, to monitor environmental change due to global climate warming and to study effects of human activity in the Arctic. Kinnvika is also a logistic platform for scientists to manage research, with a base at the old Kinnvika station in Svalbard. There are 25 working packages in the project and the science involves several disciplines in the Earth Sciences including studies among others on ...

Press release: CAVIAR – Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions Brief description of research CAVIAR is an interdisciplinary project with partners from the eight Arctic nations. The aim of CAVIAR is to increase understanding of how Arctic communities are affected by climate and other changes and to contribute to the development of adaptive strategies and policies. Case studies in communities across the Arctic provide a basis for synthesizing knowledge of how communities experience changes in environmental, social and economic conditions and factors that influence adaptation to these changes. By using a common methodology, results are compared and provide critical, generalizable knowledge of vulnerability and experiences with adaptat...

ITASC IPY Press Release: 2 February 2009, Vesleskaervet, Antarctica Groundhog Day 2009 marks the deployment of ICEPAC's solar- and wind powered mobile IPY research station in the Dronning Maud Land sector of Antarctica, and the opening of the Antarctic venue of the 2nd Bienal del Fin del Mundo, an exhibition of site-specific art installations produced at the South African Antarctic base SANAE IV during the ITASC project. ITASC Catabatic Experimental Platform for Antarctic Culture (ICEPAC) mobile IPY research station deployed in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica at 71 deg 40.433 S 002 deg 48.700 W, 31 January ...

With all our scientific equipment staged with ANZ in Christchurch, ready to fly down to the Ice, all that remains for me and Alex is to pack a few good books, set our lives in order for the next nine and half months and bid farewell to those around us - the latter possibly being the hardest part of all. Last night, to mark our imminent departure, we met with friends and colleagues from the University of Otago at the Carey’s Bay Hotel, just outside Port Chalmers – the last port of call for many early Antarctic expedition including those of Scott and Shackleton. The hotel is reputedly the location Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s last meal before setting sail from New Zealand on his fateful journey to Antarctica in November, 1910. Although were unable to confirm this story, it did make fo...

Bremerhaven, 26 January 2009. The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association can conduct the ongoing Polarstern expedition "LOHAFEX". Independent scientific and legal reviews sought by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety concluded that the iron fertilisation experiment LOHAFEX is neither against environmental standards nor the international law in force. There are thus no ecological and legal reasons to further suspend the iron fertilisation experiment LOHAFEX. Reacting to the positive news from the Federal Ministry of Research Dr. Karin Lochte, Director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said: “We are glad that the experts have fully con...

(c) National Science Foundation After years of planning, strategizing, and international discussions and debate, what once seemed to be only lofty scientific ambitions are now closer than ever to becoming a reality. Ever since subglacial lakes captured the imagination of scientists and the public more than a decade ago, researchers have dreamed of entering and sampling these alien environments to unlock secrets that might guide us in the search for life elsewhere in our solar system. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research’s (SCAR) Scientific Research Program (SRP) on Subglacial Antarctic Lake Envir...

Photo Credit - AGAP team There were many times in the last two months where it seemed that the Antarctic Continent would win, keeping hidden the extensive landscape of subglacial lakes and mountains beneath the several kilometers of ice on Dome A. All the advance planning and negotiating with program leaders and logistics groups for enough days in the field to run the airborne geophysics were of little importance once we arrived on Antarctica. At this point we were negotiating with the continent herself, and we learned she can drive a hard bargain! The group at AGAP S camp had anticipated...

The fourth International Polar Year has led to the creation of a number of new projects and initiatives, many of which will continue after the IPY officially comes to an end in March 2009. One of these initiatives, the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS), which sprang from the IPY Youth Steering Committee, (IPY project n° 168), has grown in size and stature in three short years. Since APECS founders Dr. Jenny Baeseman and Hugh Lantuit decided in 2006 to create an organisation aimed at helping...