Polar field stations have been a key part of polar research for the past two centuries and one of the most tangible legacies of previous IPYs, yet they have been little studied. This novel project will look at field stations, both as sites of production of scientific knowledge in the field, and as flag carriers and symbols of geopolitical and diplomatic conflict and cooperation.

The Arctic coastal zone is sensitive to changes in marine, atmospheric, and terrestrial systems. Variations in sea ice extent, wave and storm intensity, air and water temperatures, and ground ice content affect the rate and magnitude of coastal change. A very sparsely populated region, the Arctic coastline is poorly observed when compared to temperate and tropical coastal zones, despite the fact that human systems in the Arctic are located in and dependent on processes in the coastal zone. The Arctic coastal zone needs to be monitored, both as a barometer for global change and for its human relevance. The international effort to align coastal observations in the Arctic is led by the Arctic Circumpolar Coastal Observatory Network (ACCO-Net). ACCO-Net includes a network of key sites setup by the Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) project of the IASC, and 17 International Polar Year (IPY) projects from around the Arctic. ACCO-Net provides three categories of support to an SAON: 1) a network of regional experts responsible for running observations; 2) historical and current data in an Arctic circumpolar GIS database; and 3) a catalogue of site characteristics based on remotely sensed products. The regional experts have been assembled through IASC’s Arctic Coastal Dynamics project, and through the IPY project cluster on Arctic coastal observatories, which ACCO-Net leads. The coastal database is currently available in beta form, and includes a segmentation and classification of the circumpolar Arctic coastline. The current coastline used is the World Vector Shoreline, which has been divided into over 8000 segments on the basis of geomorphology, coastline position change rate, and ground composition, as well as other parameters. The GIS format allows searching and querying, and the database is currently mounted as an internet map server. The catalogue of site characteristics has two principle aspects: i) a monitoring template describing the primary and secondary monitoring parameters for each observatory site, and including links to standard operating procedures for each, and ii) standardized coastline position and digital elevation models for each observatory site, based on optical and infrared satellite data collected during IPY as part of the European Space Agency’s IPY program. ACCO-Net partner projects are currently selecting imagery for the catalogue and will co-ordinate their activities via a series of workshops supported by the International Space Science Institute.

The proposed project focuses the efforts of 20 scientists in 9 countries to produce a series of benchmark data sets for the International Polar Year. Those data sets culminate in the first quantification of the total rate of ice loss by flow from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work will be conducted by young scientists mentored by professional scientists to help train the next generation of scientists in the use of remote sensing data of the polar regions. Satellite data include ICESat laser altimetry, Landsat optical imagery and various European and Canadian synthetic aperture radar data.

The Network for ARCtic Climate and Biological DIVersity Studies (ARCDIV) is a multidisciplinary international research initiative. The project explores the diversity of ecosystem on Arctic archipelago Svalbard, central part of Isfjorden, Billefjorden and Petuniabukta, by integrating existing and new intensive measurements of key biological and physical variables and processes.

Origin, evolution and setting of the Gamburtsev subglacial highlands
Discovered during International Geophysical Year 1957-1958, Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Mountains extend for more than 1,200 km and rise to heights of over 3,000 m. These mountains, however, have never been seen by humans because they are covered by ice up to 600 m thick. Using aircraft and field expeditions, this ambitious project will collect major new data sets – including offshore marine, gravity, magnetics, ice radar and a wealth of geological observations – to produce a four-dimensional history of the evolution of the Gamburtsev mountains. As well as recovering samples from this last great unknown region of Antarctica, the project will shed new light on the origins of the Antarctic ice sheet and its role in future climate change.

DAMOCLES (Developing Arctic Modeling and Observing Capabilities for Long-term Environmental Studies) is an integrated ice-atmosphere-ocean monitoring and forecasting system designed for observing, understanding and quantifying climate changes in the Arctic. DAMOCLES is specifically concerned with the potential for a significantly reduced sea ice cover, and the impacts this might have on the environment and on human activities, both regionally and globally.

We know that the Arctic exerts a critical influence on the Earth's climate and has done so for millions of years. Locked in Arctic ice and sediments are vital records of what the Earth's environment was like in the past. To more accurately predict the future of the Earth's climate, we need to know more about the extremes. Finding out how hot and how cold the Earth was in the past, and how much, as well as how little of it was covered by ice are key questions that APEX hopes to help answer.

The overall goal of this initiative is to advance our knowledge of climate warming in the Arctic, by studying past climate change. We will focus mainly on the ocean circulation and climate of the NW Eurasian continental margin. The present climate in the Arctic shows signs of rapid change with decreasing sea ice cover and increasing temperature of the Atlantic Water. The implications of this warming are highly uncertain, as modelling experiments projecting temperatures for the next 100 years show a largescatter at high northern latitudes.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the Earth’s three most rapidly warming regions: most of the glaciers there are in retreat and large ice shelves have broken up. This project investigates the impact of these changes on the plants and animals that live on the land, the shore and coastal sea around the Antarctic Peninsula. Organisms are facing a barrage of complex effects including warming, decreased ice and snow cover, increased iceberg grounding, sedimentation and freshening. A wide range of apparatus and techniques will be used from remote operated vehicles (ROV) and simple underwater light meters to satellite imagery and counting microscopic life. ClicOPEN scientists from 15 countries will study changes in the environments and organisms around a number of retreating glaciers of the Western Antarctic Peninsula. Most of Antarctica's very rich biodiversity lives nowhere else in the world and we know little about how it will responding to such exceptional and unprecedented warming.