Partners:
Focus On:
What is IPY
Popular Tags
IPY Search
Displaying items by tag: Educators
Thursday, 19 October 2006 07:15
Badges for Imperial Russian & Soviet Polar Exploration and Research
While many nations have awarded medals for Arctic and Antarctic exploration and scientific research over the last 200 years, Russia has also awarded special breast badges for these services. The tradition of breast badges dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when they were presented by military academies. Toward the end of the 1800s, all manner of badges were being produced, including those with maritime connections. Some honored the launching of ships, goodwill naval visits to foreign seaports, awards for winners of boat races — and to commemorate ocean voyages. After the Soviet Union came into existence in 1922, the tradition of awarding special badges was continued by Soviet civil and military institutions.
Here is an illustrated review of some badges awarded for p...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Tuesday, 14 November 2006 07:48
Arctic Quest Artists Explore the Northwest Passage
By Linda Mackey — Twenty-five Arctic Quest artists followed in the footsteps of great artists and explorers of the past, as they marked the 100th anniversary of Amundsen's 1906 navigation through the Northwest Passage with a journey of their own this summer.
During a twelve day voyage aboard the Akademik Ioffe, the group Arctic Quest recorded their impressions on canvas, paper and film as they traveled up the east coast of Baffin Island, Greenland, and parts of the Northwest Passage, ending in Resolute. Every day brought new surprises including icebergs emerging from the fog, waking up to Orca whales, circling incredible icebergs, taking a zodiac ride to the base of the icefields in Illilisat, Greenland, or donating art supplies to Inuit children in the Arctic communi...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Tuesday, 19 September 2006 05:16
Tarfala Workshop
The European Polar Board and Swedish Research Council recently week hosted a workshop in Tarfala, northern Sweden, focussed on developing outreach and communication efforts in Europe. It was an amazing venue, set at a research station surrounded by glaciers. The group consisted of artists, writers, press and media, photographers, publicity professionals, museum curators, scientists and IPY national representatives.
On a hike up to a glacier, I asked one new colleague, Luigi Folco from the Museo Nazionale...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Thursday, 21 September 2006 05:04
Frank Bickerton and the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-14)
A biographer's challenge is to rekindle the spirit of a person, and this has recently been accomplished by Stephen Haddelsey in his book Born Adventurer: The Life of Frank Bickerton, Antarctic Pioneer.
Bickerton, born in England in 1889, is today largely unknown, though his adventures were daring and remarkable — Haddelsey recounts his travels into the equatorial rainforest of the Cocos Islands and his airplane dogfights over the Western Front during World War I. But it is Bickerton's Antarctic experiences that dominate the book, and...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Saturday, 23 September 2006 04:46
I-TASC project ramping up for IPY
This image is the design for the Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation (I-TASC) mobile research station, which we are planning to deploy in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica and Igloolik, Nunavut during IPY.
The I-TASC station is an autonomous, zero-environmental impact, communications, research and living unit capable of sustaining up to 8 crew members for long periods of work in isolation/insulation conditions (60-180 days). Onboard renewable-energy systems, bioreactor/biological sewage processing, water recycling systems, satellite and HF communication systems and radar infrastructure will provide the I-TASC crews of artists, scientists, engineers and tactical med...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Saturday, 30 September 2006 04:36
The lord of the Arctic
As we continue to organise our life on board for the long polar night ahead, a constant preoccupation is the production, use and discharge of water. Ensuring that we have a sufficient amount of good quality water for our basic needs is a big task for at least two people each day. Like most large boats, we have a watermaker onboard that makes freshwater from seawater through the process of osmosis.
In temperate climates we can produce up to 200 liters per hour. However, in our current position close to 83 degrees north the water temperature is -1.5 degrees celsius and the temperature in the forward hold (the location of the watermaker) has descended to -7 degrees, below the minimum operating temperature of 0 degrees. Therefore, we now produce our water by melting ice and sno...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Tuesday, 03 October 2006 04:31
Tara: Easing North
As we continue to organise our life on board for the long polar night ahead, a constant preoccupation is the production, use and discharge of water. Ensuring that we have a sufficient amount of good quality water for our basic needs is a big task for at least two people each day. Like most large boats, we have a watermaker onboard that makes freshwater from seawater through the process of osmosis.
In temperate climates we can produce up to 200 liters per hour. However, in our current position close to 83 degrees north the water temperature is -1.5 degrees celsius and the temperature in the forward hold (the location of the watermaker) has descended to -7 degrees, below the minimum operating temperature of 0 degrees. Therefore, we now produce our water by melting ice and sno...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Friday, 13 October 2006 04:18
Creatures to be featured in 'Ice Station Antarctica'
As we continue to organise our life on board for the long polar night ahead, a constant preoccupation is the production, use and discharge of water. Ensuring that we have a sufficient amount of good quality water for our basic needs is a big task for at least two people each day. Like most large boats, we have a watermaker onboard that makes freshwater from seawater through the process of osmosis.
In temperate climates we can produce up to 200 liters per hour. However, in our current position close to 83 degrees north the water temperature is -1.5 degrees celsius and the temperature in the forward hold (the location of the watermaker) has descended to -7 degrees, below the minimum operating temperature of 0 degrees. Therefore, we now produce our water by melting ice and sno...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Saturday, 28 October 2006 04:13
Tara: Water management up North
As we continue to organise our life on board for the long polar night ahead, a constant preoccupation is the production, use and discharge of water. Ensuring that we have a sufficient amount of good quality water for our basic needs is a big task for at least two people each day. Like most large boats, we have a watermaker onboard that makes freshwater from seawater through the process of osmosis.
In temperate climates we can produce up to 200 liters per hour. However, in our current position close to 83 degrees north the water temperature is -1.5 degrees celsius and the temperature in the forward hold (the location of the watermaker) has descended to -7 degrees, below the minimum operating temperature of 0 degrees. Therefore, we now produce our water by melting ice and sno...
Published in
IPY Blogs
Tuesday, 07 November 2006 05:01
Tara: Adrift on an ocean of ice
If there is one thing that we can be sure about during this expedition, it is that we can never really relax as we drift across an ocean of ice. Sunday night at 3am the sea ice came alive. Beginning with an innocuous grinding and tapping on the hull, the pressure and sound rapidly increased to a deafening noise inside the boat. At times a constant tapping as the ice squeezed and the pressure increased, then rising to a high pitched screeching like fingernails running over a blackboard as the blocks of ice slide by. Tara handled the onslaught well, being pushed in all directions we have now come to rest on a pressure ridge with a nine degree list to port, not huge but big enough to give us the impression of being at sea.
After a very busy week spent reinstalling scientific...
Published in
IPY Blogs