International and Interdisciplinary IPY Polar Field School June 15th – July 3rd 2009, at The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) This international IPY Field School will give an interdisciplinary introduction to environmental change in the Polar areas based upon past, present and future research being done in the Arctic during IPY. The course will offer a unique field-training experience for internationally recruited students (undergraduate/early graduate) in a high-arctic environment, further on providing them with the latest IPY research data and information to be used for interdisciplinary project work d...

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 ...

Meet Dr. Vladislava Vladimirova, Prof. Yulian Konstantinov and Dr. Joachim Otto Habeck, three researchers working with NOMAD, an IPY project that studies social change among reindeer herders in Russia's far north. Dr. Vladislava Vladimirova At Lake Porosozero reindeer herding camp Vladi is a PhD from Uppsala University Sweden, and currently a research fellow at Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Saale, Germany. Her anthropological interests are in the broader fields of economic anthropology, political ecology...

The February issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine is now available! Arctic and Antarctic Birds was co-produced with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This partnership allows us to bring you exciting and engaging ideas for incorporating birds into a life sciences unit. Do you want to know more about birds and their adaptations? This month’s Science Content Knowledge article discusses some of the birds that live in or migrate to the polar regions and how birds stay warm in cold weather. Fol...

New York City will host its third International Polar Weekend at the American Museum of Natural History on Saturday and Sunday 2/7 and 2/8 from noon to 5PM each day. This family style event is a New York celebration of highlights from the International Polar Year (IPY). The weekend will include activities for all ages, including performances; short lectures; film clips with commentary; and an interactive Polar Fair with scientists, explorers, artists, and performers from Greenland, Norway, and Canada, as well as the United States. Event highlights include:

(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...