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.

Scientists from Europe, North America and New Zealand will investigate how the presence of snow and ice affects the chemistry of air above the polar ice caps. In the Arctic and Antarctic, sunlight triggers the release of chemicals from surface snow into the lower atmosphere. Salty sea ice surfaces host some very interesting chemistry (involving bromine compounds) during the polar spring when the sun comes back. These processes affect air quality and the interpretation of past climate using ice cores. If the amount of sea ice changes the chemical content of the lowest parts of the polar atmosphere will also change.

Northern High Latitude Climate variability during the past 2000 years:implications for human settlement. "NORCLIM investigates how natural climate change over the past two millenia has affected human presence in the Arctic. Examples are the timing of Viking settlement on the Faroer, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland and the shift in whaling activities from Spitsbergen to Davis Strait during the Little Ice Age. To achieve the NORCLIM goals, geologists, climatologists and archeologists from seven counties will carry out marine and terrestrial fieldwork on key locations along a Newfoundland-Spitsbergen transect.

Ice cores tell us how climate and atmospheric composition have varied in the past. IPICS will develop international plans for new projects on timescales from 2000 to over a million years. A focus in IPY will be on starting a core to bedrock in Greenland that aims to show us how the climate and ice sheet responded during the last warm interglacial period on Earth.

"The APICS project is an effort to understand all aspects of the ice and climate system in one of the most rapidly-changing regions on Earth - the Antarctic Peninsula' Larsen B embayment. In 2002, a huge section of this ice shelf collapsed, after decades of record-warm summers. Following this collapse, glaciers in the region accelerated abruptly. Coastal ecology and nearby ocean currents changed drastically due to the loss, and a preliminary survey of the newly-exposed ocean floor showed previously unknown sub-ice life forms still present after the break-up. The APICS project is intended to use the dynamic Larsen B ice shelf region as a natural laboratory for what to expect from climate warming in Antarctica. It is a collaborative effort among 11 major U.S. research institutions, and four other countries (Spain, Belgium, Argentina, and England) to coordinate research across several disciplines, using the US research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer as a platform. The work will include an ice core at the crest of the ice ridge above the Larsen B, remote robotic systems for glacier measurements, extensive flights to visit unique rock outcrops that may reveal the history of the region, and a remotely piloted vehicle for exploring the new life forms and ocean sediment changes. The first field season is currently planned for February/March of 2008."

Understanding the state of the cryosphere, and its associated past, present and future variability, is essential to understanding physical and biogeochemical interactions between the oceanic, atmospheric, terrestrial, social, cultural, and economic systems. This project will provide a framework for assessing the state of cryosphere. It will establish links with IPY projects involved in monitoring, assessing, and understanding the global cryosphere, and with projects involved in socioeconomic and cultural issues.

The Stellar Axis land art project is currently being deployed in Antarctica, to be completed for the Southern hemisphere Summer Solstice on 22 December 2006. Perhaps the largest and most ambitious arts project to take place in Antarctica, Stellar Axis is the work of the internationally known, Los Angeles based artist, Lita Albuquerque, and is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation and US Antarctic Programme. The concept is to mirror the southern constellations through the placement of 99 blue spheres on th...

Matthieu, the subject of today’s log, is our resident scientist. Working for the oceanographic laboratory at Paris-Jussieu University, he is responsible for managing all of the scientific activities on board. Qualified as an engineer in computing and electronics, Matthieu has already spent one year in the polar regions, passing a winter at the French Antarctic base Dumont d’Urville. His tour in the south was as a science technician, responsible for the base computer network administration and the maintenance of various scientific experiments. When asked what led him to the polar regions Matthieu explains it was for a number of reasons. “Mainly for the scientific interest, but also the fact that the French Polar Institute was next to my engineering school when I was a s...