Vagabond is at Ny Ålesund since 1st September. France and I are preparing the third winter and are using the facilities of the AWIPEV Research Base. Varnishing, painting, servicing and various maintenance, cleaning, packing, sorting out, supplying of food... activities are many and varied on board! Between 2 jobs, we are exploring the surroundings with mountain bikes pulled by our dogs, paddling at sunset between drifting ice in the great King's Bay, watching the reindeers or polar foxes coming right into the village, talking - and sharing a drink - with scientists or technicians... a talk about our 2 first winters in Spitsbergen is planned here on 12 September, and we will also jump into the jacuzzi! ...

Do you think the North and South poles are boring, lifeless places that have no impact on your life? Think again. The planet's northern (Arctic) and southern (Antarctic) polar areas are teeming with plants, animals and even people. Polar bears and penguins aside, these icy regions at opposite ends of the globe are important pieces in Earth's climate system. An art contest for grades 2-4 challenges U.S. students to pick a polar region, explore it and then draw a picture showing what they learned. This is the 11th annual art contest held by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) in Arlington, VA. The contest supports national science education standards for grades K-4. The winning artist will receive a $250 savings bond, and hi...

The days are rapidly becoming shorter and shorter as the polar night approaches. Our preparation continues for winter and today we began installing our hydroponics garden in one corner of the saloon. Kindly supplied to us by General Hydroponics Europe, this system promises to provide us with fresh veggies throughout the winter months. Not only giving us a good source of vitamins, it will also create a welcome winter activity. Gamet has already shown his green fingers by nurturing a variety of plants on board, including one rose that is about to flower, giving us a welcome burst of colour and life. We have also winterized our water maker this week as the temperature in ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

The International Polar Year 2007-2008, and a wide array of polar sciences, will have a strong presence during the Fall AGU Meetings in San Francisco in December 2006. More than ten oral and poster sessions carry the IPY label or the label of an IPY-endorsed project. More than 30 additonal sessions address polar themes, from ice core science to biogeochemistry of northern watersheds. The IPY IPO has assembled a list of all these polar sessions on a single sheet for your use; here it is, as a PDF. IPY IPO will also operate a display booth, cooperatively with the US NSF Office of Polar Programs. We will share many international materials promoting IPY and operate a polar message cen...

Three researchers from the University of Lapland's Arctic Centre are in Antarctica and are blogging their research and life there: Glaciologist-paleoclimatologist John Moore, geophysicist Aslak Grinsted and chemist Kristiina Virkkunen. Their blog is here. They are doing research on a blue ice area about 200 km from Abo...