Written by Erdenebat Eldev-Ochir, Director, International Cooperation Division National Agency for Meteorology and Environment Monitoring of Mongolia In 2007 the government of Mongolia, in connection with IPY, issued regulation #64, establishing a national IPY committee and approving a work plan. At that time the President of Mongolia visited our agency and officially opened IPY in Mongolia. In accordance to the workplan, we have organized an international w...

Press release: The NOMAD Expedition - Studying social change in the Russian far north (Kola Peninsula, NW Russia) Read more about Dr. Vladislava Vladimirova, Prof. Yulian Konstantinov and Dr. Joachim Otto Habeck, three researchers working with NOMAD. Beautiful images from the expedition in high res The NOMAD Expedition (March 2007-February 2008) followed the annual migration of a reindeer herd in the central pa...

By Lutz Schirrmeister, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Text in German below 1 Two joint Russian-German land expeditions to the Dimitrii Laptev Strait (Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island, Oyogos Yar coast) and to the lower Kolyma River (Duvanny Yar site) were carried out as part of the IPY project "Past Permafrost records in Arctic Siberia" (ID 15) with 10 and 6 participants during the summers of 2007 and 2008, respectively. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, Potsdam), the Russian Centre of Arctic and Antarctic Research (AARI,...

Zhongshan Station serves as the logistical hub of Chinese scientific research activities in East Antarctica and in the near future it will be a support platform for the new Kunlun Station to be constructed at Dome A. Situated in a small ice-free coastal region between the ice sheet and the ocean, Zhongshan Station serves as a base for scientists conducting research at the station and out in the field. In his latest report, SciencePoles reporter Je...

Today, Thursday December 4th, IPY is celebrating it's seventh International Polar Day, this time focussing on research Above The Polar Regions. In conjunction with this event, several IPY partners have released new information about their projects. Here are some examples: *** Global Interagency IPY Polar Year Snapshot GIIPSY ...

Solar Linkages to Atmospheric Processes (SLAP) is an International Polar Year project investigating the links between changes in solar output and weather and climate. Thunderstorms and lightning strikes drive electricity around the world and form part of a global 'atmospheric electric circuit' that flows between the ground and the lower reaches of the ionosphere – about 80km up. Thunderstorms and electrified clouds are the 'batteries' of the atmospheric electric circuit, which drive the current from the ground to the ionosphere, while lightning is a visual representation of the current. The flow of current around the world is modulated by cosmic rays, whic...

The Arctic has always been a difficult place to do any extensive monitoring and data collection. Until recently, there have only been a limited number of projects that have taken any significant, long-term, and coordinated observations of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent bodies of water. This is due in part to the extensive sea ice cover that persists over Arctic waters for a good part of the year, which makes it difficult to conduct ship surveys or deploy weather buoys and moorings to measure deep water currents. Arctic ROOS (Regional Ocean...

Return to Main Land and Life Page Background: Layers of perennially frozen ground known as permafrost exist under about 20% of the Earth’s surface. Permafrost occurs on land in both the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as beneath the ocean around the Arctic coast and in many high mountain areas. Seasonal thawing and freezing of the soil forms a shallow active layer that overlies the permafrost. In contrast, deep permafrost, frozen to depths of 500 to 1000 meters, may have existed in a frozen state for thousands of years. Frozen soils have greater mechanical stability than unfrozen soils. Permafrost degradation can cause problems for roads, pipelines ...

The Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) project is an IPY project and is following up on the activities of the Arctic Human Development Report (AHDR), and is initiated by the Stefansson Arctic Institute, Akureyri, Iceland, which also hosts the secretariat. ASI has been endorsed by the Arctic Council.

PRESS RELEASE Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Institute for Polar and Marine Research Communications Dept. Postfach 12 01 61, 27515 Bremerhaven/Germany Tel. ++49 471 4831-1376, Fax ++49 471 4831-1389 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Seven months on a drifting ice floe Drift expedition NP 35 has produced unique data about the hibernal atmosphere above the central Arctic Bremerhaven, April 14, 2008 For the first time, a German has taken part in a Russian drift expedition and has explored the atmosphere above the central Arctic during the polar night. Jürgen Graeser, a member of the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and M...