The 8th Polar Day (topic: Polar Oceans) elicited so much interest that it turned into a full week of events that took place across the globe from some likely places such as Edinburgh, Winnipeg and Nuuk to some not so likely places like Brazil & Malaysia. Take a peek at some of the exciting highlights from classrooms, radio stations, field schools and public outreach sessions around the world. Edinburgh, UK: March 14th - 15th The Dynamic Earth science center hosted a hands-on public session with researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science who displayed Arctic research footage from recent expeditions. The most popular part of the event was when people got a chance to don the equipment worn by polar scientists. We may have just h...

International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA) IPY Press release – Feb. 10, 2009, Boulder, CO Download IASOA Press Release as PDF For more information visit our IPY Media Day page at www.iasoa.org Climate observatories at Barrow, Alaska, Summit, Greenland, and Tiksi, Russia all lie between 71° and 73° North, a few hundred miles above the Arctic Circle—but the sites are hardly similar otherwise. A...

As part of the field season of the 2007 International Polar Year, the Zackenberg research station was kept open two months longer than normal to host the project: Influence of Snow and Ice on the Winter Functioning and Annual Carbon Balance of a High-Arctic Ecosystem (ISICaB). This opening gave us a chance to observe autumn and early-winter carbon fluxes. Six automated chambers provided methane flux measurements once per hour, day and night in a typical fen area. At the end of the growing season, emissions decreased during September until they reached the presumed low winter emission level. However, at the onset of soil freeze-in, a substantial increase in emissions was observed and was sustained for several weeks, corresponding to the time required for a complete freeze-in of the entire a...

While most biologists relish field studies, computer scientists are more known to spend long hours indoors, logged on the Internet, eating pizza. What happens when computer scientists and biologists team up to deploy an advanced monitoring system in the arctic? No pizza, no Internet, and beautiful, unpredictable nature — how does a computer scientist cope in the arctic? This is the story of the MANA diary, which gathered the impressions of an outsider during a 10 days stay at Zackenberg, Greenland, last August: from the logistics problems, the encounter with a polar bear, or outdoors volleyball to the amazing sight of a three-mast. ...

Where to begin? I am buzzing.. just buzzing. What a Day,- and half the world hasn't even woken up yet! Today is our sixth International Polar Day, and we are focusing on People in the Polar Regions. Plans for the day have been very experimental, very grassroots, much in line with IPY.. but with that comes that great big unknowingness.... will anyone join in? Will anyone turn up? Last night...

“Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers”: A major philatelic event for the closing of IPY in March 2009 Last Saturday September 20t 2008, at the “Austria Center Vienna”, a few steps from the UN Headquarter in Vienna, have been officially presented the major philatelic event concerning the “International Polar Year 2007-2009”. To pay tribute to all the efforts made during this fourth “International Polar Year” 2007-2009 and to deliver a strong message aimed at the whole world, the postal administrations of around 40 countries have decided to joint to produce a common stamp issue concerning the problem of the Global Warming and featuring the slogan “Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers”. Started ...

NSF's Summit Station, Greenland, is one of the most remote research stations on Earth, situated in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet. At 10,000 feet in altitude, on top of two miles of ice in the very heart of the vast Greenland ice sheet, it's home in summer to as many as 60 support staff and researchers, studying snow, ice and climate change. Flying in fuel for generators for heating and electricity - "summer" night-time temperatures fall as low as minus 40 - is both expensive and polluting: the planes use a gallon of fuel for every gallon they deliver, and fumes from their engines, the station generators and traditional snow machines can interfere with experiments. Over the past few years, the station has been implementing many green strategies similar to those appropriate for more temperate environments - plus a few unique to Summit: replacing incandescent light bulbs; encouraging scientists to walk or ski; using waste heat to melt ice for drinking water and to warm buildings. In 2007, a new wind turbine is being tested, and a prototype electric snowmobile is in use, the latter a winner in a contest for student engineers. In "Going Green in Greenland", researchers say they think wind and solar could provide 75% of the station's needs in the future... and that if Summit - in such a challenging environment - can reduce its use of fossil fuels, it should be possible anywhere on Earth.

In May and June 2007, Mary Albert (CRREL) and Jeff Severinghaus (Scripps) led a team of 9 researchers and 3 drillers in a 3-week project to drill down through nearly 125 meters of "firn" and ice close to NSF's Summit Station, Greenland. "Firn" is multi-year snow before it's transformed into solid ice through the pressure of layer upon layer of new snow each successive year. Understanding the physical structure of the firn and the gases trapped in it, is essential to properly interpreting the ice core record, and understanding what cores reveal about Earth's past climate. As Jeff Severinghaus says, with a more accurate understanding of snow, firn and ice you can take climate data from ice cores "to the bank" - such as the fact that sometimes Earth's climate can jump 18 degrees F in just a decade - and make more accurate predictions of the future.

Press release Bremerhaven August 7th 2008. The German Research Vessel Polarstern had to prove its ice breaking capabilities in Arctic waters to gain data on two series of long-term research measurements. After working in regions up to latitude 82° N, Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will enter port in Reykjavik (Iceland) on August 10th. “This year, we had to cope with exceptional heavy ice coverage”, says chief scientist Prof. Gerhard Kattner. The sea ice covered the Arctic almost down to latitude 72° in southern direction. Perpetual winds from the Northwest have moved the ice into the central area of the Fram Strait since the beginning of summer. The main focus of the expedition lied ...

Flying over the Greenland Ice Sheet several days ago, scientist Mark Behn was surprised to see South Lake still full of sapphire-blue water. The 2- to 3-kilometer-wide lake forms each spring and summer, fed by melting ice. The water eventually builds up so much weight that it cracks the ice at the bottom of the lake, and the water drains away through the ice. That should have already happened by now. Mark was thrilled to see the still-brimming lake. Rarely have scientists had an opportunity to witness a draining lake, which is why they put many instruments around the lakes to capture the action while they are not there. Mark and his colleagues had just gotten word that another lake they were scheduled to visit, North Lake, had just drained. “We just missed it,” he said....