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.

The 2007 University of Washington Applied Physics Lab. Life Styles of the Cold and Bold.

The University of Washington Applied Physics Lab ice camp 200 miles north of Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea.

Welcome aboard the US Coast Guard Cutter HEALY, and take a guided tour led by Captain Ted Lindstrom, crew members and researchers. Travel the newest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker in the USCG fleet from stem to stern, bridge to engine room to galley. See what it takes to support cutting-edge science in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, on board a vessel able to voyage around the planet without stopping, and winter over in the Arctic, if required.

One of the research groups on board the Healy, was the seal team from the National Marine Mammals Laboratory, based in Seattle. Seals, like other ocean creatures are being affected by climate change and the shrinking sea ice. The team hopes to put transmitters on the animals. That data will be relayed via satellite to distant computers, contributing to the understanding of the Northern Bering Sea ecosystem. But first the seals need to be caught...

This short video features Perry Pungowiyi from the Native Village of Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. It's his second time on board the HEALY where he was invited by Chief Scientist, Jackie Grebmeier, to observe and participate in some of the research that was being done during the cruise, including the NOAA/National Marine Mammal Laboratory study of Arctic ice seals and observations of spectacled eiders. He wants viewers to appreciate that he is speaking here as an individual, and that his comments should not be taken as the views and opinions of the people of St. Lawrence Island.

Chief scientist Jackie Grebmeier's May-June cruise aboard the USCGC HEALY looked at climate change and its impact on the local marine ecosystem, from the smallest creatures to those farther up the food chain. Also on board, and leading off our report, Perry Pungowiyi, a Siberian Yupik who's been noticing changes in the abundance of sea-ice, and the timing of its appearance and disappearance. See a seal census, with white-clad NOAA researchers (for camouflage) jumping from ice floe to ice floe. Hear from the researchers how a changing environment impacts all the inhabitants of the narrow ocean that stretches between Alaska and Siberia, till now one of the most productive seas in the world, and a major fishery on which the USA depends. Meet the inhabitants of this aquatic "neighborhood", as Jackie describes it, and learn what makes it tick... and change.

For nearly 35 years George Divoky has been returning to Cooper Island, a small, low strip of desolate land close to Barrow, AK. Initially he went there simply to study Black Guillemots, but as - over the decades - he tracked the dates of their arrival and the new chicks hatching, he realized he was documenting how climate change was affecting both an organism and an ecosystem. As summer ice retreated, food for the chicks was harder and harder to find - and polar bears began to roam the beach.

Bob Garrott and his team of students and assistants from Montana State return each year to one of the most amazing locations on Earth, where sea-ice bumps up against the land, opening up cracks that become nurseries for each new generation of Weddell seals. A close-up look at the first few months of a pup that may gain 200 pounds in just a few weeks. Venture out with the researchers as they carefully weigh and photograph the seals.

Core Curriculum

In temperatures far below zero, with ice needing to be chipped off their instruments, the team set to work. Bart and Co-PI, Jonathan Tomkins, describe their research - and the students tell of what feels like "the worst game of tug-of-war, evah..." as they man- (and woman-) handle the muddy core tubes to get at their precious samples. Not everything goes exactly as planned. The jumbo piston core comes up bent, but they recover and get good data.