Bremerhaven, September 19th 2008. The Arctic summer nears its end and the minimum extent of sea ice is reached. The Arctic ice cover amounted to 4.5 million square kilometres on September 12th. This is slightly more than the lowest ice cover ever measured:  4.1 million square kilometres in the year 2007. Scientists are anxious about the development of sea ice because the long-time mean is 2.2 million square kilometres higher. This development did not come about completely unexpectedly, however. A model calculation conducted at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in early summer showed that the ice minimum of the year 2008 would lie below that of the year 2005 with almost one hundred per cent probability. A new minimum bel...

The Prince Albert II of Monaco foundation is financing the participation of scientists and students in the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting to be held in Nice, France, Jan 25-30, for the Topical Session 054: Impacts of Climate Warming on Polar Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. As a result of this financing, 12 fellowships worth 1000 euros each are available, to be used to finance the participation in this polar session of 12 scientists from developing countries, countries bordering the southern Mediterranean, or students. If you are eligible, please, contact the co-chairs of the 054 Topical session after confirmation of your abstract submission (...

The Prince Albert II of Monaco foundation is financing the participation of scientists and students in the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting to be held in Nice, France, Jan 25-30, for the Topical Session 054: Impacts of Climate Warming on Polar Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems. As a result of this financing, 12 fellowships worth 1000 euros each are available, to be used to finance the participation in this polar session of 12 scientists from developing countries, countries bordering the southern Mediterranean, or students. If you are eligible, please, contact the co-chairs of the 054 Topical session after confirmation of your abstract submission (...

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) Aquatic Sciences Meeting Nice, France, 25-30 January, 2009 Two special sessions at the upcoming ASLO meeting that may be of interest to those involved with the International Polar Year. Session titles are below, followed by a session summary.   Abstract deadline 3 October, 2008 Special session 099: IPY-GEOTRACES: Trace Elements and Isotopes in Polar Oceans Convenors: Marie Boye, LEMAR, IUEM, Technopole de Brest-Iroise, France, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; H.J.W. De Baar, Department Ocean Ecosystems, University of Groningen, The Netherlands, debaar@ni...

From October through December of 2008, the Offshore New Harbor Expedition will seismically image sediments located below the sea floor in the New Harbor area of Antarctica that were deposited when the Earth was transitioning from a Greenhouse World (>34 million years ago) to an Icehouse World (34 Ma to Today). This project is part of the ANDRILL Program (ANtarctic DRILLing), a multinational initiative with the objective to recover stratigraphic core records for the use of interpreting Antarctic’s climatic, glacial, and tectonic hi..

The scientific conference of Arctic Frontiers 2009, Arctic marine ecosystems in an era of rapid climate change (18-23 January 2009 in Tromso

Contents: 1. People Day: September 24th 2. Conferences: Global Cryosphere Watch, Arctic Change, and AGU 3. EU funding opportunity for polar research 4. Arctic Sea Ice 5. Join an IPY Photo Exhibit 6. APECS Report no. 17, September 2008 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups DATA REMINDER - HAVE YOU AND YOUR PROJECT PARTNERS DEVELOPED YOUR DATA MANAGEMENT PLANS AND CONVEYED THOSE TO THE IPYDIS? 1. People Day: September 24th Many thanks to all who are participating in this month's polar day focuss...

Press release: Investigating sea ice decline A revised outlook for the Arctic 2008 summer sea ice minimum shows ice extent will be below the 2005 level but not likely to beat the 2007 record. In mid-September, the outlook will be confronted with real-time observations. DAMOCLES will dispatch eleven research missions into the Arctic this autumn to better understand the future of the sea ice. Chances that the 2008 ice extent will fall below last year's record minimum is about 8 percent, researchers forecast after having run a number of different models predicting the fate of the Arctic sea ice this summer. But there is still reason for concern; the scientists are almost certain the ice extent will fall below the minimum of 2005, which was...

Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre MEDIA RELEASE 5 August 2008 Call for action ocean acidification The world's leading scientists in ocean acidification have released today an open communique that says the issue an urgent scientific and policy challenge. The communiqu features the deliberations of world experts at the Ocean Acidification: Australian Impacts in the Global Context sponsored by the Australian Department of Climate Change, held in June in Hobart by the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC). Dr Will Howard and Dr Bronte Tilbrook from the released the communiqu today, on behalf of the top-callibre participants of the workshop. ...

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.