MEDIA ADVISORY People Media Advisory PDF (text below) photo: Amy Clapp September 22nd, 2008 On September 24th, 2008, the International Polar Year 2007-8 (IPY) will launch its sixth ‘International Polar Day' focusing on People in Polar Regions, especially on community and cultural well-being, health issues, and the role of the Arctic in the global economy. This Polar Day occurs at the time when combined effects of modern climatic, environmental, economic, and social change challen...

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...

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...

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. ...

Course Announcement, 15 September - 15 December 2008 For further information, please go to: http://dl1.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ipy/216info Or contact Amanda Graham, Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it -------------------- Yukon College and University of the Arctic announce the Fall 2008 international offering of the online course, International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise. This second-year-level, multidisciplinary course presents an overview of the historical and scientific context of the fourth International Polar Year 2007-2008 and offers an examination of its development, planning, and execution. T...

Call for submissions POLES APART // PULLING TOGETHER Call for submission (PDF) POLES APART // PULLING TOGETHER is an educational photo exhibition that will honour and celebrate the contributions of polar science research to the betterment of society globally. The exhibition highlights achievements in Arctic and Antarctic research of the International Polar Year (IPY). It will feature in international venues beginning in February 2009. Concept The exhibition connects the science research in two of the harshest environments on Earth, the Arctic and Antarctic, to the social and cultural response to climate change in t...

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.

Students on Board

Set sail with LSU geology professor Phil Bart and a team of students - both undergrads and graduates - on board the NATHANIEL B. PALMER. See what they saw as they left McMurdo Station, and voyage the Ross Sea, to study evidence left by ancient ice sheets which may help predict the rate and extent of future sea level rise. Philip Bergeron, one of the undergrads, reads a page from his journey detailing their scientific adventure.

The Traverse Begins

After three weeks of hectic preparation, including placing brand new Norwegian and US flags - and decals for NSF and the Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) - on the tracked vehicles, the traverse rolls out on November 16, 2007, heading for South Pole, more than 3,000 kms away. NPI's Jan-Gunnar Winther thinks a successful traverse will be a historic milestone in both exploration and cutting-edge science. The train of heavily-laden sleds passes spectacular mountain scenery as it climbs away from Troll Station up to the flat, white polar plateau. At their first science stop, researchers Mary Albert, Tom Neumann and Lou Albershardt dig a snow pit, and explain why they are sampling seasonal layers and photographing ice crystals - in part to gather "ground truth" to calibrate NASA's satellite observations of the vast and little known East Antarctic.