So who came up with the idea again? Who thought "lets go and put lots and lots of GPS stations around Greenland....yeah, that sounds like a good idea!" It seemed a fine idea at the time. But then, at the time, I didn't have to get up at 4 am... 4am!! To get a taxi to an airfield to then get onto a noisy transport aircraft, to sit in webbing seats (not comfy) to fly to Greenland. Am I excited? Oh yes, definitely! Am I dreading it? Sort of... I've never been to Greenland, and my last experience in the Arctic was 11 years ago now, which seems like a lifetime. ...

The purpose of our study is to understand how Arctic predators respond to variations in oceanographic conditions. We will be studying Little Auks (Alle alle) at two sites, along the West coast of Spitsbergen and along the East coast of Greenland. We will be comparing the diets, foraging behavior and reproductive success at these two contrasting sites. The Greenland birds feed in cold Arctic water and the Spitsbergen birds feed in warmer water. We are collaborating with researchers from many different countries. We have a blog to decribe our activities which we will update during our expedition. The team at the Spitsbergen site is made up of undergradute students and Prof. Nina Karnovsky from Pomona College, CA. The team at the Greenland site is led by Ann Harding and will ha...

In 1934 James Mann Wordie lead a team of researchers to West Greenland and Baffin Island. They returned with objects, photographs and their own impressions of local Inuit communities. This website, created by the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in collaboration with the Scott Polar Research Institute, visually represents these objects and the expedition’s encounters and experiences in the Arctic. A comment section is available on most pages for visitors to contribute information relating to the content presented. Wordie Arctic Expedition Website For more information, please contact Imogen Gunn Museum of Archaeology & Anthr...

Danish Polar Center has established an IPY service office in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland's main international and domestic traffic hub and the gateway to the Ice Sheet. The office is located in KISS, the researchers' hotel, and will be staffed until the end of August. The IPY service is targetted at the many researchers coming to Greenland during IPY. When you arrive at the airport, look for the IPY banner and the IPY logo * and you'll find the IPY service staff. The IPY service in Kangerlussuaq is a cooperative effort between Danish Polar Center, Kangerlussuaq International Science Support (KISS) and Greenland Home Rule's Office for Research Coordination. As part of the service an "IPY SERVICE Manual" is available for download. The manual includes material...

Space scientists performing boundary layer experiments at the edge of Greenland ice cap. Introduction The Greenland Space Science Symposium was arranged in Kangerlussuaq as part of the International Polar Year activities from the 4 to 9 May. The Symposium solemnized the rich history of Greenland as a forum for versatile instrumentation monitoring various processes in the near-Earth space. For example, the behavior of ionospheric electric currents have been monitored now for 35 years with Danish magnetometer chains operating in the Greenland coastal regions. Almost equally long data records (25 years) of plasma densities, velocities, and temperatures have been collected with the US incoherent scatter radar operating in Kelly Ville. Roughly 70 space scie...

Two articles about a new dog sledge route in Greenland from Sermitsiaq A real sledging expedition Now tourists can sledge all the way to Uummannaq By Poul Krarup 'It's going to be a tough ride,' says Ole Jørgen Hammeken of the new dog sledge route between Uummannaq and Ilulissat in north-western Greenland. Hammeksen recently completed the first voyage over the ice sheet in two weeks, but he believes he can cut it down to seven days, making it attractive for tourists. 'The proposed route has everything that's needed for a real expedition,' Hammeken says. 'It has all the elements a sledge ride could offer: sea ice, mountain sledging and i...

On March the 22nd, at the University of Alaska Anchorage, there will be an IPY launch and presentation of results from IPY project "Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA)". SLiCA is an endorsed IPY project (# 386) and presenting results from SLiCA has been seen as an opportunity to focus both on the peoples of the Arctic and Northern communities and the start of the International Polar Year. This is the first release of results from SLiCA comparing living conditions among the Inuit in Northern Alaska (the Inupiat settlement region), the four Inuit Settlement regions in Canada and Greenland as well as the indigenous peoples of Chukotka, Russia. For more information, please see the related ...

I have just been sent some amazing photos: IPY has certainly begun! Baldvin Kristjánsson has just returned from the first of three expeditions in Greenland occurring 1 March - 10 May in 2006, 2007, 2008. The Polar Bear project is an education project, where schools interact with a remote field team, through live broadcasts, interaction via website and internet meetings, using satellite and other field reporting technology. The students tell the field team what materials they need. The field team finds it with the ...

The Polar Bear project is an education project, where schools interact with a remote field team, through live broadcasts, interaction via website and internet meetings, using satellite and other field reporting technology. The students tell the field team what materials they need. The field team finds it with the hunters, reindeer herders and their communities, using dog sleds, boats and snow scooters. The raw material from the field, the interaction between students and field and the students final results are all stored on a central website. This builds an open learning resource, directed by the needs of the students, with real, up-to-date material. Photos ...

International Polar Year (IPY), which extends from March 2007 through to March 2009, is a worldwide initiative involving thousands of scientists from over 60 countries and focuses on both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Although it is called