Written by Erdenebat Eldev-Ochir, Director, International Cooperation Division National Agency for Meteorology and Environment Monitoring of Mongolia In 2007 the government of Mongolia, in connection with IPY, issued regulation #64, establishing a national IPY committee and approving a work plan. At that time the President of Mongolia visited our agency and officially opened IPY in Mongolia. In accordance to the workplan, we have organized an international w...

Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) 2008 Progress Report The SCAR Scientific Research Program (SRP) on Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) made significant advances on several fronts in 2008. SALE promotes, facilitates and champions international cooperation to better understand subglacial aquatic environments in Antarctica. In addition, SALE promotes and advances all aspects of environmental stewardship in research and exploration of these unique settings. SALE is a recognized IPY program under the auspices of the SALE-UNified International Team for Exploration and Discovery (SALE-UNITED) program. The SALE website contains details on all facets of the Program (http://scarsale.tamu.edu/). SALE produces an email digest mailing that circulates weekly...

It's less than two months before the first Hot Countdown of the REXUS 6 student rocket campaign. Here are some details about the NISSE payload: The NISSE payload description The REXUS 6 rocket campaign is approaching. Currently, the first Hot Countdown is scheduled to be on the 10th March, 2009. Vidar Hølland from the NISSE team has been the main responsible of the mechanical design and construction of the experiment payload together with rocket engineers in the University of Bergen, Norway. The payload is almost ready and some details are described below. ...

Overview The IPY sea ice workshop will bring together participants of the SIPEX and SIMBA cruises conducted in the Antarctic in spring 2007, as well as others interested in Antarctic sea ice processes, modelling and remote sensing.  Ground-truthing of remote sensing will be a major emphasis as specific RADARSAT and ICESat missions coincided with the cruises, as well as an archival campaign for Envisat ASAR imagery.  There are currently 35 confirmed attendees. The schedule will allow for parallel breakout sessions to facilitate discussion on topics of interest to workshop participants, and the plenary session on the first day will afford all participants an opportunity to propose discussion topics. One outcome of the workshop will be a final list of papers for the ...

Course Announcement International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise Yukon College and University of the Arctic 2 February to 3 May 2009 Yukon College and University of the Arctic announce the international offering of the online course, International Polar Year IV: Context and Promise. The course will be held from 2 February through 3 May 2009. 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. The overall orientation of the course is historical and descriptive rather than analytical or theoretical. The course will be of particular interest to individuals workin...

The Arctic Frontiers Conference is underway in Tromsø, Norway and has had a number of interesting presentations. This conference is being broadcast live on the web. We suggest checking it out. In particular, this afternoon [Tuesday, 20 january] we will be involved in a panel discussion on the needs of young researchers in polar science. It would be great if you could all join in watching this broadcast. If you cannot watch it live, it will be archived and you can watch it later. Young science in the North - Panel discussion 15:00 - 17:00 Central Europe Time (1400 UTC) ...

By Lutz Schirrmeister, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Text in German below 1 Two joint Russian-German land expeditions to the Dimitrii Laptev Strait (Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island, Oyogos Yar coast) and to the lower Kolyma River (Duvanny Yar site) were carried out as part of the IPY project "Past Permafrost records in Arctic Siberia" (ID 15) with 10 and 6 participants during the summers of 2007 and 2008, respectively. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, Potsdam), the Russian Centre of Arctic and Antarctic Research (AARI,...

Neil Ross writes: Rather belated greetings from Subglacial Lake Ellsworth (SLE). I had hoped to post something a bit sooner in the season (we have already been here three weeks) but there has been far too much work to do and good weather to do it in. Sorry! Here is the first installment from late last month, more to come... 26-31 December: Last season at SLE we undertook a series of geophysical measurements (seismics and radar) to map the size and depth of the lake, which is located beneath three kilometers of West Antarctic Ice Sheet. This year, the primary goals were the resurvey of the location of 60 metal poles left in the ice surface last season, using a GPS to measure their elevation, how far they had travelled, and in whic...

The Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) report 'Observing the Arctic' is now ready for distribution. The presented conclusions have developed during a series of workshops involving 350 Arctic researchers, representatives of inter-governmental, national and subnational government agencies, representatives of indigenous peoples organizations, and residents of the Arctic. This process, referred to as the SAON-process, was initiated as a response to the request from Arctic Council ministers at their meeting in Salekhard, Russia in November 2006. The report was drafted by the SAON Initiating Group and is directed to organizations, agencies, governments, networks and programs involved in all aspects of Arctic observing. ...

Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing: Remote Sensing Innovations During the International Polar Year Guest Editors: Dr. Chris Derksen ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Dr. Paul Treitz ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) We invite contributed papers on the application of remote sensing to polar research. Papers are solicited from all application areas including the marine and terrestrial cryosphere, land cover and ecology, geology, education, outreach, and policy. Contributions from endorsed IPY projects are encouraged, but all submissions dealing with remote sensing of the polar regions will be considered. If you intend to submit a manuscript please contact either of the Guest Editors by email before 1 February 20...