Content: 1. IPO Update 2. ATCM declaration 3. Update from EGU 4. Upcoming meetings 5. Update from APECS 6. Call for stories and blogs for www.ipy.org 7. Archiving IPY materials 8. Toward a Polar Information Commons Report no. 25, May 2009 From: IPY International Programme Office To: IPY Project Coordinators cc: IPY Community Google Groups 1. IPO Update Please note that Nicola Munro will take maternity leave as of 1 May 2009. We will introduce the interim replacement person next month. To contact the IPO, please use This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it we will respond, albeit perhaps not as quickly. Please note that Karen ...

Bremerhaven, April 17th 2009. A scientist from the Alfred Wegener Institute will become the new Executive Secretary of the Antarctic Treaty system from August 2009. This was announced at the end of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) in Baltimore, USA. The majority of the 28 members entitled to vote for the new Executive Secretary of the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat decided on the German candidate Dr Manfred Reinke who prevailed over competitors from Great Britain and Australia. The secretariat is seated in the Argentinean capital Buenos Aires. Manfred Reinke has been working for the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association for many years, currently as Scientific Associate to the directorate. The 56 years old scientist ...

NEW! International Polar Year (IPY) Canada Award for Excellence in Northern Science Journalism Deadline: April 17, 2009 Prize: $2,500 Entry form: http://www.sciencewriters.ca/cswa_inac_award.html Competitors must be Canadian citizens or residents of Canada. Submissions must be original material published during the 2008 calendar year in English or French. The article must refer to or include reference to research conducted in Canada as part of International Polar Year (IPY) and should raise awareness and generate interest n Canada’s contribution to Arctic research. Submissions must b...

The Maryland Science Center at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Credit: Maryland Science Center On the 6th of April 2009, the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and the Arctic Council met together in Washington DC. The fourty-seven signatory nations to the Antarctic Treaty include several northern countries that also hold membership on the Arctic Council, but in Washington the two polar political organizations met together for the first time. The USA hosted the meeting, at the US Department of State, in recognition of the initial signing of the Antarctic Treaty, also in Washington, in 1959, 50 years ago. The Treaty meetings extend for an additional two weeks, in Baltimore, and the Arctic Council will go on to its own meetings later this month, in Norway. This special...

Investigations of the Alfred Wegener Institute show that methane producing microorganisms react to climate changes Bremerhaven, March 30th 2009. Higher temperatures in Arctic permafrost soils alter the community of methane producing microorganisms and lead to an increased emission of methane. Microbiologists from the Alfred Wegener Institute come to this conclusion in the current issue of the periodical “Environmental Microbiology”. The scientists were able to examine permafrost from the ground of the Laptev Sea, a shallow shelf sea close to the coast of Siberia, for the first time. Caused by overflooding with relatively warm sea water, this so-called “submarine permafrost“ is about 10° C warmer than the permafrost on land. It is therefore particularly suited to mon...

Bremerhaven, March 26th 2009. The research aircraft Polar 5 belongs to the Alfred Wegener Institute. It will start on Monday March 30th at 10 o'clock from the regional airport Bremerhaven on an Arctic measurement campaign which will last about four weeks. Measurements of sea ice thickness and atmospheric variables in an area between Spitsbergen, Greenland, northern Canada and Alaska are at the centre of the project PAM-ARCMIP (Pan-Arctic Measurements and Arctic Climate Model Inter comparison Project). Up to twenty German and international researchers will carry out investigations in those areas of the Arctic where no data are yet available. Six research institutes from Germany (Alfred Wegener Institute), Canada (Environment Canada, University of Alberta, York University), the USA (NOAA) a...

The 8th Polar Day (topic: Polar Oceans) elicited so much interest that it turned into a full week of events that took place across the globe from some likely places such as Edinburgh, Winnipeg and Nuuk to some not so likely places like Brazil & Malaysia. Take a peek at some of the exciting highlights from classrooms, radio stations, field schools and public outreach sessions around the world. Edinburgh, UK: March 14th - 15th The Dynamic Earth science center hosted a hands-on public session with researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science who displayed Arctic research footage from recent expeditions. The most popular part of the event was when people got a chance to don the equipment worn by polar scientists. We may have just h...

Lohafex provides new insights on plankton ecology Only small amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide fixed Bremerhaven/Berlin, 23 March 2009. The Indo-German team of scientists from the National Institute of Oceanography and the Alfred Wegener Institute has returned from its expedition on research vessel Polarstern. The cooperative project Lohafex has yielded new insights on how ocean ecosystems function. But it has dampened hopes on the potential of the Southern Ocean to sequester significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and thus mitigate global warming. On 17 March the scientists reached Punta Arenas, Chile, together with colleagues from five other countries. They carried out an ocean iron fertilization experiment in the south-western Atlantic for arduous two and a...

Transmission Location: At sea, 30 miles SW of Southwest Cape, (sample station SEC1.5), St Lawrence Island. Lat/Long: 62deg 49 min N/170 deg 38 min W (grid 62.82). Time: 0915. Temperature: ?0.5 dgF, Wind: 17.8 mph from NW. Wind Chill: ?22 dgF. Scattered clouds @ 1000ft. Sunrise: 9:15 AM, Sunset: 9:41 PM. Ice: New ice- Nilas/Young-/2-6”. Ship’s log by Tom Litwin, scientist profiles by Tom Walker. Think flexibility. This is an important ingredient for travel in the Northern Being Sea. A stickler for events unfolding the way planned could find this to be a very long, nerve-wracking experience. The combined influences of wind, ice, and currents humble even the best laid plans. Fluidity in mind and action serves well those working in the ice. Today is a case in point. ...

Transmission Location: At sea, 46 miles SW of Sikniq Cape (sample station SEC2), St Lawrence Island. Lat/Long: 62deg 12 min N/170 deg 16 min W (grid 62.2). Time: 0925. Temperature: ?1.5 dgF, Wind: 19.5 mph from NW. Wind Chill: ?19 dgF. Clear skies. Sunrise: 9:41 AM, Sunset: 9:39 PM. Ice: very close pack, new ice ~3ft. thick, big floes. Ship’s log by Tom Litwin, scientist profiles by Tom Walker. USCGC HEALY’S ICEBREAKING BOW, BOSON MATE JIM MERTEN Photo Credit: Tom Litwin I’m standing in the Forward Machine Room where I can put my palm on the inboard side of the Healy’s stem, the most forward part ...