The IPY Oslo Science Conference will:
* demonstrate, strengthen, and extend IPY's remarkable accomplishments in science and outreach.
* represent an essential opportunity to display and explore the full breadth and implications of IPY activities.
* emphasize the breadth and global impact of polar research during IPY.
* highlight the extraordinary interdisciplinary and multinational efforts in research and in communication of research to the public.
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A British team has begun a gruelling trek to the North Pole to discover how quickly the Arctic sea-ice is melting. Renowned Arctic explorer Pen Hadow and two companions were dropped onto the ice by plane 800km (500 miles) off the northern coast of Canada on Saturday.
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In its latest evaluation of the US government's climate science program, the National Academies of Science say that there needs to be more emphasis on how the changing climate will affect US citizens, how to mitigate those effects, and how citizens might respond to that information.
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All problems in the Arctic can successfully be resolved within organisations as the Arctic Council, says the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Last week, in a bilateral meeting the Russian and the Danish Ministers of Foreign Affairs agreed in a strong belief that the Arctic Council has a key role to play in the future, reports Reuters.
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On Thin Ice in the Bering Sea, a film and education project of the Clark Science, Smith College and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc, focuses on two connected Bering Sea stories – the people of St. Lawrence Island and the 2008 USCGS Healy scientific expedition in the Bering Sea.
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Research from the International Polar Year provides new evidence of the widespread effects of global warming in the polar regions, a new report concludes. With the report, the IPY 2007-2008 has come to an end.
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EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – Sweden's Europe minister, Cecilia Malmstrom, on Monday (2 March) presented the logo of the upcoming Swedish EU presidency as climate change and the financial crisis are set to dominate Stockholm's agenda in the second half of 2009. With the Copenhagen UN conference on climate change taking place in December, the Swedish presidency is due to begin preparations for a new global agreement on emissions reduction one of its key priorities, Lisa Dahlen Jonsson, press officer with the Swedish permanent representation to the EU, told this website.
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The mission will focus on a common goal of improving ecological understanding of the Bering Sea.
The Coast Guard cutter Healy is scheduled to depart its homeport here Wednesday for the three-month Arctic West 2009 deployment.
The Deployment supports the ongoing Bering Ecosystem Study (BEST). BEST is a multi-year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation that studies the ecological processes of sea ice as it retreats through the Bering Sea.
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The International Polar Year 2007-2008 was a success. The work begun by IPY must countinue.
Last week the main research results from the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 ware presented at a ceremony in Geneva. These are all reported in "State of Polar Research", released by the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council for Science.
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March 18th, 2009 marks the eighth quarterly International Polar Day, this time focusing on Polar Oceans. This includes marine biodiversity, physical oceanography and more! Activities will continue throughout that week from 17th to 26th March.
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The American PI’s for the project are here in Northfield, MN for the Nobel Peace Forum. It is great to see everyone and begin discussions on our plans for Russia this year. The forum schedule looks pretty exciting and I am looking forward to hearing different topics related to climate change.
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Top scientists from across the world are gathering in an emergency summit today (9 March) to warn international negotiators of a new UN climate agreement that a tough deal is required, in light of their latest studies.
The scientific community is concerned that the negotiations taking place in Copenhagen in December are not based on scientific realities.
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The Sixth International Scientific Conference on the Global Energy and Water Cycle and the Second Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (iLEAPS) Science Conference are being held in conjunction in Melbourne, Australia on 24-28 August 2009. The conferences will hold joint sessions on three common themes with keynote talks, oral and poster presentations.
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As part of its strategy on the High North and the Arctic, Norway will establish a new Centre on Climate and Environmental research in Tromsø, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said today. In addition, the country will acquire a new icebreaking research vessel for the Arctic.
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The new species of Antarctic fish, Gosztonyia antarctica, has been discovered at a depth of 650 metres in the Bellingshausen Sea in the Antarctic Ocean, an area which has not been studied since 1904 and where the fauna is "completely" unknown. Jesús Matallanas, the Spanish researcher responsible for the find, collected four specimens of the new species during Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) campaigns in the southern hemisphere summers of 2003 and 2006.
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Norway has prepared the ground internationally for an enhanced focus on the Arctic, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said when presenting his government’s new High North policy document today. In the document, the region strengthens its position as Norway’s top area of priority.
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According to a new Russian federal law draft, use of the Northern Sea Route will be provided on a paying basis. As BarentsObserver has reported earlier, a federal law on the Northern Sea Route has been under elaboration by the Russian State Duma.
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Norwegian authorities last year gave the Russian mining company Trust Arktikugol a 50.000 NOK fine for helicopter flights in a protected nature are at Svalbard. The Russian company refuses to pay. Now the parts meet in court.
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“You warm the planet, ice melts,” was the message. But the process may take longer than previously believed.
"The giant Greenland ice sheet may be more resistant to temperature rise than experts realized," said Jonathan Bamber, an ice sheet expert at the University of Bristol, at this weeks climate conference in Copenhagen, reports the COP15 homepage.
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As the days grow shorter, the sunsets get pinker and the air temperature drops, the short Antarctic autumn kicks in. From the hills behind the base we can look north and see heavy grey clouds rolling over the blue black ocean as water evaporates and cools the warm ocean, stirring up the colder air. Ice forms in off-white patches but wind and waves move it away, or mix the cooled surface with the layers just below, still warmer than freezing from the remains of the heat absorbed over the summer. Until all this heat has been dissipated any ice that forms is only temporary, and certainly not suitable for us to stand on.
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Natural releases of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean due to shifting wind patterns could have amplified global warming at the end of the last ice age--and could be repeated as manmade warming proceeds, a new paper in the journal Science suggests.
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The Healy left the Gulf of Alaska on March 12, entering Unimak Pass at 2:00 AM. This major navigational route passes between the Aleutian Islands of Unimak and Akun, the gateway between the North Pacific and Bering Sea. Emerging from the pass before dawn, the ship’s navigator set a course that would bring the Healy just east of St. Paul Island in the Pribilofs by 7:30 PM.
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A five-nation scientific team has published new evidence that even a slight rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, one of the gases that drives global warming, affects the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The massive WAIS covers the continent on the Pacific side of the Transantarctic Mountains. Any substantial melting of the ice sheet would cause a rise in global sea levels.
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Russia says the northern part of Novaya Zemlya will be a special protected area for Polar bears.
The Russian Arctic island of Novaya Zemlya is one of the core areas of the common Svalbard – Franz Josef Land – Novaya Zemlya population of Polar bears.
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The Navy actively participates in civil programs on Arctic shelf delineation, Deputy head of the Russian General Staff Oleg Burtsev confirmed today.
Vice Admiral Burtsev says to RIA Novosti that Northern Fleet submarines definitely will play a key role in the Arctic delineation process, either with regard to the studies of the shelf, or with the protection of areas adjacent to Russian Arctic waters.
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The government in its Svalbard report confirms that the coal mining will have to be developed within the frames of the strict environmental regulations of the islands. Existing infrastructure should be applied as much as possible, newspaper Svalbardposten reports with reference to ANB.
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The EU-funded Northern Maritime Corridor (NMC) project has initiated cooperation with the Russian Northern Sea Route (NSR) administration. That could result in facilitated shipping between Western Europe and Russian Arctic ports.
Representatives of the StratMos NMC-project last week met with President of the NSR Partnership Arthur Chilingarov in Moscow to discuss cooperation. The meeting, which took place in the premises of the State Duma, resulted in an agreement on the establishment of a working group between the Northern Maritime Corridor and the NSR Partnership.
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Dust trapped deep in Antarctic ice sheets is helping scientists unravel details of past climate change. Researchers have found that dust blown south to Antarctica from the windy plains of Patagonia – and deposited in the ice periodically over 80,000 years – provides vital information about glacier activity.
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Russia intends to establish a separate military force to enhance security in the Russian part of the Arctic Ocean “under different military and political situations”. FSB will get increased control over the region.
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Feedback effects between the ocean and atmosphere are important to understanding the mechanisms affecting climate variations.
Previous studies have found that atmospheric anomalies associated with a variation in atmospheric pressure above the North Atlantic Ocean called the North Atlantic Oscillation produce a three-part pattern (tripole) of sea surface temperature anomalies at midlatitudes.
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Russian Foreign Ministry expresses concern over NATO activity in the Arctic. Interviewed by Itar-Tass Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said: - NATO’s activity that we witness in the Arctic Region can result in erosion of the present constructive scheme of cooperation between coastal states, emasculation of the agenda for the Arctic Region.
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Last week the five polar bear nations agreed that climate change is the biggest threat to the worlds polar bear population.
"Climate change has a negative impact on polar bears and their habitat and is the most important long term threat facing polar bears. Action to mitigate this threat is beyond the scope of the Polar Bear Agreement. Climate change affects every nation on the earth and reaches well beyond the five parties to the Agreement so the parties look to other fora and national and international mechanisms to take appropriate action to address climate change."
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During their meeting in Moscow today, the foreign ministers of Russia and Norway expressed their intention to strengthen cooperation in the Euro-Arctic Barents Council and the Arctic Council.
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The Canadian Press -- Canadian researchers are taking to the High Arctic skies to begin gathering definitive data on who owns the North Pole.
A specially equipped DC-3 will begin flying from airstrips on Ellesmere Island and Greenland all the way up to the top of the world this weekend to start mapping the undersea ridges that will determine which Arctic nation controls that part of the sea bed.
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Two-thirds of the world's 20 to 25,000 polar bears will be lost during the next 50 years because of climate change.
The estimates are calculated in recent comprehensive analyses by the U.S. Geological Survey and the World Conservation Union.
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Scientists have long established that the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming spots on Earth. Now, new research using detailed satellite data indicates that the changing climate is affecting not just the penguins at the apex of the food chain, but simultaneously the microscopic life that is the base of the ecosystem.
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Forget about the Russian submarine — Canadian researchers plan to take to the High Arctic skies this weekend to begin gathering definitive data on who really owns the North Pole.
A specially equipped airplane is to launch flights from three remote northern airstrips to the top of the world to start mapping undersea ridges that will determine which Arctic nation controls that part of the seabed.
"We will go from the northern tip of Ellesmere Island and Greenland all the way up to the North Pole," Jacob Verhoef, the Natural Resources Canada geophysicist in charge of the joint Canada-Denmark project, said Monday.
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There were monstrous reptiles in the deep, back in the time of dinosaurs.
They swam with mighty flippers, two fore and two hind, all four accelerating on attack. In their elongated heads were bone-crushing jaws more powerful than a Tyrannosaurus rex’s. They were the pliosaurs, heavyweight predators at the top of the food chain in ancient seas
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The Russian rescue and salvage ship “Murmanryba” today leaves port of Murmansk for a 70 days long inspection mission in the Barents Sea and Svalbard zone. The inspectors will check on trawlers’ technical condition and that fisheries legislation is followed.
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