SciencePoles news
Recent Polar Science and Climate Change news are featured here. Our news RSS feed will inform you when news are published on this website.
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Cryosat-2 Surpassing Expectations Halfway through Commissioning Phase
05.07.2010
Halfway through its commissioning phase, the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite is “in very good shape, exceeding in-orbit specifications,” declared Prof. Duncan Wingham, Lead Investigator for the CryoSat mission at ESA's Living Planet Symposium in Bergen, Norway.
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Climate Change and Recovering Ozone Hole Could Mean More Ozone Pollution
02.07.2010
The ozone hole over Antarctica appears to be recovering from damage caused by man-made ozone-depleting chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But according to research published in Geophysical Research Letters, climate change might change wind patterns and send ozone from the stratosphere 9.6 to 50 km up where it normally resides, protecting…
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Possibly Irreversible Ice-Free Conditions in Arctic as CO2 Levels Climb
30.06.2010
A new international study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder to be published in the journal Geology indicates that the Arctic climate system could be more sensitive to greenhouse warming than previously thought, and that current levels of atmospheric CO2 could be high enough to cause significant, irreversible…
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Shifting Winds Possibly Ended Last Ice Age
28.06.2010
As most scientists are still trying to understand how the Earth emerged from its last ice age, a review paper published this week in the journal Science suggests a global shift in winds as an answer. According to scientists, a chain of events beginning with the melting of the large…
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Scientists Heat Arctic Permafrost in Effort to Better Understand Thawing Processes
28.06.2010
In an effort to better understand the implications of global warming on the various layers of the Arctic permafrost, a group of scientists from the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be conducting a large-scale, long-term ecosystem experiment. Because of the large areas covered by permafrost…
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Satellite Used in Polar Research Enters Retirement
28.06.2010
NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) 1, which had been reassigned to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its U.S. Antarctic Program partners in 1998 to perform scientific, educational, and operational endeavors, will be retired. The satellite transmitted the first Internet connection and live webcast from the North Pole,…
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Southern Ocean Sperm Whale Useful Ally in Struggle against Climate Change
16.06.2010
New research shows that the Southern Ocean Sperm whale can remove large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, which makes the species a special ally in the struggle against climate change.
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Scientists Herald Importance of Satellite Observations
16.06.2010
Scientists highlighted the exceptional contribution satellites have made to the International Polar Year (IPY) and charting the effects of climate change at the recent IPY Oslo Science Conference. During the IPY, the European Space Agency (ESA) provided coordinated observations of the Arctic and Antarctic using its Earth observation satellites such…
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Satellite Observations Important in Ice Thickness Monitoring
15.06.2010
Scientists underlined the importance of satellite monitoring of the Earth at the IPY Science Conference in Oslo. With the Arctic sea ice is on its way to hit yet another record summer minimum, scientists highlighted the contribution of satellites to the International Polar Year, helping provide a better understanding of…
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IPY Oslo Science Conference: Largest Ever Gathering of Polar Scientists
15.06.2010
Between the 8th and 12th of June 2010, about 2,300 scientists, policymakers, teachers, journalists and students gathered at the Norway Convention Centre in Lillestrøm close to Oslo at the largest ever gathering of the polar research community: the IPY Oslo Science Conference. During the five days of the conference, researchers,…
