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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Drones Offer New Perspective on Seals and Sea Ice Monitoring in the Arctic
15.12.2010
A new research project from the University of Colorado at Boulder could change the way seal surveys are conducted in the Arctic. Using cameras mounted on unmanned drones to fly over the Arctic, it allows scientists to survey seals and assess the characteristics of declining sea ice in the region.
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European Polar Board Calls for United Approach to Polar Science
08.12.2010
In its strategic position paper on European polar research: “Relevance, Strategic Context and Setting Future Directions”, the European Polar Board called for Polar research to become an integral part of the European Union’s research plan. Thus far, European research activities in the Polar Regions have been significant, with over 300…
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Bacteria Help Clean Up Fuels Spills at Australian Antarctic Stations
06.12.2010
A new project involving micro-organisms will help scientists at Australian Antarctic stations clean up contaminated sites both in Antarctica and on sub-Antarctic islands this season. The clean-up effort will be focused on oil spills that happened at Casey Station and Macquarie Island. Occurring most often around older Antarctic stations, fuel…
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ESA’s ArctiCOM to Evaluate Communication Needs in a Changing Arctic
18.11.2010
As the retreating sea ice in the Arctic makes seasonal maritime transportation a more feasible option in the Arctic, ESA's Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) element 1 has initiated its ArctiCOM study to map the future demand and identify communication gaps in the Arctic for 2015 – 2020 and…
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ESA’s GlobSnow to Keep an Eye on Earth’s Snow Cover
09.11.2010
ESA’s GlobSnow project, led by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), is bound to bring a new dimension top snow cover monitoring, as it will allow for near real-time satellite imaging of snow cover. Snow, one of the most important elements in the planet’s climate, meteorology and water systems, also poses…
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India Heads off on First National Expedition to South Pole
04.11.2010
India is heading off to Antarctica the first week of November on its first ever national expedition to the South Pole. The purpose of the 40-day mission will be to analyze environmental changes that have been happening on the continent over the past 1,000 years.
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NASA’s IceBridge Embarks on Second Antarctic Season
26.10.2010
NASA’s Operation IceBridge is set to start its second year as scientists have returned to the Southern Hemisphere to monitor Antarctica's changing ice sheet, sea ice and glaciers. As in 2009, the survey flights will be made using a DC-8 equipped with seven instruments to try and re-survey areas that…
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New Underwater Robot Exploring underneath the Ice Cover in Antarctica
15.10.2010
From October 17th to November 12th, 2010, researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) are deploying an underwater robot to survey ice-covered marine areas in Antarctica.
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Researchers at Casey Station Use ‘OktoKopter’ to Map Moss Beds
30.09.2010
The German-built, Australian-customized remote controlled ‘OktoKopter’ will be used to map fragile coastal moss beds at Casey Station in Antarctica during the coming season. The high-tech machine, a 1:20 scale model of an actual helicopter, will use remote sensing techniques to monitor the impact of changes in temperature, wind speed…
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Chinese Researchers Draw First-ever Land Cover Map of Antarctica
30.09.2010
Chinese researchers from the College of Global Change and Earth System Science at Beijing Normal University have managed to draw a 1:100,000 scale land cover map of the entire Antarctic continent. The map, the world’s first land cover map of Antarctica, was drawn with the support of the Chinese National…
