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.

Flying Robots to Monitor the Greenland Ice Sheet

16.07.2008

Researchers from the University of Colorado and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are flying two small, crewless planes over a portion of the Greenland ice sheet this month. Their goal is to understand how meltwater-fed surface lakes interact with the ice sheet's dynamic movement and melt rate. Scientists think…
ESA Monitors Concordia Stations Crewmembers

18.06.2008

A cooperation agreement between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the operators of Concordia station in Antarctica outlines medical research projects to be carried out on the station's crewmembers. The idea is to see how the human body withstands and adapts to the extreme environment of Antarctica, with the hope…
ADRILL Cores to Be Analysed at Florida State University

30.04.2008

The sediment cores extracted during the ANDRILL project (Antarctic Geological Drilling) are now stored in the "cold room" at Florida State University to be studied. Through the analysis of these cores extracted from deep beneath the sea floor of Antarctica's western Ross Sea, scientists hope to gain new insight into…
German Polarstern Expedition Finds Antarctic Deep Sea Turns Colder

22.04.2008

First results from the 2007-08 Polarstern expedition of the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research reveal that the Antarctic deep sea is getting colder and that this could possibly stimulate the circulation of the oceanic water masses.
Unique Data from the Arctics Winter Atmosphere Brought Home

15.04.2008

German scientist Jürgen Graeser, a member of the Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, returned to Germany in April 2008 after having spent seven months on a drifting ice floe. Over the course of the International Polar Year, this…
NOAA Studies Arctic Pollution

08.04.2008

NOAA scientists want to be able to know whether the "Arctic Haze" occurring every winter and spring is linked to the rapid warming of the Arctic over a few decades. A couple of studies are going to be done in order to provide more data about the possible relationship between…
NASA Studies Low Arctic Atmospheric Composition

02.04.2008

The first stage of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) field campaign is being launched this week in Fairbanks, Alaska. Carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the idea is to investigate how air pollution contributes to climate change…
New Species of Giant Marine Life Found during Antarctic Sea Survey

25.03.2008

New Zealand conducted a major biological survey of the Ross Sea in the Antarctic as part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) and the International Polar Year (IPY). From the 31st of January to the 20th of March 2008, the team aboard the RV Tangaroa came across giant-sized…
Third International Polar Day Focusing on Our Changing Earth

05.03.2008

On March 12th, 2008, the International Polar Year (IPY) will launch its third "International Polar Day", focusing on our Changing Earth; with a specific focus on Earth history as discovered through paleoclimate records that study the long term history of the Earth by analysing ice sheets and sediments below polar…
Seals Tracked to Reveal Southern Ocean’s Winter Secrets

28.02.2008

Two biologists from the University of Tasmania are currently studying Weddell seals at the French Antarctic base, Dumont d'Urville, hoping to find out how species at the top of the Southern Ocean food chain respond to changes in the ocean.