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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Tricky Sea Ice Predictions Call for Scientists to Open Their Data
18.06.2010
As Arctic sea ice levels reach record lows this month, a new report called Sea Ice Outlook calls for caution in over-interpreting a few weeks’ worth of data from the Arctic. The report compares a dozen teams’ predictions on disappearing sea ice by the end of the warm season in…
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Polar Oceans’ Influence on the Tropics
18.06.2010
Research conducted by an international team of scientists and recently published in the journal Science demonstrates a close link between the changes in the subpolar climate and the development of the modern tropical Pacific climate approximately 2 million years ago. The researchers studied the Northern Pacific and Southern Atlantic sea-surface…
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Airborne Thickness Survey of Arctic Ice Offers Reassuring Feedback
17.06.2010
A team of researchers from the University of Alberta dispatched an electromagnetic "bird" to the Arctic to provide a more detailed look of the actual state of the sea ice. The data they collected seems reassuring, as they found large expanses of ice four to five metres thick.
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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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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,…
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Elephant Seals Provide Clues to Wilkins Ice Shelf Breakups
14.06.2010
The Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica has suffered several breakups recently: in 1998, 2008, and 2009. What is unknown, however, is the cause of the collapses. In an effort to find out more, researchers equipped elephant seals with sensors to study the ocean depths beneath the ice shelf.
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Frost Flowers Capturing Mercury from the Atmosphere
14.06.2010
Frost flowers – the structures that form on the surface of fresh sea ice – also cause a drop in atmospheric mercury levels at the poles in springtime. Researchers are now trying to find out how the flowers take up mercury, as explained by Jody Demming of the University of…
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Ocean Currents Could Be Speeding the Retreat of Greenland’s Glaciers
14.06.2010
According to a team of scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), the ice loss of glaciers in Greenland could have been caused by changes in the water in the fjords. While the warming air over the glaciers has often been blamed for an increasing ice loss, some scientists have…
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NASA ICEBREAKER Voyage to Probe Climate Change Impact on Arctic
10.06.2010
On June 15th, NASA's "Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment" mission, or ICESCAPE, will leave to take over 40 scientists at sea to investigate the impacts of climate change on the Chukchi and Beaufort seas aboard the Seattle-based US Coast Guard ship, the Cutter…
