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.

CryoSat-2 Launch Postponed

22.02.2010

The launch of ESA's CryoSat-2 satellite from Baikonur, Kazakhstan has been postponed due to a concern related to the second stage steering engine of the Dnepr launcher. The Ukranian company Yuzhnoye, which developed the launcher, stated that while the fuel supply of the second stage engine ought to be sufficient…
Spanish Cave Indicates Glacier Melt Likely to Be Sudden and Quick

15.02.2010

We are currently living in an ice age that began some 2.6 million years ago. Although this ice age has witnessed some 20 cycles of glacial and interglacial periods over 100,000-year time scales, scientists are still guessing at what triggers the switch in and out of ice ages. However a…
Shifts in Climate Systems Could Occur without Warning

11.02.2010

A new study from the University of California at Davis published in the journal Ecology Letters shows that predicting when climate “tipping points” will occur is more difficult than initially thought.
Acidifying Oceans Major Threat to Entire Marine Food Web

08.02.2010

Atmospheric CO2 is causing climate change worldwide, and the world’s oceans are no exception to the rule. As a natural sink for CO2, the oceans absorb the gas from the atmosphere. However as CO2 concentrations increase, this increases the acidity of seawater, as the absorption of CO2 leads to an…
2009 Second Warmest Year on Record

31.01.2010

New NASA analysis shows that 2009 was the second warmest year in the modern era of recordkeeping. With 2008 the coolest year of the decade, 2009 saw a return to near-record global temperatures.
CryoSat-2 Teams Prepare for Launch

26.01.2010

CryoSat-2, which is scheduled to be launched into space on February 25th from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, is more than just a replica of the original CryoSat satellite lost in a launch failure in 2005. The latest version of the satellite benefits from software updates, and the updated set of systems and…
CryoSat-2 Arrives Safely at Launch Site in Baikonur

18.01.2010

ESA has announced CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer satellite has arrived safely in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to be prepared for launch on 25 February. The satellite, which left the ‘IABG’ test centre in Ottobrunn, Germany, on 12 January, will provide precise monitoring of the changes in the thickness of sea ice in the…
Polar Ice Sheets Vulnerable Even with Moderate Global Warming

18.12.2009

A new study authored by Dr. Robert Kopp entitled "Probabilistic Assessment of Sea Level during the Last Interglacial Stage", was conducted by scientists at Princeton and Harvard Universities and published in Nature. It employs a new statistical approach to show that the Earth's polar ice sheets are vulnerable even to…
Accelerating Climate Change Requires Urgent Emission Reductions

30.11.2009

With ice sheets melting at an increasing rate and Arctic sea ice vanishing faster than projected, The Copenhagen Diagnosis, a new report documenting the key findings in climate change science since the publication of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007, has been released to give an update on scientific…
Cryosat-2 Gets Go-ahead for Launch

26.11.2009

Now that is has completed its Flight Acceptance Review, Cryosat-2, the European Space Agency's new satellite destined to measure land icethickness, is set to be launched on February 25th, 2009 in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Built to replace the original CryoSat, which was destroyed in a failed launch attempt in 2005, Cryosat-2…