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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Russian Drill Team Close to Penetrating Lake Vostok
31.01.2012
A Russian drilling team is close to penetrating subglacial Lake Vostok, located more than three and a half kilometers deep in the Antarctic Ice Sheet, not far from the Russian Vostok Station at the Magnetic South Pole. After two decades of drilling through several kilometres of ice, the team is…
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Glacier Retreat in Greenland Not Completely Irreversible, According to Study
31.01.2012
Climate warming and short-term climate variability have pushed a number of massive glaciers in Greenland towards retreat, which has some scientists concerned that the retreat may be irreversible once it has begun. However research published in Geophysical Research Letters suggests that Greenland glaciers’ rapid ice loss may not be an…
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Engineering Team for Lake Ellsworth Drilling Project Completes Deep-Field Expedition
17.01.2012
Four engineers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have returned to the UK after completing a journey to one of the harshest parts of Antarctica to put in place equipment and supplies for the Lake Ellsworth Subglacial Lake drilling project, which will explore an ancient lake buried 3 km deep…
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Warmer Summers Causing Colder Winters in Northern Hemisphere, Study Suggests
16.01.2012
According to research recently published in Environmental Research Letters, increasingly warmer summers can lead to colder winters in certain locations in the Northern Hemisphere. The strongest winter cooling trends have been observed in southern Canada, the eastern United States, and northern Eurasia. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the…
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Increasing Levels of Greenhouse Gasses Disrupting Glaciation Patterns
09.01.2012
According to a study conducted by researchers from University College London, the Unviersity of Cambridge and the University of Florida and published in Nature Geoscience, unprecented levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere are disrupting the Earth’s normal patterns of glaciation and may delay the onset of the next ice…
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Diminishing Sea Ice Having Impact on Seal Pup Populations
06.01.2012
Thinning sea ice cover in the North Atlantic is diminishing harp seal breeding grounds and having an impact on the survival rate of seal pups, according to a study published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
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January 2012 NSIDC Sea Ice Update
06.01.2012
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) released its update on sea ice conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic. A summary follows:
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Floating Arctic University in the Making
04.01.2012
The Northern Russian port city of Arkhangelsk will host a “floating university” for Arctic research and staff training. A joint project between the Arctic Federal University (NArFU) and the Arctic Hydro-Meteorological Service, lectures and courses will be held aboard the Professor Molchanov research vessel as it conducts research in Arctic…
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CryoSat-2 Monitoring Oceans Now, Too
26.12.2011
According to the European Space Agency, its CryoSat-2 satellite will soon be used to monitor sea conditions for marine forecasting. The satellite was launched in April 2010 to measure variations in land and sea ice thickness in the Polar Regions, and the satellite has delivered. However while the satellite’s orbit…
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Bedrock Map Reveals Antarctic Topography
16.12.2011
A new comprehensive digital map of Antarctica’s bedrock topography called BEDMAP2 has been produced by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) using data compiled from an international team of researchers. The map was produced using over 27 million points of data acquired by planes, satellites, ships and dog-drawn sleds over the…
