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.

Polar View and BAS Unveil New Interactive Antarctic Sea Ice Information Service

09.02.2010

Polar View, an international consortium of companies, government agencies and research institutes that provide satellite earth observation monitoring and forecasting services, has recently unveiled a new website providing major improvements to the quality of real-time sea ice information services it provides for the Antarctic. The website represents a greatly improved…
Drought in Western Australia Linked to Increased Antarctic Snowfall

08.02.2010

Findings from a study looking at an Antarctic ice core by Australian Antarctic Division glaciologist Dr. Tas van Ommen and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, shows a link between drought in south-west Western Australia and increased snowfall in Antarctica.
Slow Arctic Sea Ice Build-up Could Mean Increased Melting This Summer

08.02.2010

The thinner and more fragile sea ice cover on the Arctic Ocean might translate into increased melting in the summertime, according to the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). According to the NSIDC, the problem is that the ice is not growing fast butrather it’s melting at an…
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…
Pine Island Glacier Has Passed Its Tipping Point

14.01.2010

According to a new modelling study from the University of Oxford, the Pine Island Glacier (PIG) has already passed its tipping point and might soon collapse, which could eventually add about 24 centimetres to global sea levels over the next century.
Antarctic Warming Up Overall According to New Study

13.01.2010

So far, Antarctica seems to be resisting the global warming trend. However studies that reached this conclusion relied mostly upon data collected at various coastal weather stations and none from the interior of the continent, giving an incomplete picture. However by using an innovative technique, American scientists were able to…
Warm Arctic, Cold Northern Hemisphere

13.01.2010

Temperatures in the Arctic have skyrocketed to unusually high levels while much of the Northern Hemisphere has been experiencing frigid temperatures in the past few weeks. While one may be prone to blame global warming, scientists say this unusual pattern is part of natural variability, caused by a large area…
Arctic Changes Influenced Ice Age Global Climate Patterns

13.01.2010

An international study led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is being published this week in Nature Geoscience. The study shows that water levels in the Bering Strait helped drive global climate patterns during ice ages dating back more than 100,000 years.
Temperature of Sea Water under Fimbul Ice Shelf in Antarctica Remains Stable

12.01.2010

The first tests conducted on sea water under the Fimbul Ice Shelf in Antarctica showed that the temperature of the water is just above freezing and not at higher than normal temperatures, which had been cited as a possible contributing factor to the breakup of ten ice shelves along the…