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.

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…
Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica Begins to Disintegrate

26.03.2008

Satellite data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center reveals that the Wilkins Ice Shelf, a broad plate of permanent floating ice on the southwest Antarctic Peninsula, has begun to collapse. Satellite images indicate that the Wilkins began its collapse on February 28, when a large iceberg fell away…
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…
Interesting History of Arctic Haze

19.03.2008

A team composed of Tim Garrett, assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Utah, and Lisa Verzella, a former undergraduate student, have found tangible evidence the existence of an Arctic haze as early as 1870.
Arctic Sea Ice Still at Risk despite Cold Winter

19.03.2008

NASA satellite observations shows that a cold winter in some regions of the Arctic has yielded an increase in new (thin) sea ice, while the surface of older (thicker) sea ice has continued to decline.
Studying Antarctica during the Harshest Winter on Earth

19.03.2008

John Priscu, a Montana State University scientist with an international reputation for polar research, is spending his 24th season in Antarctica. The only difference is that this time he will be doing field work during the Antarctic winter. Priscu and his team team will be working on several research projects.
Satellites Detect Winter Rains to Save Arctic Grazers

19.03.2008

Winter rain can turn out to be devastating for grazing animals when it falls just before it freezes. In October 2003, twenty thousand musk oxen starved to death on Canada's Banks Island from such a catastrophe. Thomas Grenfell, a University of Washington professor of atmospheric sciences, and Jaakko Putkonen, research…
Robotic Research in Antarctica

18.03.2008

Tested during the austral summer of 2007, the first ever autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to be used in polar research were successfully flown over the Antarctic continent. This joint initiative conducted by the British Antarctica Survey (BAS) and the Technical University of Braunschweig (TUBS) in Germany opens up a…
Planet’s Glaciers Melting Even Faster

17.03.2008

Data collected by the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) show that the average rate of melting and thinning of the world's glaciers over 2005-2006 had doubled in comparison to 2004-2005.