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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NASA Themis Satellites Discover What Powers Aurora Borealis
25.07.2008
The 5 THEMIS Satellites discovered that an explosion of magnetic energy a third of the way to the moon powers substorms causing the sudden increases in the brightness and movement of the Nothern Lights.
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Northern Forest Fires May Overshadow Arctic Warming
23.07.2008
As it is transported to the Arctic, smoke particles may have the surprising effect of cooling the Arctic's surface temperature temporarily, by reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface. The influence of smoke on the Arctic climate is currently being investigated by researchers at the University of Colorado…
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Crustacean Fossil Found in East Antarctica
23.07.2008
Researchers from the University of Leicester, North Dakota State University, the British Geological Survey, Queen Mary University of London, and Boston University have just made a new discovery in East Antarctica: fossil ostracods dating back 14 million years. The presence of ostracods in Antarctica suggests the presence of a high…
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Dead Penguins Found along Brazilian Beaches
22.07.2008
Each year, strong ocean currents in the Strait of Magellan (along the southern edge of the South American continent) bring in large numbers of dead penguins along Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches. But this year, over 400 baby penguins have been found over the past two months, more than what…
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Icebergs Affect Biodiversity on Antarctic Peninsula
18.07.2008
New data suggests that the Antarctic Peninsula's seabed is going to get hit more frequently by scouring icebergs. This increase in iceberg disturbance on the seabed, which is home to about 80% of all Antarctic life, could have severe effects on the marine creatures living there.
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Granite Boulder Connects the Dots between Antarctica and North America
18.07.2008
A lone granite boulder found atop the Nimrod Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains provides additional evidence to support the theory that, hundreds of millions of years ago, parts of Antarctica were once connected to North America.
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NASA Robots to Help Scientists Collecting Data in Polar Regions
16.07.2008
Unmanned, autonomous NASA robots resembling miniaturized snowmobiles were tested in Alaska last month. These prototypes - called SnoMotes - will help scientists gathering accurate field data in remote or dangerous areas.
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Flying Robots to Monitor the Greenland Ice Sheet
16.07.2008
Researchers from the University of Colorado and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are flying two small, crewless planes over a portion of the Greenland ice sheet this month. Their goal is to understand how meltwater-fed surface lakes interact with the ice sheet's dynamic movement and melt rate. Scientists think…
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150-Metre Ice Core Drawn from McCall Glacier
14.07.2008
A 150-meter ice core pulled from the McCall Glacier (Alaska) this summer may offer researchers their first quantitative look at up to two centuries of climate change in the region.
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Scientists Forecast a Very Low Arctic Sea Ice Cover at the End of the 2008 Summer Season
11.07.2008
The ice cover in the Arctic Ocean at the end of summer 2008 will, with almost 100% probability, be less than that of the year 2005 (the year with the second lowest sea ice extent ever measured). Climate scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research came…
