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Polar News - Archive from 2005
(Most recent first.)
Canada contributes $150 million to support International Polar Year
The Canadian International Polar year Secretariat announced on october 28th that the Deputy Prime Minister had announced that the federal government would contribute $150 million dollars to support IPY. Details about Canada's involvement in the IPY can be found at www.ipy-api.ca.
A Fellowship in Antarctic Air-Sea-Ice Science open at British Antarctic Survey
The School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia(UEA), and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have jointly created a new PhD training scheme: the "Fellowships in Antarctic Air-Sea-IceScience" which is funded as an EU Marie Curie Early Stage Training Fellowship scheme. One fellowship is available at the moment; applications must be received by 15th December. The scheme is only open to nationals or long-term residents of EU Member and Associated States (UK residents are excluded).
The studentship topic of interest to this forum is:
"Thermodynamics of soluble impurities in polar ice: Deciphering chemical ice core records"
This will be supervised jointly by Regine Rothlisberger, Eric Wolff and Peter Brimblecombe. A successful applicant is likely to have a strong background in physical chemistry (or at least not be scared of thermodynamic calculations!). For more information, application, forms etc., see:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/studentships/faasis/faasis.htm
Announcing TREC 2006 -Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (TREC)
Teacher Application Deadline: Friday, 9 December 2005
Researcher Application Deadline: Monday, 19 December 2005
For further information, please contact:
Janet Warburton, ARCUS
Phone: 907-474-1600
E-mail: warburton@arcus.org
and visit the TREC website at:
http://www.arcus.org/trec/
Glaciers online
New website about the glaciers has been created and is now available
It is based on the book "Glaciers" by Hambrey and Alean, published by Cambridge
University Press in 2004, and contains almost all the photos, at fairly high
resolution, and corresponding captions. The material covers glaciers
and glaciated terrain from all over the world. The imagery may well be
useful in teaching glaciology and related subjects. The authors kindly ask you to
create a link to "Glaciers online" if you maintain your own website.
Contact Dr. Juerg Alean at: juerg.alean@gmail.com
or Prof. Mike Hambrey at: mjh@aber.ac.uk if you have any enquiries about "Glaciers Online" web site.
San Diego Supercomputer Center Announces Data Central
Interdisciplinary collaborations and community-shared data are becoming
increasingly important to the progress of science. To support these
endeavors, San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), a National Science
Foundation center, has launched Data Central--the first program of its
kind to make available significant research and community data
collections and databases.
With storage facilities offering more than Petabyte of online disk and
six Petabytes of archival tape storage, SDSC currently hosts more than
60 publicly available data collections. Eligible researchers can request
a data allocation from SDSC that provides expanded access to SDSC's Data
Central facilities and expert knowledge in data collection managing,
hosting, analyzing, and data mining.
For further information, please go to:
IASC new Executive Secretary appointed.
Office will relocate to Stockholm, Sweden by the end of year 2005
Dr. Volker Rachold has been appointed the new Executive Secretary of the
International Arctic Science Committee effective from 1 January 2006.
With the retirement of the present Executive Secretary of IASC, Dr. Odd
Rogne, the IASC Secretariat will move from Oslo to Stockholm at the end
of 2005. The new IASC Secretariat will be hosted by the Swedish
Polar Research Secretariat with the generous support from the Swedish
Research Council. The office will be located at the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
is a governmental agency with the task of planning and coordination of
Swedish research activities in the Arctic and Antarctica.
For further information on IASC and these changes, please go to:
The New York Times Series on Arctic Change Available Online
The series can be viewed online at:
Please note that to view the first two parts of the series, you will
need to become a NYTimes.com member by completing the basic registration
form, which is free.
The author, Andy Revkin, welcomes your feedback and would like to thank
those who have helped him navigate this exceedingly complicated realm.
For further information and to provide feedback, please contact:
Andy Revkin
The New York Times
E-mail: revkin@nytimes.com
New Book Available Soon : The Arctic Climate System
Part of the Cambridge Atmospheric and Space Science Series
By: Mark C. Serreze and Roger G. Barry
ISBN-10: 0521814189, ISBN-13: 9780521814188
Price: $130 USD
For further information or to preorder the book, please go to:
Meeting the Climate Challenge
In preparation for the G8 summit in Gleneagles in spring 2005, an international task force of global policy makers published a report entitled Meeting the Climate Challenge, which can be downloaded from www.whrc.org/resources/published_literature/pdf/ByersetalInstPubPolRes.1.05.pdf. News reports summarising the document say that Earth is a decade from a global warming point of no return. The report states that the global warming danger threshold is a 2 degree C rise in temperature since 1750. The report says we are already about half way there, and that we will reach that threshold in the next decade or so. A full 2 degree rise will usher in massive climate change. For details see:
Arctic sea-ice melting steadily since 1989
(From EOS, vol 86, No 31, August 2, 2005) Satellite observations show that Arctic sea-ice cover had been stable through the 1980s, but decreased dramatically after 1989. The decline corresponded with a shift in the Arctic Oscillation, a long-term climatic cycle that alternates between high and low pressure systems, and thus cooler or warmer conditions. Since 1989 the warmer phase has predominated, causing substantial ice loss. Although the climatic oscillation has been less prevalent in recent years, residual effects may still linger, and the ice continues to decline. Authors speculate that global warming may be preventing the Arctic Oscillation from returning to its former cooler phase. These observations remind us that not all warming events are due to global warming alone; many such events may reflect local changes due to natural variability.
Climate change researchers detect signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream
Ph D Bursary - Whale Research
Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria
A PhD Bursary of R 35 000 per year is available from the National Research Foundation for the period 2005 (renewable for a further 2 years).
Duties:
The
student will be involved in the study of a Southern Right Whale feeding
ground in St Helena Bay on the west coast of South Africa. The focus of the
research
will be on establishing the importance of the ground, including determining
the number of animals using it, their residence times and distribution
in relation to the availability of food, identifying prey and describing
feeding behaviour
in relation to the distribution and availability of prey. Some data have
already been collected in the 2003/4 and 2004/5 seasons. Field work will
run from September
to at least January the following year, and the student will be expected
to spend most if not all this time in the field. Accommodation and food will
be
provided while in the field. Commencement of duties: 2005.
Requirements:
B Sc or appropriate Hons degree. Base: When not in the field, the student
will be
based in Cape Town at the Iziko South African Museum.
Supervisor:
Dr
P.B. Best. Enquiries: Please send application, CV, academic record
and the names of two
referees to Dr P.B.Best (e-mail: pbest@iziko.org.za).
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