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Other Polar News and Announcements - archive from 2007

(Most recent first)

Latest IPCC Report highlights possible danger of ice sheet break-up

The "Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report" released on November 16 is now available (see http://www.ipcc.ch/). As New Scientist (24 November page 13) points out, it addresses the concerns of many polar scientists that the report of IPCC Working Group 1 had been too rosy concerning the possible rise in sea level over the next 90 years. The Synthesis report now says "The risk of additional contributions to sea level rise [from Antarctica] may be larger than projected by ice sheet models....because ice dynamic processes seen in recent observations [are] not fully included in ice sheet models and could increase the rate of ice loss." The more urgent tone is reflected elsewhere in the report, which says that "anthropogenic warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt and irreversible", and highlights the risk of "very large impacts" and "large-scale singularities". Such events, the report suggests, could include collapsing ice sheets. The Summary for Policymakers notes that "Because understanding of some important effects driving sea level rise is too limited, this report does not assess the likelihood, nor provide a best estimate or an upper bound for sea level rise." "Net loss of ice mass could occur [in Antarctica] if dynamical ice discharge dominates the ice sheet mass balance." "Partial loss of ice sheets on polar land could imply metres of sealevel rise..." which may occur "on century time scales."

SCAR is planning to address the question of the adequacy of ice sheet dynamic models at a workshop on "Improving Ice Sheet Models", which will take place in St Petersburg, Russia, from 5-7 July, 2008, and is co-organised by SCAR, IASC, CliC and CreSIS. For further information contact Kees van der Veen (cjvdv@ku.edu).

Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere

A special issue of "Remote Sensing of Environment", focusing on "Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere", is currently in press and papers are now available on-line (Volume 111, Issues 2-3 (30 November 2007) Pp. 135-408). The term Cryosphere is derived from the Greek word kryos, for cold, and it describes the portions of the Earth where water is in frozen form. This special issue brings together a collection of papers highlighting recent science, algorithm development, and validation results on remote sensing of the Cryosphere. To access and download the issue, please see Volume 111, Issues 2-3 at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00344257

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists: Shaping the Future of Polar Sciences

New organisation brings together polar and cryosphere enthusiasts from around the world.

Following a meeting in Stockholm at the end of September 2007, the IPY International Youth Steering Committee (IYSC) and the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) merged under a new structure keeping the name 'APECS'. This new organisation reflects the needs of aspiring researchers and early career scientists interested in the Polar Regions between the undergraduate level and early career faculty and research positions.

The new APECS comes together to shape the future of polar sciences by sharing and developing interdisciplinary and international research directives, career development needs, and communication of these advancing sciences with people around the world. It consists of coordinated regional and national activities, disciplinary science groups, and international activities. For more information see http://arcticportal.org/apecs

ISAC Executive Director Appointed

International Study of Arctic Change (ISAC) is a long-term, multidisciplinary program to study the effects of environmental changes on the circum-Arctic system and their feedback on the global system. ISAC was formally established by IASC and the Arctic Ocean Sciences Board (AOSB) (http://www.iasc.se/isac.htm). An ISAC International Program Office (IPO) funded by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) has been established to provide support for the activities of ISAC and to serve the organizational needs. The ISAC IPO is co-located with the IASC Secretariat at the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat in Stockholm, Sweden. We are very pleased to warmly welcome Maribeth Murray as the Executive Director of ISAC, effective from 1 October 2007. Maribeth Murray has been Department Chair of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and is currently an Associate Professor of Anthropology (UAF) and Director of the Human Dimensions of the Arctic System (HARC) Core Offi ce, at the Center for Global Change, UAF.

Taken from IASC Newsletter 'Progress'

2nd International Conference on Arctic Research Planning

The final report of the 2nd International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II), entitled "Arctic Research – A Global Responsibility" and published by the ICARP II Steering Group and the ICARP II Secretariat at the Danish Polar Center in Copenhagen (Denmark), were released in early September. The report included a synopsis of the ICARP II process and summaries of the 12 ICARP II Science Plans. The full Science Plans are available on an accompanying CDROM. http://www.icarp.dk

Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks

The need for a well coordinated and sustained Arctic Observing Network that meets scientific and societal needs has been identified in numerous high profile reports and at a variety of workshops and conferences. In November 2006, the Arctic Council (AC) urged all member nations to maintain and extend long-term monitoring of change in the Arctic, with a view to building a lasting legacy of the International Polar Year (IPY). Further, the AC requested that its working group the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) work with other AC working groups, IASC and other partners in efforts to create a coordinated Arctic Observing Network that meets identified societal needs. The goal of developing an Arctic Observing Network as a legacy of IPY (WMO/ICSU) was endorsed by the WMO XV Congress in May 2007.

In January 2007, the Sustained Arctic Observing Networks Initiating Group (SAON IG), composed of representatives of international organizations, agencies and northern residents involved in research, operational and local observing, was formed. The purpose of the SAON IG is to develop a set of recommendations on how to achieve long-term Arctic-wide observing activities that provide free, open and timely access to high quality data that will realize pan-Arctic and global value-added services and provide societal benefits. The Swedish and Canadian IPY Committees have agreed to take the lead in the launch of the SAON initiative by running a succession of workshops together with the SAON IG. The first workshop will be held in Sweden (Stockholm, 12-14 November 2007) and the second workshop will be held in Canada (spring 2008). A third workshop in Finland is planned for autumn 2008, hosted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute. http://www.arcticobserving.org/

Association of Polar Early Career Scientists

The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is a new initiative that aims to bring together early career scientists and engineers from around the world who share an interest in the Polar Regions and the Cryosphere as a whole. The mission is to raise the profile of polar science and provide a continuum of leadership that is both internationally and interdisciplinarily focused. APECS is an endorsed International Polar Year project and the official early career association recognized. This organization and all of its members are a direct legacy from the IPY 2007/2008. http://arcticportal.org/apecs

WMO Establishes Global Cryosphere Watch

Over the past 18 months, SCAR and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) worked with the cryospheric science community to develop a plan for a Cryosphere Observing System (CryOS), which can be accessed at http://cryos.ssec.wisc.edu/documents.html. The plan was used by Barry Goodisen, Chairman of the Scientific Steering Group for the WCRP-SCAR Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) programme as the basis for persuading the 15th Congress of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to establish a Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) as part of the WMO's integrated global observing and information systems. This would unite key stations/sites working on a coherent agreed programme of monitoring of changes in all elements of the cryosphere, produce valuable long-term records and cover key areas of the globe with cryospheric observations. The GCW will provide: an intergovernmental mechanism for supporting key cryospheric in situ and remote sensing observations, so implementing the requirements of CryOS; a one stop portal for certified cryospheric data; and economy and an increase of quality of observations. It will help existing elements to work better and to contribute to a global system, and will help IPY cryospheric projects to develop elements of a sustained cryospheric observing system. The GCW will contribute to the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS), which is coordinated by the international Group on Earth Observations (GEO). A first step will be the building of a GEO Cryospheric Community of Practice. A meeting of this community to discuss the cryospheric legacy of the IPY will likely be held under WMO auspices in 2008. For more information, contact SCAR Secretariat.

A decline in the oceans' ability to store carbon

Nature (22 October 2007) reports that an apparent decline in the oceans' ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is at least partly to blame for an accelerating increase in greenhouse gas concentrations
(see: http://www.nature.com/news/2007/071022/full/news.2007.186.html)

It is unclear why the oceans' capacity is going down, but it is thought that the surface layers may be becoming saturated with the greenhouse gas — partly because of increasing levels in the atmosphere and partly because of reduced ocean mixing that would bring unsaturated waters to the surface.

The discovery comes three months after researchers reported a similar process occurring in the Southern Ocean (see 'Saturation of the Southern Ocean CO2 sink due to recent climate change' in 'Antarctic Science News'), raising the prospect that seas the world over are losing their ability to store the carbon dioxide emitted by human development.

Cooling North But Not South

Around 13,000 years ago, during the last transition from glacial to warm conditions, a severe cooling event called the Younger Dryas plunged the North Atlantic region into 1500 years of low temperatures.Whether the Younger Dryas also was expressed in the Southern Hemisphere has been a topic of considerable debate. Barrows et al. (p. 86) present a pair of records that show an absence of Younger Dryas cooling in the Southern Hemisphere in and near New Zealand. By dating a moraine in South Island, New Zealand, and by constructing a sea-surface temperature record of nearby Pacific Ocean waters, the authors show that this region remained warm during the Younger Dryas interval. The moraine that the authors dated is one that was previously thought to have recorded Younger Dryas cooling.

Arctic sea ice hits all time low

The area covered by Arctic sea ice shrank to its least recorded acreage in September 2007, exceeding the September 2005 low by a dramatic 22%, an area of 1.2 million square kilometres (more than 385,000 square miles). This is an area 5 times the size of the UK. The difference is more than double the difference between 2005 and 2002, the previous lowest year. the drop has fueled speculation that the Arctic could be ice free by 2030, rather than by 2080 as suggested by the recent (2007) report of the IPCC. This melting does not change sealevel directly, because the ice is already floating. However, it does have an indirect effect on sealevel. Reducing the ice area also reduces the Earth's albedo (ability to reflect the sun's energy back into space). The darker surface of the water exposed by melting ice absorbs that heat rather than reflecting it. A warmer ocean has a higher sealevel. In addition, a warmer ocean contributes to a warmer climate and thus to the melting of ice on land, which will raise sealevel further. For details see US National Snow and Ice Data Centre. (From 'The Independent' 22/9/2007)

Arctic sea ice narrowly misses wintertime record low

NSIDC scientists announced that the winter 2007 Arctic sea ice maximum was the second-lowest in the satellite record, narrowly missing the March 2006 record. Sea ice extent, defined as the area of ocean that is covered by at least 15 percent ice, was 14.7 million square kilometers (5.7 million square miles) for March 2007, compared to 14.5 million square kilometers (5.6 million square miles) for March 2006, the current record. The long-term monthly mean for March sea ice extent from 1979 to 2000 is 15.7 million square kilometers (6.1 million square miles). Scientists monitor sea ice year-round, paying special attention to extent during March and September. March usually marks the end of winter in the Arctic, a period when sea ice grows, or recovers, from the summer minimum. Low winter recovery means that the ice is freezing later in the fall and growing at a slower pace in the winter. September usually marks the end of the summer melting season; low summer extent means that ice is melting faster during the summer and leaving less ice to build on during winter recovery. NSIDC scientist Walt Meier said, "This year's low wintertime extent is another milestone in a strong downward trend. We're still seeing near-record lows and higher-than-normal temperatures. We expect the downward trend to continue in future years." (US National Snow and Ice Data Centre Newsletter 60, Summer 2007 http://nsidc.org/pubs/notes/)

Ice melt, sea level rise, climate catastrophe

In New Scientist of 25 July 2007, Dr. James Hansen, Head of NASA'a Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York explains why he believes that it is feasible that continued warming with a business as usual scenario could lead to a sealevel rise of around 5 meters, almost ten times as much as forecast in the latest report of the Intergovernmental panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The reason is that the ice sheet decay models used as the basis for the IPCC forecast do not take modern understanding of ice sheet decay into consideration. we now know that meltwater forms on the surface of ice sheets and glaciers in summer, changing the albedo. These ponds suck in heat, which melts through the ice creating cracks and destroying its integrity, which makes mechanical disintegration more likely. When those cracks reach rock water from the surface pours down to lubricate the ice-rock interface, which speeds lateral displacement. Glaciers and coastal ice sheets can move quicker and break up quicker than happens in current numerical models. There are obvious implications for policy makers, not least because a substantial part of the world's population lives in the coastal zone, which is also where many of today's megacities are located.

Read the full article

Call for Papers - Ninth International Conference on Permafrost

Abstract submissions for the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost are being accepted online until 1 September 2007. The conference will be held in Fairbanks, Alaska on 29 June - 3 July 2008. The conference website is available at http://www.nicop.org/ and has been updated with information on sessions and field trip registration.

Ice Charts more accessible via new web portal

On behalf of the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG) (see http://nsidc.org/noaa/iicwg/) Polar View is developing a web portal for the International Polar Year (IPY) in order to make more easily accessible the ice charts of the world (see http://www.ipy-ice-portal.com/). Presently, only a couple of ice centres are successfully interfaced to the website, but that number will increase significantly over the next few weeks.

March 16 Science Magazine features the Poles

Titles include:

For more information and to download pdfs, please go to: http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/polarscience/#section_in-science

Atlas of the Cryosphere

The US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has a new map server application available at http://nsidc.org/data/atlas (For further information contact NSIDC User Services at nsidc@nsidc.org). The application allows visitors to explore and dynamically map the Earth's frozen regions.

Viewed from a polar perspective, the available scenes include snow cover, sea ice extent and concentration, glaciers, permafrost, and other critical components of the Earth's cryosphere. Users can zoom in to a specific region on the Earth as well as overlay country borders, major cities, and other geographic information. The website represents a useful tool in science and education efforts surrounding the International Polar Year 2007-2008 and beyond by providing a geographic tool for viewing snow and ice on the planet.

In addition to the interactive web interface, maps and data sources contained in Atlas of the Cryosphere are also accessible via the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Web Coverage Service (WCS). These international specifications provide a framework for sharing maps and geospatial data over the Internet.

Supported by NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) Program, the map server application was developed using MapServer, an Open Source development environment for building spatially-enabled Internet applications.

The 'great warming swindle' - the myth and the reality

Many viewers of the recent TV programme 'The Great Global Warming Swindle' have been left confused as to whether or not humans are affecting the climate system. Here is the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) statement about that programme: read on....

There is also a useful rebuttal of the programme by NERC Chief Executive Alan Thorpe in New Scientist 17 March 2007, page 24 ('Fake Fight') (www.newscientist.com)

IPY Outreach Project seeks help from scientists

The project aims to train teachers live in a polar science course around the world, and host, in New York, an International Student Symposium, if funded. They would like to utilize, for their teachers, a certain amount of geospatial data. The biological, geological and physical science resources will be simplified, in the form of simple help sheets. They currently serve over 2000 teachers. They need to identify scientists whose research and data may like to be featured. They would work to identify simple to use data sets so students would be successful and empowered to learn and to present in New York.

Please contact Dr Glen Schuster of the US Satellite Laboratory directly (gschuster@us-satellite.net) if you are interested.

The International University Courses on Permafrost (IUCP) - IPY Education Initiative of the International Permafrost Association

The IUCP contains an overview of existing and new courses on permafrost and periglacial geomorphology within science and engineering disciplines, 2007 to 2009. The IUCP collects information about existing and new IPY permafrost courses worldwide, to encourage a broad international student participation in the existing courses.

More information about the IUCP is available on the IPA webpage:
http://www.geo.uio.no/IPA/PermafrostCourses.htm

Please enjoy the service. If you have comments, or if you wish to submit other permafrost courses for integration in the database, please contact Dr. Angélique Prick at: IPA@unis.no.

Former SCAR President Robert Rutford honoured

Bob Rutford was President of SCAR from 1998 to 2002. In recognition of his major contributions to Antarctic science that began in 1959, the US Board on Geographic Names, a part of US Geological Survey, approved the name Mount Rutford on Monday 5 March 2007.

The Ellsworth Mountains were discovered from the air in 1935, but until last December, the summit now known as Mount Rutford had never been ascended. On 9 December 2006, and again the following day, members of a multi-national expedition lead by Damien Gildea, an Australian climber and researcher, scaled the peak and conducted a GPS survey that showed Mount Rutford to be 4,477 metres, or 14,688 feet, high.

The peak of Mount Rutford forms the summit of Craddock Massif in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in West Antarctica. The Rutford Ice Stream, north of the Ellsworth Mountains, is also named after him.

Further information may be found on the website of the University of Texas at Dallas at
http://www.utdallas.edu/news/archive/2007/0306001.html

George Knox's new book about to appear: "Biology of the Southern Ocean"

Many in the SCAR community will have fond memories of one of the SCAR Past-Presidents, George Knox, who was recently afflicted with a stroke. George is still very active, and his latest book (Biology of the Southern Ocean; 2nd Edition) is about to emerge (see the flyer). The book contains much that was learned in SCAR programmes and that still applies to SCAR's ongoing research in the region.

"Scope of Science for the International Polar Year"

The "Scope of Science for the International Polar Year" document has now been posted on the IPY website at:

http://216.70.123.96/images/uploads/LR*PolarBrochureScientific_IN.pdf

Release of IPCC Working Group I 4th Assessment Report

Climate change is "very likely" to be caused by human activities, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes. By "very likely", the IPCC means greater than 90% probability. However, some scientist point out that the IPCC Report might be too conservative.

IPCC projections:
  • Probable temperature rise between 1.8C-4C
  • Possible temperature rise between 1.1C-6.4C
  • Sea level most likely to rise by 28-43cm
  • Arctic sea ice disappears in second half of century
  • Increase in heatwaves very likely
  • Increase in tropical storm intensity likely

The full climate science report will be released later in the year, as will other IPCC chapters looking at the probable impacts of climate change, options for adapting to those impacts, and possible routes to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis - Summary for Policy Makers

Read the New Scientist Environment article

Read the BBC News story

Melting of glaciers "speeds up"

The World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), based in Switzerland, continuously studies a set of 30 mountain glaciers in different parts of the world. It is not quite a representative sample of all mountain glaciers, but does give a reliable indication of global trends.The latest survey, just released, shows accelerating decline. During 2005, this sample of 30 glaciers became, on average, 60-70cm thinner. This figure is 1.6 times more than the average annual loss during the 1990s, and three times faster than in the 1980s.

Read the BBC News story

New Website: Sea Ice Tide - Inertial Interaction (SITII)

SITII is an observation and modeling project of the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It aimed at elucidating the physical mechanisms underlying the interaction of tides, boundary layers, and sea ice mechanisms. The study utilizes drift data from buoys that were deployed in the Beaufort Sea in August 2006, in addition to buoys from previous arctic field projects, to track the movement and interaction of sea ice relative to storms and tidal changes. The website features near real-time position data for the buoys as well as detailed descriptions of the Joint Western Arctic Climate Study/Joint Ocean Ice Study Research Cruise on the icebreaker Louis St. Laurent in August 2006. A second set of buoys will be deployed in 2007.
For further information on SITII, please contact:
Jennifer Hutchings, International Arctic Research Center, email: jenny@iarc.uaf.edu

The website is available at:
http://www.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/SITII/

Request for Input from the Committee on Scientific Accomplishments of Earth Observations from Space

Deadline for Comments: Thursday, 1 February 2007

The Committee on Scientific Accomplishments of Earth Observations from Space, under The National Academies' Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, is requesting input from the Earth science community on a study that will document how satellite observations have uniquely contributed to scientific understanding of the atmosphere, ocean, land, biosphere, and cryosphere.

The committee would like members of the Earth science community to provide examples of important scientific accomplishments resulting from the nation's research and development of space-based Earth observational capabilities by responding to these points:
- What are the major scientific accomplishments of Earth observations from space?
- How did satellite observations contribute to each accomplishment?
- Why is each accomplishment significant?
Please provide:
- References to key papers related to these accomplishments;
- Your name, title, affiliation, phone number, and email address.

Respondents may submit this information on the committee website: http://dels.nas.edu/basc/input.php, by fax (202-334-3825), or via e-mail (earth@nas.edu). Information about the study is available at:
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=48691

For further information, please contact Leah L. Probst, National Research Council of the National Academies,
E-mail: LProbst@nas.edu

New Website - Arctic: A Friend Acting Strangely

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has established a new website exploring changes that have been observed and documented by scientists and polar residents alike. The website is a nexus for information about the Arctic and includes compelling photography, scientific research findings, polar resident and community stories, a documentary video, and two interactive activities on climate and caribou in the Arctic. The Eyewitness to Change section features stories of Arctic researchers, residents, and communities, and will be updated throughout the upcoming International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008. The Education section includes a set of standards-based science activities developed by NMNH for teachers, informal educators, and families.

The website is available at: http://forces.si.edu/arctic

CryoSat-2 mission - Announcement of Opportunity from ESA

The European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 mission is currently under construction and is scheduled for launch in March 2009.

ESA is pleased to announce the release of an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) aiming exclusively at Calibration and Validation activities in support of the CryoSat-2 mission. This worldwide, open announcement of opportunity solicits proposals from members the international science community with relevant experience in conducting polar field experiments and campaigns, and in polar geophysical research using remote sensing data. Principal Investigators of approved projects shall be invited to play an active role in the validation or retrieval work required for the calibration/validation of CryoSat-2 data.

Further details on the particular nature of this opportunity, the CryoSat-2 Mission and Data description and the Cal/Val Concept are available on-line at:
http://eopi.esa.int/CryoSat-2CalVal
Should you be interested in participating to this opportunity, then please submit your proposal to ESA directly on the above website.

Graduate Research Fellowships Available: Remote Sensing of Antarctic and Arctic Cloud Properties, University of Idaho, USA

Application Deadline: Friday, 16 February 2007

For further information, please go to: http://www.uidaho.edu/~vonw
or contact: Von P. Walden, Department of Geography, University of Idaho, email: vonw@uidaho.edu

4th International Conference on Arctic Margins (2003) Proceedings Available Online

The proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM), held in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, in fall 2003, are now available online at: http://www.mms.gov/alaska/icam/. The proceedings are published by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, and edited By: Robert A. Scott and Dennis K. Thurston. Sponsored by Natural Resources Canada, the conference featured discussions of geology, geodynamics, and resources of the arctic margins. Session topics included science issues related to the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea, geodynamic significance of arctic magmatism, tectonic and glacial processes, plate tectonics of the Arctic Ocean, coastal and marine environmental geoscience, and climate change.

ICAM was founded in 1991 by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service to advance scientific understanding of the Arctic and foster international collaboration in arctic research. ICAM meetings provide a forum for the exchange of information, research collaboration, and presentation of results. Proceedings of the first three ICAM meetings are also available on the website. The next ICAM meeting will be held in Tromso, Norway, on 3-5 September 2007.

New ice island detected in the Canadian Arctic

A 66 sq km piece of ice broke off an ice shelf in northern Ellesmere Island in Canadian Arctic in August 2005. This new ice island was detected only recently on the satellite images. Scientists connect the event with little sea ice and the summer air temperatures 3 deg C warmer than normal. There is a risk that the ice island might move into oil drilling regions and shipping lanes in the Beaufort Sea next summer as the sea ice melts.

Read the BBC News story

New Website Launched for IAVCEI Working Group on Volcano-Ice Interactions.

This new website is now formally launched and can be accessed at: http://volcanoes.dickinson.edu/VIWG/. The website is still being developed and when fully operational will contain a database of glaciovolcanic images freely available for interested persons to use in their lectures and other non-commercial pursuits. Whilst the image database has about 50 images at the moment and anybody is invited to contribute with informative photos to the website.

A new sea-ice model predicts ice-free Arctic Ocean in few decades

The Arctic may be close to a tipping point that sees all-year-round ice disappear very rapidly in the next few decades, US scientists say. The latest data presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting suggests the ice is no longer showing a robust recovery from the summer melt. The sea ice reached its minimum extent this year on 14 September, making 2006 the fourth lowest on record in 29 years of satellite record-keeping and just shy of the all time minimum of 2005.

Read the BBC News story

International University Courses on Permafrost (IUCP), Moscow State University, Russia

The Geography Faculty, Moscow State University, is hosting the Russian International University Courses on Permafrost (IUCP) as part of the International Permafrost Association's activities for International Polar Year. Two summer 2007 field courses area offered primarily for graduate students, but may include undergraduates:

In order to facilitate access to these field sites, applications are required no later than 15 February 2007.
Contact <registration@permafrostcourses.org> or <info@permafrostcourses.org>

Further details on Permafros Courses 2007

Release of a new State of the Arctic Report

This report is a review of environmental conditions during the past five years relative to those in the latter part of the 20th century. The review was conducted by an international group of twenty scientists who developed a consensus on information content and reliability. The report updates some of the records from the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

Read the whole State of the Arctic Report

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