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Other Polar News and Announcements - archive from 2011
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As Permafrost thaws, scientists study the risks
21 December 2011
A recent estimate suggests that the perennially frozen ground known as permafrost, which underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. Temperatures are warming across much of that region, primarily, scientists believe, because of the rapid human release of greenhouse gases. Permafrost is warming, too. Some has already thawed, and other signs are emerging that the frozen carbon may be becoming unstable.
If a substantial amount of the carbon should enter the atmosphere, it would intensify the planetary warming. An especially worrisome possibility is that a significant proportion will emerge not as carbon dioxide, the gas that usually forms when organic material breaks down, but as methane, produced when the breakdown occurs in lakes or wetlands. Methane is especially potent at trapping the sun's heat, and the potential for large new methane emissions in the Arctic is one of the biggest wild cards in climate science.
Read the full article on The New York Times - Environment website
Polar Connections
9 November 2011
The climate records extracted from ice cores recovered from the Greenland Ice Sheet are detailed but relatively short in duration— around 120,000 years. Ice cores from Antarctica, on the other hand, have lower temporal resolution but extend back more than 800,000 years. In order to infer how Greenland's climate may have varied over a longer interval, in the journal Science Barker et al. (p. 347, published online 8 September) used the Antarctic temperature record, data from Chinese speleothems, and the concept of the bipolar seesaw to produce a well-dated reconstruction of inferred Greenland temperature variability. Abrupt shifts in Northern Hemisphere climate appear to have occurred throughout the Late Pleistocene, and glacial terminations may have been linked to oscillations of the bipolar seesaw.
InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship
9 November 2011
The InBev-Baillet Latour Fund and the International Polar Foundation (IPF) announce the opening of the 2011 Call for Proposals for the InBev-Baillet Latour Antarctica Fellowship. The Fellowship of €150 000 has been created to promote research activities at, or in the vicinity of, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica research station.
The Fellowship is to be disbursed over a two year period to cover two field campaigns in Antarctica (to be carried out in the Antarctic summer seasons of November 2012 to February 2013 and November 2013 to February 2014).
The Fellowship is open to doctoral and post-doctoral researchers under the age of 35 years, from all over the World.
The research areas selected for the 2011 Call for Proposals are:
- Glaciology,
- Microbiology (excluding marine microbiology),
- Geology.
Project proposals for the Antarctica Fellowship award (for field research in 2012/2013 and 2013/2014) must reach the Fellowship Secretariat by 1 March 2012 at the latest.
For further details see the InBev-Baillet Latour Fellowship page of the Polar Foundation website.
Siena Statement on "Polar Research - Global Challenges"
6 October 2011
A two day symposium on "Research Urgencies in the Polar Regions and their Links to the ICSU Grand Challenges in Global Sustainability" was held at the University of Siena in Italy on the 23rd and 24th of September (for further details, please visit the Symposium website). The meeting endorsed the continuation of relevant polar activities as a contribution towards the ICSU Grand Challenges and as a legacy of the IPY. The meeting identified lessons to be learnt from the IPY that are relevant to the future of polar research, and essential in order to address the ICSU Grand Challenges. For further details see the statement "Polar Research - Global Challenges".
Kiwi Antarctic scientist honoured for global perspective
5 October 2011
Professor Peter Barrett from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, has been recognised by the world's oldest geological society for his work on Antarctica's climate history and appreciating its global significance. The Victoria Professor has been made an Honorary Fellow of the prestigious Geological Society of London - an honour currently held by only 70 geoscientists worldwide.
As a PhD student in the 1960s, Professor Barrett discovered the first remains of a four-footed animal in the Transantarctic Mountains-supporting the then controversial theory of continental drift. Since then, his curiosity and passion for Antarctica's geological past has led him from studying strata in the Transantarctic Mountains to drilling off the Antarctic coast for climate and ice sheet history.
"The Fellowship is a truly significant honour. I am particularly pleased to be associated with the society for its recent statement on climate change. I certainly share their view that it is "...a defining issue of our time, whose full understanding needs geology's long perspective," says Professor Barrett.
Professor Barrett was Founding Director of the Antarctic Research Centre (1973-2007) and is currently Deputy Director of the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute at Victoria University.
Read the full news article on the Victoria University of Wellington website.
Arctic ozone loss at record level
4 October 2011
Ozone loss over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an "ozone hole" like the Antarctic one, scientists report. About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say. The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude.
In cold conditions, the chlorine chemicals that destroy ozone are at their most active. It is currently impossible to predict if such losses will occur again, the team writes in the journal Nature. Early data on the scale of Arctic ozone destruction were released in April, but this paper is the first that has fully analysed the data.
"Winter in the Arctic stratosphere is highly variable - some are warm, some are cold," said Michelle Santee from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "But over the last few decades, the winters that are cold have been getting colder. So given that trend and the high variability, we'd anticipate that we'll have other cold ones, and if that happens while chlorine levels are high, we'd anticipate that we'd have severe ozone loss."
Read more on the BBC News - Science and Environment website, or read the full article in Nature
IPY Outreach Assessment Report Available
29 September 2011
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One year after the launch of the International Polar Year (IPY) Education, Outreach and Communication (EOC) Assessment Project, the task of inventorying and investigating the hundreds of IPY EOC programmes that occurred during the IPY 2007-08 is now complete. Supported by APECS, IASC and SCAR, this ICSU funded project is the only global examination of what happened in outreach during IPY. The latest IPY event was one of the most ambitious polar research programmes to date, tens of thousands of scientists and students participated, but IPY also set out to involve members of the general public in active polar science endeavours on a global scale. How successful was this part of the IPY plan? With over 550 IPY EOC activities, from more than 70 countries in 25 languages, IPY EOC is one of the largest global investments in science outreach to date. The IPY EOC Assessment brought together educators, communications personnel and researchers and the resulting report examines the success of IPY EOC efforts, and discusses why IPY EOC was able to reach its goals and beyond. From the experience of IPY, the report also outlines a set of lessons learned on how to improve science outreach across a variety of disciplines. These lessons will be useful for other science outreach projects - large or small - regional, national or international. |
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IPY EOC went to new heights, depths and extremes to take people to the poles and to take the poles to the people. Now the legacy of IPY outreach is helping to shape the future of science education and outreach.
Read the report or search the online Polar Outreach Catalogue - a growing inventory of these IPY projects and new outreach efforts to help educate the world about the global importance of the polar regions.
Provencher J, Baeseman J, Carlson D, Badhe R, Bellman J, Hik D, Huffman L, Legg J, Pauls M, Pit M, Shan S, Timm K, Ulstein K, Zicus S (2011) Polar Research Education, Outreach and Communication during the fourth IPY: How the 2007–2008 International Polar Year has contributed to the future of education, outreach and communication. Paris: International Council for Science (ICSU).
Scientists raise concerns regarding erroneous reporting of Greenland ice cover
26 September 2011
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Map of Greenland from the 13th edition of The Times Atlas of the World Times Atlas (L); Modis/Toby Benham (R) |
Scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) have raised concerns regarding what they believe are erroneous claims of a 15% decrease in the permanent ice cover of Greenland in just 12 years. The discrepancy was first brought to their attention via a media release accompanying the publication of the 13th edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World stating that the Atlas is 'turning Greenland 'green''. Scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute were extremely puzzled by this statement and the claim that 'For the first time, the new edition of The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World has had to erase 15% of Greenland's once permanent ice cover – turning an area the size of the United Kingdom and Ireland 'green' and ice-free'. The scientists believe that the figure of a 15% decrease in permanent ice cover since the publication of the previous atlas 12 years is both incorrect and misleading. SPRI scientists compared recent satellite images of Greenland with the new map and found that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands. Furthermore, the low-lying fringe of the main ice sheet appears to be shown as land, not ice. They concluded that a sizable portion of the area mapped as ice-free in the Atlas is clearly still ice-covered. |
Dr Poul Christoffersen said: "It is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world. There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature."
The scientists do not disagree with the statement that climate is changing and that the Greenland Ice Sheet is affected by this. They say, however, it is crucial to report climate change and its impact accurately and to back bold statements with concrete and correct evidence.
Read the full article on the University of Cambridge Research News website. See further articles relating to this story on the Scott Polar Research Institute's web page SPRI in the News.
Petermann Glacier break-up
19 September 2011
New pictures have revealed the extent to which part of a huge glacier in northern Greenland has broken up in just two years, claims a glaciologist. Dr Alun Hubbard of Aberystwyth University said he was "gob-smacked" by the scale of the Petermann Glacier's break-up since he last visited in 2009. The glacier is 186 miles (300km) long and up to 3,280ft (1000m) high - three times the height of the Eiffel Tower. Last year, it shed a piece of ice measuring 77 square miles (200 sq km).
Dr Hubbard has been researching the Greenland ice sheet for some years. His team of researchers and scientists from Aberystwyth and Swansea universities have made several trips to the country. Located in north west Greenland, the Petermann Glacier accounts for 6% of the area of the Greenland ice sheet, said Dr Hubbard. At its thickest the glacier is 3,280ft (1000m) high.
Read the full article on the BBC News website.
Arctic sea ice drops to record low
15 September 2011
Arctic sea ice extent last week dropped to a new record minimum. At 4.24 million square kilometres, sea ice cover on 8 September was 27,000 sq km below the previous record low, observed in 2007.
Maps produced by scientists at the University of Bremen in Germany — on the basis of high-resolution microwave data from a sensor on board NASA's Aqua satellite — first showed on 5 September that ice extent was lower than on the same date in 2007. Satellite observations of Arctic sea ice have been available only since 1972. However, this year's sea ice minimum may well be the lowest in 8,000 years.
Increased sea ice melt is an unerring indicator of climate change. With ice cover now also thinner than in previous decades, there is "a greater potential for late season ice-loss, caused by warm water melting ice from below or winds that push the ice together", say scientists with the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.
See the full item on the Nature News Blog.
Census of Marine Life community awarded 2011 Cosmos Prize
11 August 2011
It was announced on July 27 that the Census of Marine Life Scientific Steering Committee was awarded the 2011 International Cosmos Prize for its excellent research and work that contributed to a significant understanding of the relationships among living organisms, the interdependence of life and the global environment, and the common nature integrating these interrelationships. This is a great honour for the 2,700 Census scientists and numerous sponsors and partners who believed a Census of Marine Life was necessary and could be accomplished.
For more information, please visit the CoML website.
Arctic Sea Ice See-Saw
11 August 2011
Global warming is causing a rapid and extensive loss of seasonal sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. This loss is often presented as a general phenomenon, without regard to any possible spatial heterogeneity. Funder et al. present a long-term sea-ice record from northern Greenland and compare it to records from the western Arctic. The results suggest that sea ice in the two regions behaved in a largely complimentary fashion, expanding in the west as it decreased in the east for most of the past 10,000 years.
Read the full Science article.
Earth has a "spare tyre" - and melting ice is keeping it that way
12 July 2011
Earth isn't losing its "spare tyre" as fast as it should be, according to new research - and it's definitely not because the planet's not getting enough water. In fact, melting ice from Antarctica and Greenland is giving the oceans huge infusions of water, which then gets pulled toward the Equator - counteracting a millennia-old slimming trend around the planet's middle, experts say.
Researchers have long known that Earth isn't a perfect sphere. Rotational forces cause the planet to bulge at its waistline. A person standing at the North Pole, for example, is about 13 miles (21 kilometres) closer to the centre of Earth than someone at the Equator.
That difference has been shrinking, at least over the long term. Ever since scientists have been measuring the equatorial bulge, it's been retracting at a rate of seven millimetres (about a quarter of an inch) a decade - part of a long rebounding from the Ice Age, which lasted from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago. During the Ice Age, "all that ice is sitting there, and it's sitting there for tens of thousands of years," study co-author John Wahr said. At the Poles, "it pushes down on the Earth, and the Earth sinks down underneath it." The extra Ice Age weight even squished Earth's malleable mantle outward, further enlarging the planet's bulge. Once the Ice Age ice melted, though, the Poles began to slowly spring back, and they've been doing so ever since. But now "there's something else going on that offsets [the bulge's shrinkage]," said Wahr, a geophysicist at the University of Colorado.
Read the full National Geographic news item.
China plans new icebreaker
30 June 2011
China will start building a new icebreaker later on this year and the vessel is expected to be in operational in polar expeditions in 2013.
Together with M/V Xuelong (or Snow Dragon), a 21,250-tonne icebreaker and research vessel purchased from Ukraine in 1993, the new ship will help maximise annual expedition time in the Arctic and the Antarctic. With a displacement of 8,000 tonnes, the new vessel, which will cost about $300 million, is smaller than Xuelong. But it will be able to break through thicker ice (up to 1.5 meters) and will house state-of-the-art research facilities.
In addition to the new icebreaker, fixed-wing aircraft will be available to expedition teams in the Antarctic by 2015, allowing aerial studies of the Antarctica's Grove Mountains and transport of researchers between stations.
Special Issue of Marine Biodiversity available
6 June 2011
A special issue in the Springer journal Marine Biodiversity (Vol 41-1) was published in March 2011 under the umbrella of the Census of Marine Life's Arctic Ocean Diversity project. International author teams from 10 countries and more than 25 institutions contributed 10 articles covering 210 pages and spanning microbes to marine mammals on a pan-scale.
Most articles contain new synthetic numerical analyses, as well as reviews of current knowledge, contemporary perspectives, and several
presently expected future scenarios. Many include pan-arctic species inventories by realm and regions, and provide an urgently needed
assessment of current diversity patterns that can be used for evaluating the effects of climate change and anthropogenic activities in the
Arctic. The Arctic Register of Marine Species containing most of these inventories is now available. The majority of taxon distribution records underlying the register (and the papers in this issue) are available through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and the Arctic Ocean Diversity project's webportal.
View the Special Issue of Marine Biodiversity.
Ocean acidification: Connecting science, industry, policy and public
23 May 2011
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has today launched a new short film, "Ocean acidification: Connecting science, industry, policy and public", at the International Ocean Acidification Reference User Group meeting in Brussels.
Ocean acidification is a recently recognised phenomenon which results from the growing quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth's atmosphere. Much of this gas is being absorbed at the ocean surface, pushing seawater down the pH scale towards acidity and posing a potential threat to marine ecosystems and those dependent on them. As scientific research reveals more about how the oceans and the life they contain might be affected, there is a need to engage with a wider community including policy makers, environmental managers and the general public to understand what is happening, how we might be affected and what actions could be taken to reduce any risks.
The film brings together a wide range of stakeholders including HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, school children, a Plymouth fishmonger, a UK government Chief Scientific Adviser, representatives from industry and policy making departments, as well as a group of internationally recognised expert scientists.
It has become obvious that each of the interest groups has its own concerns and level of understanding. Dr Carol Turley OBE, who led the film production team at PML in her role as Knowledge Exchange Coordinator for the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme, explains this can lead to confusion and misunderstanding: "Scientists are reticent to make long-term predictions until they have a sound scientific basis for doing so; policy makers often require immediate answers that can lead to timely solutions, while industry needs to plan ahead; and the public want to know how they may be affected and what is being done to face any likely threats. Such a diversity of information requirements sounds like a recipe for confusion. This film highlights the need for clear communication at the earliest opportunity to ensure that all stakeholder groups go forwards with an understanding of each others' positions and responsibilities, by using a real example of how this is already working within the ocean acidification community."
Although the final impacts are still not clear, ocean acidification is relatively newly recognised, happening now and should be a concern for all of us as it has the potential to affect everyone. However, making sure the message gets through can be a real challenge. Speaking the same language, understanding the different requirements of the various interest groups and accepting the importance of working together is the first step.
Dr Faith Culshaw from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), who commissioned the film, added "Communication between these groups is essential if we are to face up to the world's pressing environmental challenges. This short film, which we at NERC were pleased to support financially, shows that getting all interests around the same table to face up to a challenge, understand what needs to be done and sharing the responsibility can and does work."
Prof Dan Lafolley, Chair of the international Reference User Group on Ocean Acidification, is clear about the importance of this film "Everyone should see it. A powerful new film. Fantastically clear, it gives a fresh look at ocean acidification - one of the most important environmental issues of the modern generation".
The 12 minute film, "Ocean acidification: Connecting science, industry, policy and public", can be viewed via the UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme website or the Plymouth Marine Laboratory website, or directly on YouTube.
The IceMole cometh
3 May 2011
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The IceMole team loads their hybrid probe into |
Getting a probe to travel five metres might not seem like much of a reason to celebrate. But after Bernd Dachwald and his team watched their IceMole robot autonomously drill through a small section of Morteratsch Glacier in Switzerland during the summer of 2010, they held a small party.
"This was a major milestone," says Dachwald, an aerospace engineer at Fachhochschule Aachen University of Applied Sciences in Aachen, Germany. On 27 April, Dachwald presented results from IceMole's first field test at the 2011 Antarctic Science Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin. "We have proof that IceMole works not only in the lab but also in a real environment," he says. After two years of work, the researchers believe they have developed a new type of ice-melting probe, which may one day penetrate sub-surface lakes in the Antarctic, dig through the ice caps of Mars or churn through the frozen crust of Europa. Probes with heated tips have been used since the 1960s to bore through ice, but engineers found that dirt and sediment would often build up at the robot's head, impeding the transfer of heat. And most of these designs had the capacity to move in only one direction: down. |
IceMole includes a six-centimetre screw at its heated head, which allows it to keep in firm contact with the ice surface it is trying to melt. The screw's grip means the probe can pull itself horizontally through ice layers and even upward, against gravity. The configuration permits the robot to easily penetrate dirt and should even work in places where the ice is in a near vaccuum, such as a comet's nucleus, says Dachwald.
Greenland's Going Rate
3 May 2011
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One of the most potentially important consequences of globalwarming is sea-level rise. The Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to be the source of much of the meltwater that raises sea level in the near term, but how much mass loss it will experience in a warmer future is difficult to say with confidence, due largely to the difficulty of modelling the dynamic behaviour of the ice-sheet as air and sea temperatures rise. Ren et al. (soon to be published in the Journal of Climate) present results from a multiphase, multiple-rheology, scalable and extensible geofluid ice-sheet model that has been designed specifically with that problem in mind. Their model incorporates full Navier-Stokes equations to account for non-local dynamic balance and ice flow, and a granular sliding layer between the ice and bedrock to allow large-scale surges like those that are commonly observed now. |
Forcing their model with monthly atmospheric conditions provided by high-resolution climate simulations, they project that the rate of Greenland Ice Sheet mass loss could reach as high as 220 km3/year by 2100, significantly exceeding estimates by the IPCC AR4 of ~50 to 100 km3/year, which were made without considering the dynamic behaviour of the ice sheet.
J. Clim. 10.1175/2011JCLI3708.1 (2011).
Read the 'Editors' Choice' Science article or view the full paper from the Journal of Climate.
New international report on the state of the Arctic coast available online
3 May 2011
A new international report on the state of the circumpolar Arctic coast, entitled 'State of the Arctic Coast 2010 – Scientific Review and Outlook' has just been released.
The coast is a key interface in the Arctic environment. It is a locus of human activity, a rich band of biodiversity, critical habitat, and high productivity, and among the most dynamic components of the circumpolar landscape. The Arctic coastal interface is a sensitive and important zone of interaction between land and sea, a region that provides essential ecosystem services and supports indigenous human lifestyles; a zone of expanding infrastructure investment and growing security concerns; and an area in which climate warming is expected to trigger landscape instability, rapid responses to change, and increased hazard exposure. The circumpolar Arctic coast is arguably one of the most critical zones in terms of the rapidity and the severity of environmental change and the implications for human communities dependent on coastal resources.
The international report is sponsored by the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), the international Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) Project, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), and the International Permafrost Association (IPA). A collaborative effort by 47 lead and contributing authors from 10 nations including all those bordering the Arctic coast and others with Arctic interests, this report grew from a recommendation by the Workshop on Arctic Coastal Zones at Risk, convened in Tromsø, Norway, in October 2007. The report was peer-reviewed and released in draft form for open public review in 2010.
The report is available for viewing and downloading from the Arctic Coasts website and is published by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, LOICZ International Project Office, at the Institute of Coastal Research, Geesthacht, Germany.
Record loss of ozone over Arctic
11 April 2011
The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite has measured record low levels of ozone over the Euro-Atlantic sector of the northern hemisphere during March. This record low was caused by unusually strong winds, known as the polar vortex, which isolated the atmospheric mass over the North Pole and prevented it from mixing with air in the mid-latitudes. This led to very low temperatures and created conditions similar to those that occur every southern hemisphere winter over the Antarctic.
As March sunlight hit this cold air mass it released chlorine and bromine atoms (ozone-destroying gases that originate from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and break ozone down into individual oxygen molecules) predominantly in the lower stratosphere, around 20 km above the surface.
Ozone is a protective atmospheric layer found at around 25 km altitude that acts as a sunlight filter shielding life on Earth from harmful ultraviolet rays, which can harm marine life and increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts.
Read the full article on the ESA website.
Polar research boosts understanding of our climate & global environment
6 April 2011
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The largest coordinated research project ever undertaken into the Arctic and Antarctic regions yielded a treasure trove of information which will shape our understanding of the polar regions, global oceans, climate and climate change for decades ahead, according to a summary of the research released today. 'Understanding Earth's Polar Challenges' was presented to the Arctic Science Summit Week in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The summary prepared by the ICSU and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Joint Committee presents the findings from the International Polar Year, a massive research effort involving some 50,000 participants from more than 60 nations between March 2007 and March 2009. |
Read the full press release on the ICSU website. The Executive Summary is also available on the ICSU website and the full report, or sections of it, may be viewed and downloaded from there.
EU grants 2 million euro to overseas biodiversity projects
6 April 2011
The European Commission is to give an additional €2 million to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystem services in its Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories. Known as BEST, the Voluntary scheme for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Territories of European Overseas will fund pilot projects in these areas, which are home to exceptional biodiversity, and host more endemic species than the whole of continental Europe combined. The financial support was originally suggested by the European Parliament.
The BEST scheme will step up the financial means to protect biodiversity and promote the sustainable use of ecosystem services in Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories, with a view to reconciling the environmental and development needs of these areas. The voluntary scheme aims to develop solutions that maintain healthy and resilient ecosystems and reduce the pressures on biodiversity. The financing will support the designation and management of protected areas and the restoration of degraded ecosystems, promoting natural solutions to fight climate change, including the restoration of mangroves and the protection of coral reefs.
The scheme will also encourage partnerships between local administrations, civil society, researchers, land-owners and the private sector. It should serve to reinforce cooperation on environment and climate change issues, in line with the objectives of the ongoing environmental session of the EU OCT Forum being held in Noumea, New Caledonia.
The European Commission plans to launch a call for proposals in May 2011 for projects that wish to apply for funding. The projects will showcase the scheme and will prepare the ground for a governance structure with a view to longer term support. The scheme will build on existing sites and networks and take on board previous projects.
EU Outermost Regions and Overseas Countries and Territories are located around the globe, and are home to exceptional biodiversity. Situated in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans at a range of latitudes, these entities are very rich in biodiversity and play host to more endemic species (species that are exclusive to a restricted geographical area) than are found on the whole of continental Europe.
Polar ice loss quickens, raising seas
10 March 2011
Ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated over the last 20 years, research shows, and will soon become the biggest driver of sea level rise. From satellite data and climate models, scientists calculate that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.3mm each year. Overall, sea levels are rising by about 3mm (0.12 inches) per year.
Writing in Geophysical Research Letters, the team says ice loss here is speeding up faster than models predict. They add their voices to several other studies that have concluded sea levels will rise faster than projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its landmark 2007 assessment.
By 2006, the Greenland and Antarctic sheets were losing a combined mass of 475Gt (gigatonnes - billion tonnes) of ice per year. On average, loss from the Greenland sheet is increasing by nearly 22Gt per year, while the much larger and colder Antarctic sheet is shedding an additional 14.5Gt each year. If these increases persist, water from the two polar ice sheets could have added 15cm (5.9 inches) to the average global sea level by 2050. A rise of similar size is projected to come from a combination of melt water from mountain glaciers and thermal expansion of seawater.
"That ice sheets will dominate future sea level rise is not surprising - they hold a lot more ice mass than mountain glaciers," said lead author Eric Rignot from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "What is surprising is this increased contribution by the ice sheets is already happening."
Read about it on the BBC News: Science and Environment page.
Read the full article in Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L05503 (2011)
Martin Jakobsson awarded with IASC Medal 2011
7 March 2011
The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is proud to announce that the IASC Medal 2011 will be awarded to Professor Martin Jakobsson (left).
Martin Jakobsson represents a new generation of Arctic scientists for whom multinational and cross-disciplinary science comes naturally. His view that data should be open and accessible for all research is part of his success as illustrated by the wide use of the IBCAO digital bathymetric map of the Arctic Ocean. This beautiful map, which is fundamental to our understanding of the Arctic, has been cited in several thousand publications in areas such as oceanography, tectonics and palaeo-climate.
The medal will be presented by the IASC President, David Hik, on 29th March 2011 at the Arctic Science Summit Week 2011 in Seoul (Korea). The award ceremony will be followed by a 30-minute lecture from the awardee.
Arctic unlikely to experience sudden loss of sea ice during 21st century
1 March 2011
Open water absorbs more solar radiation than ice, so reduced sea-ice cover enhances Arctic warming. This self-reinforcing mechanism has lead some to speculate that anomalously low summer-sea-ice seasons, such as occurred in 2007, could signal a sudden switch to ice-free summers in the region.
Steffen Tietsche and co-workers from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany, constructed a series of model simulations to investigate how Arctic atmospheric and oceanic temperatures and circulation patterns might respond following an ice-free summer season (Tietsche, S., Notz, D., Jungclaus, J. H. & Marotzke, J. Recovery mechanisms of Arctic summer sea ice. Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, L02707 (2011).). As expected, ice-free conditions in summer heated the ocean as more solar radiation was absorbed at the surface. However, thin ice cover the following winter offered less insulation and allowed more heat to escape back to the atmosphere. These mechanisms lead to a consistent recovery of sea ice in just a few years.
The results imply that an irreversible decline in Arctic sea ice is unlikely this century.
For further details, read the article in Nature Climate Change: Research Highlights.
Making Data Maximally Available
14 February 2011
Science is driven by data. New technologies have vastly increased the ease of data collection and consequently the amount of data collected, while also enabling data to be independently mined and reanalyzed by others. Society now relies on scientific data of diverse kinds; for example, in responding to disease outbreaks, managing resources, responding to climate change, and improving transportation. It is obvious that making data widely available is an essential element of scientific research. The scientific community strives to meet its basic responsibilities toward transparency, standardization, and data archiving. Yet, as pointed out in a special section of the journal Science, scientists are struggling with the huge amount, complexity, and variety of the data that are now being produced.
For further details, see the full Science editorial.
Indo-Norway joint seminar on Polar Research
8 February 2011
An exhibition and a seminar on Polar Research began in India on 3 February, covering mainly polar research and climate issues. Papers to be presented include Indian and Norwegian Exploration and Research in the Arctic and Antarctic, Polar research status and prospects for future collaboration between the two countries, success stories from Indian polar expeditions, long term monitoring of the Kongsfordon system for climate change studies and Indian initiatives, concern of Norway and India, microbes from Antarctica, occurrence, survival strategies and usefulness, studies related to Atmospheric science in Arctic and Antarctic, Climate variability in Antarctic region during past few centuries and its implications on global climate teleconnections and climate change and climate variability in polar regions and at Asian high altitudes, key issues and prospects.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi organised the seminar in collaboration with the National Center for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa.
Science Honours "Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears" Website
7 February 2011
The considerable appeal of the animals that live in the polar regions is just one of the reasons that a website called 'Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears' is so successful at bringing science into elementary school classrooms — which has led to its being awarded the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).
"The content is compelling," says science educator Kimberly Lightle, who created the site with education resource specialist Jessica Fries-Gaither. "It's a topic that we knew would appeal to elementary teachers—and elementary students. Those animals are very big in our popular culture."
The polar region-focused website is geared toward teachers but is also utilised by teachers-in-training, home-school families, and students. Because of its value as a science teaching tool, it has been selected to win a SPORE award. Science magazine developed the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) to spotlight the best online materials in science education.
To learn more about the 'Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears' website, read the full Science story or read the essay in Science by the website creators.
IPY Summary Report published by ICSU-WMO Joint Committee for IPY
25 January 2011
In April 2011, the ICSU-WMO Joint Committee for the International Polar Year (IPY) will publish a summary of IPY activities in which the Committee and associated teams were directly involved. Comprising 38 chapters in five parts (Planning, Research, Observations, Outreach, and Legacies), the report covers the development of IPY 2007–2008 for almost a decade, from 2001 until summer 2010. It has engaged hundreds of contributing authors from all disciplines and more than 20 nations. This broad overview demonstrates the extensive and essential contribution made by participating nations and organizations, and provides a prospective blueprint for future polar research.
Pre-publication copies can be ordered before 15 February at a substantially reduced price of CAN$ 175 from the CCI Press, using the IPY Report order form.
Killer Whales Earn Their Name
24 January 2011
As reported in the journal Science, scientists are rethinking the role and effect of killer whales in marine communities, including the possible threat they pose to some of their endangered cetacean cousins. Researchers are now recording killer whale attacks on several species of great whales, as well as seals, narwhals, sea lions, walruses, and even penguins. From Russia's Chukotka Peninsula to South Africa's coastal waters to the icy seas of Antarctica—even in Canada's Hudson's Bay, where they had rarely been seen before—scientists are finding mammal-eating killer whales on the prowl.
Read the full Science article.
Whisky bottles home after century on ice
19 January 2011
Three bottles of whisky abandoned in the Antarctic ice by British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton more than a century ago have returned home to Scotland. The bottles of Mackinlay whisky were part of a cache recovered last year from beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 as part of his failed attempt to reach the South Pole. The bottles made it home on Monday to Whyte and Mackay, the brand's owner, for analysis to see how they have fared after so long preserved in the polar chill.
For more information, read the full articles on the BBC News Scotland and ABC News web pages.
Photo Exhibition on Polar Regions Opens at UN
17 January 2011
A joint photography exhibition by two Swedish photographers opened in the North East Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Wednesday 12 January.
"Once Upon a Time … in Antarctica" by Stig Gustafsson is one of the largest European photo productions of its kind. It offers an extensive visual tour of the region's animal life and landscapes, dry valleys, glaciers and ice floes. Gustafsson is a wildlife photographer and filmmaker from Gothenburg, Sweden, whose images have been featured in exhibitions and publications worldwide. He has completed studies about the Arctic and Antarctica at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and has participated in annual science festivals arranged by the University.
"Gateway to the Arctic" by Jens Thuresson presents a variety of images from the northern polar region. Also a wildlife photographer, Thuresson has exhibited his images in Scandinavia and has been commissioned to take photographs for publication by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and the Swedish Tourist Association. He gives lectures on how climate change affects the North Pole. Both exhibits are presented at the United Nations by the University of Gothenburg and the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.
The year 2011 marks 100 years since Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole. By focusing on Antarctica and the Arctic, two unique regions that reflect the health of our planet, this joint exhibition aims to draw attention to the challenges of climate change and global warming.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Sweden to the United Nations and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York. For more information on United Nations exhibitions, contact Jan Arnesen, tel.: +1 212 963 8531, e-mail: arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann, tel.: +1 212 963 0089, e-mail: wichmann@un.org.
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