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See also the archive of earlier SCAR Science and Business News from: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008

New! Nominations open for the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica

Nominations are now open for the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica. The Prize is a US$100,000 unrestricted award presented to an individual in the fields of Antarctic science or policy that has demonstrated potential for sustained and significant contributions that will enhance the understanding and/or preservation of Antarctica. The Prize is inspired by Martha T. Muse's passion for Antarctica and is intended to be a legacy of the International Polar Year 2007-2008.

The prize-winner can be from any country and work in any field of Antarctic science or policy. The goal is to provide recognition of the important work being done by the individual and to call attention to the significance of understanding Antarctica in a time of change. Further details, including the process of nomination and selection of the Prize recipients, are available on the Martha Muse Prize website. The Prize is awarded by the Tinker Foundation and administered by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).

2010 SCAR Open Science Conference and XXXI SCAR Meeting

The fourth SCAR Open Science Conference (OSC) will be held from 3-6 August 2010 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The theme for the OSC is "Antarctica - Witness to the Past and Guide to the Future". The International Scientific Organizing Committee for the OSC is now soliciting from the science community a list of session titles, names of potential session conveners, and names of potential keynote speakers - required by 10 July 2009. Note that this OSC will not focus on IPY, which will be the theme for the 8-12 June 2010 IPY conference in Oslo. Please submit the requested information to Carlota Escutia Dotti (cescutia@ugr.es) and John C. Priscu (jpriscu@montana.edu), who co-chair the organizing committee for the OSC. We would like to produce a draft of OSC session titles, names of potential session conveners and keynote speakers based on community input by 20 July 2009. The OSC is part of the XXXI SCAR meeting which has three sessions: SCAR Business meetings from 30 July - 2 August 2010; the OSC, from 3-6 August inclusive; and the Delegates meeting from 9-11 August inclusive.

Online version of the International Antarctic Weather Forecasting Handbook

The latest version of the International Antarctic Weather Forecasting Handbook is now available on the Internet. This is basically the 2004 hardcopy version plus the 2009 supplement and update. It's very much easier to use now since you can search the entire volume for a word or phrase. Visit the Handbook website. We are looking for updates on the station information from any of the SCAR nations.

IPY International Early Career Researcher Symposium

The IPY International Early Career Researcher Symposium will take place from 4 to 8 December 2009 in Victoria, B.C., Canada. The Symposium is organised in conjunction with the 2009 ArcticNet Science Meeting, which will be held after the Symposium in Victoria.

With the support of IPY Canada, ArcticNet, and the Northern Research Forum, the Symposium will bring together Arctic and Antarctic early career researchers from across the world with experts to build skills, knowledge, and networks. The workshop is based around seven themes:

The training sessions will give concrete and useful advice, insight, and skills to help early career researchers meet the demands of polar science. The Symposium will also provide an unmatched opportunity to meet and collaborate with fellow early career researchers, and build the networks that will strengthen polar research in the future.

Lodging and food will be included and travel support will be available. Registration will be capped at 120 participants. Please visit the workshop website for more information and to register for future information packages and application forms.

Energy and Climate Change - a Statement from SCAR's Members (the Academies)

In December 2009, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will hold a major international conference on climate change at which Ministers are expected to agree on a new way forward to manage the use of energy, so as to minimize global warming over the 21st century. In preparation for that conference, there will be this year a number of smaller meetings in various places to bring scientists together to prepare scientific advice for those Ministers. SCAR has done its best to provide such advice to the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, through the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) in April (see ATCM Information Paper 05). The scientific academies that form SCAR's Members have themselves recently provided governments with advice on the use of energy in relation to global warming. It is this advice, and the outcome from the December UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen, that will form the context for the development of the next version of SCAR's strategic plan in Buenos Aries in August 2010.

A New Social Contract for Science

Now that Jane Lubchenco has been appointed the new Head of the USA's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is worth reflecting on her notion of a new social contract for science. She argued that the immediate and real challenges facing humankind had not been fully appreciated nor properly acknowledged by the community of scientists whose responsibility it is, and will be, to meet them. These challenges, global warming foremost among them, threatened the integrity of the life-support system of our planet and the ecosystem goods and services that it delivers. They are vastly different in magnitude and scale and kind from past changes that we may have faced; even our best records and models offer little guidance concerning the scale and character of likely responses to these challenges. The world at the end of the last millennium is fundamentally different from the one in which the current scientific enterprise developed. Business as usual, and models based on the science of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s will not suffice in the face of these formidable challenges for society, which will affect human health, the economy, social justice and national security. Society has a contract with science; it invests in science because it expects two outcomes; (i) the best possible science (greater knowledge about how the world works), and (ii) the production of something useful. The rationale for public investment in science, as well as specific decisions about the allocation of resources, are tied to expectations that something beneficial to society will emerge. At the end of the last millennium the role of science to discover and communicate new knowledge and to train the next generation had not changed, but the needs of society had. One of the critical emerging needs was for a greater role for science in informing decision-makers faced with increasingly large and rapidly growing environmental problems - providing knowledge about how to manage the planet. Lubchenco's new social contract for science envisaged that scientists will (i) address the most urgent needs of society, and (ii) communicate their knowledge and understanding widely so as to inform decisions by policy makers, to help society move towards a sustainable biosphere. The contract would not be a call to abandon fundamental research, but to invest fundamental research in a broad spectrum of areas where new knowledge is urgently needed. Pressing needs include communicating the certainties, uncertainties and seriousness of different environmental or social problems, providing alternatives to address them, and educating citizens about the issues and especially about how the environment works and what that means for the future of humanity. The environment, concludes Lubchenco, is not a marginal issue, it is the issue of the future, and the future is here now. That was written in 1997 when Lubchenco, a Professor of Marine Biology and Distinguished Professor of Zoology at Oregon State University, became President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was subsequently elected Chairperson of SCAR's parent body, the International Council for Science (ICSU). Her social contract remains as valid now in 2009 as it was in February 1997. It was published in Science, vol 279, January 1998. SCAR does its bit to meet the requirements of the new social contract by providing advice to the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty, and by devising research to address challenging societal issues - especially the questions of changing climate and changing biodiversity. Nevertheless we should not be complacent; the task ahead is huge and these issues should continue to take centre stage in our future strategic plans.

NOTUS: The newsletter of SCAR's Antarctica in the Global Climate System

The latest issue of the NOTUS newsletter can now be downloaded from the AGCS website.

Want to give a presentation on SCAR? Start here

Chuck Kennicutt has recently updated the Powerpoint slide presentation on SCAR. Members of the SCAR community are welcome to use it or to adapt it for their own local or regional needs. You can find the slides under the heading Other SCAR Presentations on the Communications page. On that page you will also find Powerpoint presentations from previous SCAR lectues to the ATCM, which you may find useful in your own talks and lectures.

If you wish to make up your own Powerpoint slides on SCAR matters, you can use the new designs of the SCAR Powerpoint templates (see the heading Templates on that same web page). These are actually located on the Members' page, for which you will need the Members username and password, which can be supplied to SCAR users by the Secretariat (info@scar.org).

Australia provides support for SCAR's Marine Biodiversity Information Network (SCAR MarBIN)

As pointed out in SCAR Circular 779 on April 3, 2009, SCAR's Marine Biodiversity Information Network faces certain funding constraints. Some support has been obtained from the TOTAL Foundation, and other sources are being approached. Thanks to the new Australian Antarctic Division's Chief Scientist, John Gunn, Australia has now stepped up to the plate with a financial contribution to Belgium to help to manage SCAR MarBIN for the next 2 years. John says, "Since SCAR MarBIN's inception, Australia has been a strong supporter of the Facility's goals and remains convinced that SCAR-MarBIN is an extremely important component of our collective Antarctic data management network. The marine data aggregator services provided by SCAR MarBIN, coupled with it role in coordinating and exposing the Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS) are underpinning Antarctic scientific research, particularly that being conducted by the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) Project.

"It would be a tremendous pity if all of the efforts involved to date were devalued by the closing of the Facility due to lack of ongoing funding. SCAR MarBIN is an excellent example of a modern data service that has achieved considerable outcomes with relatively few resources by harnessing the power of collaborative networks, by focusing on outreach and by having excellent technical staff.

"It can be difficult to make the case for funding when an activity might be seen as a 'public good' and where pay-offs may be indirect and often realised in the medium to long term. My anticipation is that in the fullness of time, as other nations establish mature approaches to data management, these nations will rise to share the task of creating a polar data commons - something we will all benefit from but which none of us can build on our own. It is the sum of all our national efforts that will make the difference in the end and which will provide an effective pan Antarctic data management system, capable of supporting Antarctic science in the 21st Century."

Well said, John. Now, if only others shared that view and opened their wallets!

Researcher argues for publishing data

As we move in to the 21st century, reasons abound for making scarce Antarctic and Southern Ocean data readily available to all. These vast regions are horribly under-sampled. The more data of all types that we can get into the public domain the more we can compensate for that incredible handicap, which prevents us from fully understanding the processes governing environmental change across the region. Sitting on our own little data sets is no help at all. It will not win us a pan-Antarctic view. Sharing is in everyone's best interests. So why doesn't it happen? Why are the nations who signed up to Article III 1 c of the Antarctic Treaty not making a commitment to it? Many of the answers are to be found in a paper by Mark Costello. Scientists do need a system for publishing data in the same way that they publish papers, and for getting recognition for it. But, hey guys, why wait? Don't delay - do it today! It's SCAR policy after all.

SCAR Representative appointed to ICSU Data Committee

On SCAR's recommendation, Kim Finney, Chief Officer of SCAR's Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management (SCADM) has been appointed to ICSU's new Strategic Coordinating Committee on Scientific Data and Information. The new Committee will:
"establish and assert a visible and effective strategic leadership role, on behalf of the global scientific community, in relation to the policies, management and stewardship of scientific data and information. It will be charged with producing a sustainability plan for maintaining the established strategic coordination and leadership role of ICSU for consideration by the next ICSU General Assembly (2011)."

Part of the work of the Committee will be to examine the current ICSU data management structure of World Data Centres, and to recommend a modern data and information management infrastructure from which we should all benefit. Our own in house development of a data and information management strategy (led by Kim) will inform these new developments. In addition, as they come on line we will undoubtedly benefit from them. This initiative will enable us globally to contribute more effectively to the data management side of the IPY legacy, on which our science depends.

Nominations sought for Prize Selection Committee

SCAR is looking for potential members to join the Selection Committee for the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica. The Prize has been established by the Tinker Foundation to honour its long-time leader, Ms. Martha Twitchell Muse, and to provide a lasting legacy of the IPY. It will be adminstered by SCAR on behalf of the Foundation. The Prize is intended for an early- to mid-career researcher, in any field of Antarctic science or policy, who has demonstrated exceptional capabilities and the potential to show significant creativity and leadership in the future. The goal is to provide recognition of the outstanding and important work being done by the individual and to call attention to the importance of understanding Antarctica in this time of global climate change.

The next step in the process of establishing the Muse Prize is to appoint a Selection Committee comprised of six members that are representative of the geographical, discipline and gender diversity of the international Antarctic community. We ask that you consider your colleagues and peers as potential Selection Committee members. Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by other individuals, agencies, organizations or institutions. In this first assembling of the Selection Committee, appointment terms will be one to three years to allow for regular rotation of Committee members.

If you wish to nominate yourself or someone to serve on the Muse Prize Selection Committee, please send a letter of application, stating why you (or the individual in question) should serve on the committee and provide either a 2-page CV or a web link to a personal page that includes explicit evidence (e.g., published papers) of the candidate's contributions to Antarctic science and/or policy and their standing in the community. The goal is to establish a high quality, experienced, "blue-ribbon" panel to select Prize winners. Candidate qualification packages must be sent via email to SCAR for the attention of Executive Officer, Mike Sparrow. Criteria for appointment to the Selection Committee will include considerable experience in Antarctic research (science or policy) and a wide knowledge of the international Antarctic scientific and/or policy communities. Packages will be accepted until 1 June 2009.

Treaty Parties Resolve to Commit to Observing Systems and Data Exchange

The XXXII Antarctic Treaty Meeting, in Baltimore (6-17 April) approved a Resolution on the Legacy of the International Polar Year, in which Treaty Parties are urged to:

Read the full text of the Resolution.

SCAR and IASC sign Agreement with International Permafrost Association (IPA)

On 27 March, at the Arctic Science Summit Week in Bergen, SCAR, IASC and IPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding their intention to work closely together. Full details are available under IPA on the Geo-Science page of the SCAR website.

Ministers Sign 2009 Declaration on the IPY and its Legacy

This year's Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting began in Washington DC on April 6 2009 with a joint meeting of the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty and the Member States of the Arctic Council, who came together in the persons of their various Environment Ministers to sign a joint Ministerial Declaration on the International Polar Year and Polar Science. The declaration is a call to arms for more research in the polar regions and for implementing the IPY legacy. The meeting was opened by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who underlined the intention of the new US administration to focus on the issue of climate change.

SCAR MarBIN Test Drive

After months of efforts, SCAR-MarBIN V2.0 is ready for a large scale test drive. We have developed a completely new data portal, which we hope you will find more attractive, more intuitive and more powerful. Please bear in mind that this is still a BETA version, and that some fine-tuning might still be needed. We count on your feedback to help us improve our tool. Visit the SCAR-MarBIN V2.Obeta website at its temporary address.

For the record, at the end of IPY (31 March 2009), SCAR-MarBIN has reached and surpassed all of its objectives:

Read the press release. A poster and brochure are also available for download. An article, 'Timely information about Antarctic marine biodiversity', will be published in Nature in the next few weeks.

News from SCAR-MarBIN

The latest issue of the SCAR-MarBIN newsletter is also available for download. The contents are:

View the latest issue of the Newsletter (size: 10MB).

SCAR's Review of Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment available for comment

We ask for comments on the penultimate draft of SCAR's Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment review, which you can download from the ACCE web site. Please feel free to download the chapters, and to then use the Track Changes option of MS Word to add or delete text and references, so that we can see clearly what you are suggesting in the way of improvements. If you make changes, please then delete all but the numbered section in which you made your changes, and return that numbered section to John Turner at jtu@bas.ac.uk. This will help us to see where your comments belong, and at the same time keep to a minimum the transfer of large files.

To speed publication it would be appreciated if you would provide your feedback no later than April 30.

View SCAR's Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment review

SCAR Seeks New Executive Director

The SCAR Executive Director retires at the end of March 2010. The advert for this position and the further particulars describing it can be found on the SCAR web site home page. The advert will also shortly appear in New Scientist and Nature.

365 days Under Antarctic Ice

1st July 1957 marked the beginning of the International Geophysical Year. The scientific world decided to explore the Antarctic. Twelve nations would join efforts to initiate a vast research programme aimed at penetrating the mysteries of the white continent. Three Frenchmen, Jacques Dubois, a meteorologist, Roland Schlich, a geophysicist, and Claude Lorius a glaciologist, occupied the Charcot Station, built near the South magnetic pole and located 320 km from the coast, for a whole year without any possibility of relief. They wintered from January 1957 to January 1958 in an aluminium hut only 24 m2 in size, buried under the ice.

Today, Roland Schlich of the School and Observatory of Earth Sciences, Strasbourg and Claude Lorius of the Laboratory of Glaciology and Geophysics of the Environment, Grenoble, are the last witnesses of this wintering and they remember . . .

365 days Under Antarctic Ice, is a film produced from footage filmed 50 years ago and it traces this human and scientific adventure, thanks to the evidence and unpublished documents from the time. The English version of the film is sponsored jointly by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and SCAR and will be screened at the next EGU 2009 General Assembly in Vienna (US1 Session: Union Award Presentation and Medal Lectures on Wednesday 22 April 2009 13h30, Room D).

View the Film poster

SCAR's Education and Training links

The Education and Training section of the SCAR website has been greatly improved recently, with the creation of a new page for Antarctic Education Websites. The page has links to education websites from around the world and everyone, from children and non-scientists to experienced polar researchers, should find something of interest to them. Although the majority of sites listed are in English, there are a number of sites in other languages. The SCAR Secretariat would welcome suggestions of other websites to be included, particularly those in other languages.

News from SCAR's EBA (Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic) programme

The third issue of the EBA Newsletter (March 2009) is now available on the Life Sciences page.
View the EBA Newsletter.

SCAR's Census of Antarctic Marine Life finds 1000 new species

The Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) - a SCAR programme, an IPY programme, and part of the global Census of Marine Life - found some 7500 animal species, 1000 more than were known before. Surprisingly, some 235 species were found to be common to both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

For more details, read the full ScienceNews article.

2008 SCAR Medalist Claude Lorius awarded Blue Planet Prize

Dr Claude Lorius, winner of the 2008 SCAR Medal for International Scientific Coordination, has been recognised with another international award, the prestigious annual Blue Planet Prize of the Asahi Glass Foundation. Dr Lorius received the prize at a ceremony in Tokyo on 12 November 2008, in recognition of his contribution towards disclosing past climate change based on polar ice sheet core analysis. He discovered the relation between climate change during glacial and interglacial periods and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, indicating its current unprecedentedly high level and warning of consequent global warming.

Dr Lorius, along with the other 2008 prize recipient Professor Jose Goldemberg from Brazil, was selected from a total of 104 nominated candidates. The day after the award ceremony, Dr Lorius gave a commemorative lecture entitled 'Climate and Environment – 50 years of adventures and research in Antarctica'.

For full details of the award and commemorative lectures, please see the Blue Planet Prize website.

SCAR Submits 10 papers to 32nd ATCM and 12th CEP meetings

The SCAR papers for the 32nd ATCM and 12th CEP meetings are now on the XXXII ATCM Papers page of the SCAR web site. The list includes one submitted through SCAR by the IPY International Project Office (WP 48).

Dates fixed for SCAR XXXI meeting in Buenos Aires in 2010

The SCAR Science Business Sessions will take place on Friday 30 July through Monday 2 August 2010, to be followed by the SCAR Open Science Conference on Tuesday 3 August through Friday 6 August. The SCAR Delegates will meet on Monday 9 August through Wednesday 11 August 2010. Further details will follow as they become available.

SCAR President Makes Historic Visit to King George Island

The SCAR President recently completed an unprecedented tour of SCAR member nation scientific stations on King George Island. President Chuck Kennicutt was a member of a delegation of distinguished visitors that accompanied the Instituto Antarctico Uruguayo (IAU) to Artigas Base, King George Island. The Delegation was led by General Domingo Montaldo (Director of IAU) and Admiral Juan Fernandez, Commandant of the Uruguayan Navy. During the visit, Uruguay reopened its second scientific base in the region, Científica Antártica T/N Ruperto Elichiribehety (ECARE). During the 8-day stay, the SCAR President took the opportunity to visit Korea's King Sejong Station, China's Great Wall Station, Chile's Escudero Station, and Russia's Bellingshausen Station. At each station researchers and scientists were available to discuss on-going and planned research activities. Several of the stations are currently undergoing significant expansions and improvements in infrastructure, support facilities, and laboratories. The SCAR President noted that "…the visit provided me with a better understanding and appreciation for the capabilities in the King George Island area. There is great potential for cooperation and partnerships among SCAR nations with programs and facilities in the region."

One objective of the SCAR visit was to encourage and promote partnerships and coordination in the region. Extensive cooperation is already occurring and provides a solid basis for even greater synergy amongst programmes. In addition to nationals conducting research at each station, there were also guest scientists from Germany, Venezuela, Brazil, New Zealand and Switzerland. The visiting delegation also encountered many instances of shared logistics and support that are a model for future collaboration in the region. One of SCAR's missions is to assist as appropriate in facilitating scientific partnerships among SCAR nations in ways that are mutually beneficial. Toward this end, SCAR has organized a King George Island Expert Group to consider how scientific programmes in the region might more effectively contribute to SCAR scientific initiatives. The topic of SCAR and King George Island science will be discussed at COMNAP's annual meeting in August 2009 in Punta Arenas, Chile. Kennicutt noted that "SCAR has no desire to intervene or comment on the national scientific priorities of its member nations, but SCAR can serve a role in enhancing communication and cooperation among countries when common interests are being pursued in the same or similar locations. The concentration of facilities, logistics, capabilities, research personnel, and scientific programs in the King George Island region is one-of-a-kind in the world and we should explore how these capabilities can best benefit Antarctic science in general and enhance national contributions to SCAR scientific activities."

The President also noted that "…everywhere we went, we were welcomed by enthusiastic and dedicated young scientists conducting cutting-edge research in some of the most modern, remote facilities in the world. It is abundantly clear that Antarctic science is healthy, pursuing some of the most societal-relevant research of any scientific community, and engaging some of the brightest minds that our nations have to offer. The future is indeed bright for Antarctic science and international collaboration!"

SCAR Education and Training Webpages

SCAR has recently updated its Education and Training web pages to include links to facts about Antarctica, Antarctic education websites (from school to higher education), information for Early Career Scientists and SCAR strategic documents on capacity building, education and training. The web pages can be accessed via the Education and Training link.

SCAR sponsors International Symposium on Glaciology

SCAR is co-sponsoring,with the International Glaciological Society (IGS), the International Symposium on Glaciology in the International Polar Year, which takes place at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, from July 27-31 2009. Full details are contained in the Second Circular. More information is available from the Symposium website. Abstracts should if possible be submitted by March 20, 2009. Note that it is possible to arrange SCAR sessions or workshops within the bounds of the meeting.

Subglacial Antarctic Lake News from the IPY

The following article was released on the IPY Media web page as part of the celebrations of the end of the IPY. It highlights SCAR's Subglacial Antarctic Lake Exploration programme (SALE). For details, visit the 'First Antarctic Subglacial Lake Entry on the Horizon' news item.

SCAR announces the launch of its 2009-10 Fellowship Programme

SCAR is launching its 2009-10 Fellowship Programme, which this year is in two parts:

  1. the Standard SCAR Fellowship - for postgraduate and/or post- doctoral researchers from within the 35 SCAR Member countries to undertake research at an institute in another SCAR country.
  2. SCAR/IPF/IAI/UNEP Sixth Continent Initiative Fellowships - for postgraduate and/or post-doctoral researchers from within the 35 SCAR Member countries, or from non-traditional polar countries, to undertake research and development activities in the Antarctic.

The SCAR Fellowship Programme is designed to encourage the active involvement of early career scientists and engineers in Antarctic
scientific research, and to strengthen international capacity and cooperation in Antarctic research. Please could you encourage candidates to apply to this scheme, which has proved very successful to date.

For further details, please go to the SCAR Fellowships page. Note that the deadline for submissions is the 15th of May.

News from SCAR's GeoSciences Group

The latest issue of GeoReach, the newsletter of the GeoSciences Standing Scientific Group, is now available on the GeoSciences page.
View the February 2009 GeoReach issue.

SCAR Annual Report published

The SCAR Annual Report for 2008 has been published as Bulletin 170 and is now available on the Bulletins page of the SCAR website.

New SCAR Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) Poster

A new SALE poster is available from the SALE website. Both high resolution and low resolution versions are available.

SALE is a SCAR programme that brings together an international confederation of scientists dedicated to understanding the interplay of biological, geological, chemical, glaciological, and physical processes within subglacial environments.

CODATA and SCAR Partner In Polar Data and Information Commons

The ad-hoc group on data management is currently finalising the SCAR Data and Information Strategy, to be presented to EXCOM for endorsement at its August 2009 meeting in Punta Arenas. Following endorsement of the Strategy, work will begin on an implementation plan. Fortuitously CODATA, an ICSU body concerned with scientific data management, was recently awarded a (30,000 Euro) ICSU grant to pursue development of a Polar Data and Information Commons during 2009. SCAR was a partner in the grant proposal and will work with CODATA in pursuing development of an implementation plan for a bipolar approach to data management. SCAR's requirements should form a subset within this over-arching plan. The other key partners in the CODATA proposal were the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the IPY International Programme Office, the International Arctic Council (IASC), the World Data System Transition Team, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. The overall objective of the CODATA project is to set the foundations for establishing a sustainable, long-term framework for the preservation of, and access to polar data.

ASPeCt Sea-Ice Database Application

ASPeCt (Antarctic Sea Ice Processes and Climate) is an expert group on multi-disciplinary Antarctic sea ice zone research within the SCAR Physical Sciences programme. Established in 1996, ASPeCt has the key objective of improving our understanding of the Antarctic sea ice zone through focussed and ongoing research field programmes, remote sensing and numerical modelling. The Australian Antarctic Data Centre now archives in situ data on Antarctic sea ice and snow cover properties. This includes data from thickness transects across ice floes, snow pits and ice cores. Visit the Australian Antarctic Data Centre website (best viewed with Mosaic or IE 7.0).

Data from Australian, Japanese, German and US expeditions are currently available. Data can also be contributed online using the excel proforma available from the site.

Ice oceans 'are not poles apart'

Polar bears and penguins may live at opposite poles, but Census of Marine Life explorers have found that hundreds of identical species thrive in both the Arctic and Antarctic. Researchers in the north and south were startled to find that the polar oceans share 235 species despite an 11,000 kilometre gap. They documented changes in species distribution as warmer oceans spur migration. United by a high-speed current, Antarctic benthos is revealed as a single bioregion. Smaller species are replacing larger ones in some Arctic waters. These results from IPY programmes are milestones towards a historic first global oceans Census, the results of which are due to be published in October 2010. This news would simply not have been possible without the great work of so many Census scientists, especially on SCAR's Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML).

For details and a video see the Census of Marine Life website.

Read the BBC News article.

IPY Polar Field School in Svalbard

SCAR is proud to announce the International and Interdisciplinary IPY Polar Field School in Svalbard, Norway, organised by APECS in collaboration with UNIS, UArctic and IPY Norway. We would be grateful if you could help us to advertise this exciting event by sending news of this announcement to undergraduate or masters students in your institutes.

Entitled 'An Interdisciplinary Experience in Polar Studies', the field school takes place from 15 June to 3 July 2009 at the University Centre in Svalbard. In celebration of the International Polar Year (2007-09), the course will focus on environmental change in the Arctic and Antarctic through a series of lectures and field excursions in Svalbard. Topics covered will include Glaciology, Geology, Meteorology, Oceanography, Marine/Terrestrial Biology, and the Human Dimension in Polar Regions. Applicants should be Undergraduates or Masters students, with a minimum of one year in physical/technical and/or natural sciences. The deadline for applications is 27 March 2009.

Read the course circular for more information, or visit the APECS website. For a course description and information about UNIS, visit the UNIS website. For further details, contact Dr Liz Thomas, Paleoclimatologist at the British Antarctic Survey (tel: +44 1223 221658).

Webcasts of St Petersburg Open Science Conference now available

Webcasts from the SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference, held in St Petersburg last July, are now available on the Arctic Portal website. They include the press conference, excerpts from the first two days' proceedings, and powerpoint presentations from the keynote speakers. They can be viewed by going to the webcasts section of the Arctic Portal website and clicking on SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference.

SCAR President Communicates about Achievements and Activities

In July 2008 the new SCAR President, Chuck Kennicutt, began issuing a series of monthly notes to draw attention to different issues facing SCAR or achievements by SCAR. These notes are now available via the SCAR Communications page or can be accessed directly through the Notes from the President section.