The North and South Poles

August 2010 was an active month for Canadian policy developments in the Arctic.  In keeping with this blog's July 2010 report   on numerous U.S.-related arctic news items for that month, here is a short form update on significant Canadian announcements, projects and decisions in August affecting the Canadian Arctic.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper used his five day visit to the Arctic, from August 23-27, and the run-up to that visit, to unveil several Canadian initiatives, including the Canadian national policy on the Arctic. August 20, Ottawa: Canada releases its Arctic Policy, formally titled " Statement on Canada's Arctic Foreign Policy ," which elaborates on the international component of Canada's Northern Strategy announced in 2009. August 26:  Harper annou...

It's been about a dozen years since Howard Conway and colleagues visited Antarctica's Roosevelt Island to make measurements that allowed them to estimate the deglaciation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Now, Conway will return with an international team of scientists to refine those measurements to understand how the region may respond to future warming.

What lives in the ocean? That's the central question of an international project to inventory species diversity and distribution in key marine ecosystems around the world. The data from the census includes information from 25 regions around the world including the Antarctic.

Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has come up with an ingenious way of dealing with Mary Bale, the 45-year-old British woman who was filmed tossing a cat into a rubbish bin, and then slamming the lid closed.  This is really worth reading!   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/7971345/Africa-could-teach-the-wheelie-bin-lady-a-thing-or-two.html Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Olive the otter has sadly passed away. She battled for nearly a week to recover having ingested a poisonous substance. My fear is that she was deliberately poisoned.  I will await the results of an autopsy before I comment. Thank you so much to Dr Stevens and his staff who worked so hard to try and save her. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

A journalist asked me recently: "When are you going to retire from swimming?  How long can you carry this on swimming like this?"   Retire!?  Come-on, I am only 40 years old.  I want to swim until my very last day – because I love swimming.  But most importantly, swimming is the vehicle, with which I campaign to protect our environment.  So I am already planning my next expedition - and it will always be harder than the one before... Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch to find out how the poisoned Otter, my wife rescued, is. Olive (as she has been named) has made a good recovery - but she is still too frail to be released. Here is a photo of Olive’s little swimming pool. In the meantime the authorities are investigating how she got poisoned.  Watch this space.   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

How do Weddell seals behave and survive when the polar night dominates and when there is little light for hunting under the ice? That question is at the heart of a research project that will track the Antarctic predator during the late winter.

Amanda H. Fricker was recently recognized for her achievements in polar science when she was awarded the 2010 Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica.

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It's good to see that a national committee has been set up to tackle rhino poaching in South Africa. Poachers have slaughtered 173 rhinos since the beginning of the year for their horns. They are used in parts of Asia and Africa in traditional medicines and for decorative purposes. What type of world will we live in if we allow the rhino to be hunted into extinction? If we do not take a stand here - first the rhinos will be gone, then the tigers, then the elephants. Then we will shrug our shoulders when the rainforests are hacked down .... There needs to be a national debate on the best way to tackle the problem. What will really work? A "shoot-to-kill" policy with respect to poachers? Better fencing and anti-poaching patrolling? An education campaign at the e...

My wife found a Cape Clawless Otter lying motionless next to the road, near the Table Mountain National Park, yesterday.  She picked it up, and took it to the vet.  The vet thinks it must have ingested something toxic, as it was frothing at the mouth.  So he put up a drip and has given her charcoal to eat – to try and clean out her system.  She survived the night – but she is still crucially sick.   How could this happen right next to a National Park, I thought?  But it is the same in the Arctic.  One thinks of the Arctic as a pristine environment.  It isn’t.  There are all sorts of contaminants being carried by ocean currents and in the air across the Arctic.  And they move up the food chain and kill w...

Check it out...    http://bit.ly/aWvvqs Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Researchers and technicians from around the country, including young scientists working on their doctorates, spent part of their summer at the National Ice Core Lab in Denver helping to measure, catalog and cut pieces of an ice core drilled in West Antarctica that scientists will use to understand both past and future climate change.

Twenty years ago, Kendrick Taylor and his colleagues first conceived of drilling for a deep ice core in the middle of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) while working to extract one in Greenland. Now they're on the cusp of completing the project, which promises to offer new insights into climate change research.

The end of summer is approaching in the Arctic; temperatures are dropping and melt is ending in the high latitudes. Yet summer is not quite over in the lower latitudes of the Arctic Ocean, where sea ice extent continues to decline.

I gave a speech recently at the TED Global conference on protecting the environment.  Over 200,000 people have now watched it.  I would be very grateful if someone could please help translate it into German, Spanish, Hindi or Russian, so we can keep spreading the word.  It is just 9 minutes and the transcript is here:   http://bit.ly/9x6gCd  Thanks! Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Check out this piece in the Irish Times: http://bit.ly/bhRpZY Do we really need any more evidence that climate change is happening? Permalink | Leave a comment  »

It's fantastic to see the Scots have reintroduced beaver to their country. But when will they have the courage to reintroduce wolves and all the other animals which were wiped out?  How about a great big National Park in Scotland with all these animals.  "Re-wilding" has worked very successfully in South Africa and other countries ... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-10951209 Photo from: bbc.co.uk Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I wonder how many people honestly believe Lord Browne when he says did not discuss the Lockerbie bomber's release ...  after all did he not resign because he was found to be lying to the Court about his personal life?  Why must we believe him now? http://bbc.in/9uqGGx Permalink | Leave a comment  »

An international team of scientists used high-resolution satellite imagery to trace the most accurate map to date of Antarctica's grounding line, which is a key step in helping determine how much of the continent's ice is contributing to sea-level rise.

Adelie penguins living at the far southern extreme of their geographic range in Antarctica migrate an average of about 13,000 kilometers during the year as they follow the sun from their breeding colonies to winter foraging grounds and back again.

The world’s leading climate research centres say 2010 is the hottest year since record keeping began 130 years ago. Scientists in dozens of countries have also concluded that the past ten years were the warmest ever. The floods in Pakistan and landslides in China that killed hundreds of people as well as the break-up of a 260-square kilometre chunk of ice in the Arctic are reinforcing beliefs that climate change is accelerating and causing extreme weather and natural disasters.   On Thursday’s Riz Khan we ask: Are we reaching the tipping point in the fight against global warming?   Joining the show will be extreme cold-water swimmer and environmental activist Lewis Pugh who swam in the icy waters of the North Pole and in a freezing Himalayan lake -...

Next week I will be giving speeches and signing books at the following venues in South Africa.  Do join me 17 August - Johannesburg 17h30 : Exclusive Books, Melrose Arch                                 18 August – Durban 18h00 : Exclusive Books, Pavilion Mall   19 August – Natal Midlands 12h30 : Exclusive Books, Midlands Mall                                        20 August – Port Elizabeth 07...

Though still under construction, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole is already delivering scientific results, including an early finding about a phenomenon the telescope was not even designed to study.

Arctic sea ice extent averaged for July was the second lowest in the satellite record, after 2007. After a slowdown in the rate of ice loss, the old, thick ice that moved into the southern Beaufort Sea last winter is beginning to melt out.

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July was a busy month in the United States for Arctic and oceans related matters.  Herewith, a tweet-like survey of some highlights, from back to front: July 26:   Final preparations are underway for this year's continuation of US mapping efforts on the Arctic extended continental shelf (ECS). The 2010 ECS Project mapping cruise, for which the US Geological Survey is the science lead, is scheduled from August 2 - September 6, 2010, on the USCGC Healy.  The Healy will travel in tandem again this year with the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker the  Louis S. St.-Laurent for part of the cruise, as reported in the USGS press release July 22:  US and Canadian officials met quietly in Ottawa to discuss resolving the maritime boundary dispute in the Beaufor...

The rate of ice loss slowed in the first half of July, primarily because of a change in atmospheric circulation.

http://bit.ly/dklCpc   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

When an international team of scientists lands at McMurdo Station in early August 2010, it will be dark and cold as only an Antarctic winter can be. And that's a good thing if you're interested in learning about what's happening in the atmosphere above the continent at one of the harshest times of the year.

"The increased accessibility of the Arctic, with its energy and mineral resources, new fisheries, shortened sea routes, and access to rivers flowing north to the Arctic, is pushing Russia to become a maritime state. As it progresses, Russia will no longer be susceptible to geographic isolation or encirclement. At the same time, these changes will require Russia to become more closely integrated into global commercial and financial networks, to welcome international business involvement, and to participate in international bodies that harmonize international shipping, safety, security, and environmental regulations."      Caitlyn L. Antrim, The Next Geographical Pivot: The Russian Arctic in the Twenty-first Century , Naval War College Review, Summer 2010, Vol. 63, No....

Adelie penguins across parts of the northwestern Antarctic Peninsula don't appear to be getting a balanced diet these days. What's missing? A sardine-sized fish called Pleuragramma antarcticum, more commonly referred to as the Antarctic silverfish. A team of scientists recently investigated the mystery.

Average June ice extent was the lowest in the satellite data record, from 1979 to 2010. Arctic air temperatures were higher than normal, and Arctic sea ice continued to decline at a fast pace.

The National Science Foundation's Lisa Clough joined more than 2,300 polar scientists in one place at the International Polar Year (IPY) Oslo Science Conference in June 2010. It promised to be a conference unlike any other before it. Clough writes on how the IPY delivered.

Underwater robots and marine animals outfitted with scientific sensors are part of a proposed strategy for monitoring polar oceans into the 21st century, particularly a stretch of sea along the western Antarctic Peninsula, which is undergoing rapid climate changes.

Last week I launched my autobiography “Achieving the Impossible” in South Africa.  I am really delighted that it has shot to Number 1 in the Bestseller List.  Thank you so much to all the bookshops who put on great events and for all the support from those who attended!   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

BDSM0023pg064.pdf (1394 KB) View this on posterous BDSM0023pg065.pdf (1344 KB) View this on posterous BDSM0023pg066.pdf (1037 KB) View this on posterous Permalink | Leave a comment  »

National Geographic Adventure : via @NatGeoSociety Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Andrew Revkin reports in today's DotEarth that " America's Heavy Icebreakers are both Broken Down ." The Polar Sea and the Polar Star are now both out of service, leaving the USCGC Healy as the only functioning U.S. icebreaker.  Healy, though not classed as a "heavy icebreaker," is very much in service and currently in the arctic ice (hourly images from above the bridge are accessible here ). Despite calls as recently as February 2010 from Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen, in one of his last major speeches before retiring from the post, indicating the urgent need for new icebreakers , the U.S. has no immediate plans for building new icebreakers and the FY 2011 Budget did not address the issue. By contrast, Canada is pursuing a $3.1 billion dollar project to build five new ice-c...

A robotic submarine, making a rare foray underneath an ice shelf, found an important clue as to why one of West Antarctica's key glaciers is draining more ice toward the sea in recent years.

Lewis will be at Kalk Bay Books tomorrow from 6 pm, The Book Lounge on Thursday from 6pm and at the Exclusive Books in the Waterfront on Friday from 6.  More details in the invite.  Tessa Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Hugh Ducklow and his colleagues aboard the research vessel Laurence M. Gould travel back in time every January. The journey is a spatial one, from north to south, but along those hundreds of kilometers, they travel from a land transformed by climate change to a region still cold and dry. Just as all of the Antarctic Peninsula was once like in the past.

Alexander Simms and two graduate students from Oklahoma State University recently returned from the beach, but they don't have the tans to show for it. Of course, beachcombing in Antarctica as winter approaches isn't exactly a holiday experience.

In May, Arctic air temperatures remained above average, and sea ice extent declined at a rapid pace. However, conditions at the end of the melt season will depend on the weather and wind patterns over the rest of the summer.

It's the biggest celebration for the year that still hasn't ended more than three years after it began. This month more than 2,000 scientists and others will gather in Oslo, Norway, to bring an official end to the International Polar Year.

Extreme sea ice conditions and one of the world's most powerful earthquakes bookended a two-month science expedition to the Antarctica earlier this year, ensuring few dull moments for a multidisciplinary team of scientists.

Eugene Domack was about six hours away from leaving Chile and returning to his family after working more than two months in Antarctica when the e-mails started flying. Instead, he made the difficult decision of booking a ticket out of Santiago to Concepcion, near the epicenter of one of the worst earthquakes in recorded history to help with groundbreaking research.

There are mighty forests in Antarctica. Just don't expect to see them poking through the ice and snow. The forests are underwater, composed of several species of huge brown algae. This unique marine ecosystem has been at the heart of an ongoing study for more than a decade.

A high-saline pond in Antarctica may be the source of an important greenhouse gas. Don Juan Pond in the McMurdo Dry Valleys could also offer important lessons for exploration of Mars

New technology in gene sequencing confirmed what scientists have long suspected about Orcinus orca: The large marine mammal commonly referred to as a killer whale actually represents several genetically distinct species, including at least two new ones that swim in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

Extended comment submission deadline: Friday, 25 June 2010 Download the document at: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/docs/arctic_strat_2010.pdf For further information, please go to: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/ . . . . . . . NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, requests comments on its "Arctic Vision and Strategy", which was published in April 2010 and is available here .  The full notice of this public review and comment period is available in the Federal Register and sets  June 10, 2010 deadline for submission of comments. The NOAA Arctic Vision and Strategy document (AVS) envisions an Arctic where: "o Conservation, management, and use are based on sound science and support healthy, productive, and resilient communities and ecosystems; and o ...

The icebreakers USCGC Healy and CCGS Louis S. Saint-Laurent are scheduled to sail together again this summer, continuing the bilateral Canadian-US cooperation in mapping the extended continental shelf (ECS) in the Arctic Ocean.  This summer's joint efforts will focus on the Canada Basin.  The Healy ECS mapping cruise is scheduled from August 2-September 2, 2010, so as to coincide with the Louis' schedule.The Healy's proposed cruise track and proposed cruise plan are both posted on icefloe.net  which provides science planning information for the U.S. icebreaker fleet. The U.S. Chief Scientist for HLY 1002 is Brian Edwards  of the U.S. Geological Survey, Western Coastal & Marine Geology Program . General information on the Canadian ECS effort is a...

New results from a research expedition in Antarctic waters may provide critical clues to understanding one of the most dramatic periods of climate change in Earth's history.

The average temperature at the South Pole was a bone-chilling minus 47.9 degrees Celsius (minus 54.2 Fahrenheit) in 2009. It was also the warmest year on record since 1957, when temperature records began at the South Pole.

During April, Arctic sea ice extent declined at a steady pace, remaining just below the 1979 to 2000 average. Ice extent for April 2010 was the largest for that month in the past decade.

In the same week that Russia and Norway announced their agreement on a longstanding maritime boundary dispute in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, WWF released a new iteration of its ongoing study International Governance and Regulation of the Marine Arctic [PDF]. The document released this week builds on the initial 2009 Gap Analysis and now combines three elements:  I. Overview and Gap Analysis, II. Options for Addressing Identified Gaps and III. A Proposal for a Legally Binding Instrument.   The proposed instrument seeks to move beyond the position that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and existing political and legal framework are adequate to address the rapidly changing situation in the Arctic. The Report (III.§3.2) identifies eig...

The following press release is courtesy of the IBRU  int-boundaries discussion list .  Other reports appear in  Prime-TASS , the New York Time s and the Associated Press . http://www.norwaypost.no/news/stoltenberg-a-historic-day.html BEGIN QUOTE Stoltenberg: - A historic day! Tuesday, 27 April 2010 12:03 An agreement has been reached between the Norwegian and the Russian negotiating delegations on the bilateral maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. This was annouced by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at a joint press conference with Russian President Dimitrij Medvedev on Tuesday. "This is a historic day. We have reached a breakthrough in the most important outstanding issue between Norway and ...

Scientists plan to go to the literal edge of Antarctica in hopes of learning more about its climactic past, long before ice sheets covered 98 percent of the continent's surface.

Arctic sea ice reached its maximum extent for the year on March 31 at 15.25 million square kilometers (5.89 million square miles). This was the latest date for the maximum Arctic sea ice extent since the start of the satellite record in 1979

Few photographers or filmmakers have enjoyed the sort of access to Antarctica Norbert Wu has had over the last decade or so. He recently returned to the Ice with a focus on public outreach, as part of the International Polar Year.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once wrote that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For a team of physicists hoping to learn more about the high-energy universe, the journey toward building an array of 10,000 instruments for just that purpose began this past season with a single prototype deployed on a 600-meter-thick ice shelf.

May 12, 2010 update: Canada's Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, speaking at  the 40th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas, publicly invited the United States to begin negotiations to resolve the Beaufort Sea boundary, as reported in the Montreal Gazette . As originally posted in March 2010: "Our Government will also work with other northern countries to settle boundary disagreements."          Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean,  Canada's Governor General,  March 3, 2010   Federal Speech from the Throne . The Speech from the Throne makes  no mention of specific boundary disputes but adds weight to comments from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in late February that movem...

An iceberg the size of Rhode Island collided with a glacier tongue, spawning a second berg nearly as big. Now some scientists are concerned the dislocation of ice in front of the Mertz Glacier could alter ocean currents.

The Arctic Oscillation dipped back into negative territory and remained negative through February, bringing warm temperatures to the Arctic but slowing ice movement. Antarctic sea ice hit its minimum extent.

In the early 1990s, Bill Fraser's work had focused on penguins and a few other seabirds. His field team assistant Donna Patterson-Fraser wondered why he didn't also work with the giant petrels. Now, more than 15 years later, their project with the huge predator-scavengers is the only one like it in the world.

Canada and the United States have long agreed to disagree about the location of their shared maritime boundary in the Arctic's Beaufort Sea. The disputed area involves some 6,250 square nautical miles (21,436-square kilometres) north of the Alaska/Yukon border. Diplomats from both countries consistently describe the disagreement as "well-managed." On February 17, 2010, Catherine Loubier, a spokeswoman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, told Canwest News Service that "Canada favours a resolution of the dispute. The issue has been well-managed by Canada and the U.S. and will be resolved on its own merits when both parties are ready to do so."  Speaking of the joint Canadian-U.S. continental shelf mapping cruises in summers 2008 and 2009* she obse...

It's not easy forecasting the weather in Antarctica. But thanks to the efforts from a group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that job has grown easier over the last 30 years. Matthew Lazzara thinks it can get even better.

Life on Earth hit a particularly rough patch about 250 million years ago, when most organisms perished in a mass extinction event. Some vertebrate species may have escaped to the relatively mild climate of Antarctica, scientists have recently suggested.

Despite cool temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean in January, Arctic sea ice extent continued to track below normal. By the end of January, ice extent dropped below the extent observed in January 2007. Ice extent was unusually low in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic, the one major area of the Arctic where temperatures remained warmer than normal.

The wingless fly known as Belgica antarctica lives only on the Antarctic Peninsula. You can freeze it or nearly suck away all its moisture, and it survives just fine. Scientists are now interested in learning just how it spends the dark winter months, and whether isolated populations are evolving differently, a la Darwin's famous finches.

An experiment to make some of the first sustained measurements of atmospheric and oceanic conditions surrounding a polynya in Antarctica yielded not only some interesting results but also set a flight record for unmanned aircraft.

Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal, primarily in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic. Average air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean were much higher than normal for the month, reflecting unusual atmospheric conditions. Also, a review of 2009 Arctic sea ice conditions.

Scientists conducting a "dress rehearsal" for deployment of an instrument through an ice shelf into the ocean below learned quite a bit about the system during a weeklong field test in Antarctica - making polar history and an unexpected discovery along the way.

A week before world leaders sat down for a major climate conference in Copenhagen this month, an international scientific body released the first comprehensive report on the current state of Antarctica's climate and its relationship to the rest of the globe.

Four Boulder, Colo., graduate students will go to extremes this year when they head to Antarctica for a month of field research. Their hope is to gain new experiences related to their own research interests that they can also use in the classroom to engage elementary and middle school children.

On December 14, 2009, the U.S. Interagency Ocean Policy Task Forc e released a proposed " Interim Framework for Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning " (dated December 9, 2009).  The Framework is now open for a 60-day public comment period, through Friday, February 12, 2010.*  As discussed in an earlier entry, the Task Force issued an Interim Report in September 2009, as part of its mandate to work towards a national Ocean Policy. Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning, or CMSP, is one of the nine priority areas identified in the September 2009 Interim Report (so are "Changing Conditions in the Arctic - see p. 6 of that Report). Of CMSP, the proposed Interim Framework states: "CMSP is a comprehensive, adaptive, integrated, ecosystem-based, and transparen...

In November, the average rate of Arctic sea ice growth slightly exceeded the 1979 to 2000 average growth rate for the month. However, at the end of the month, some regions, in particular the Barents Sea and Hudson Bay, still had much less ice cover than normal.

Need an ice core in an area where you may drill through bits of sand and rock? Better use a Koci Drill. Doing a little seismic work requiring numerous holes? A portable hotwater drill is probably the way to go. The engineers with the Ice Drilling Design and Operations group can meet all those needs and more.

Francis Halzen is no ordinary academic, even though his background is in theoretical physics, a realm of abstract reality where E=mc2 and Star Trek scriptwriters concoct warp drives and transporters. From his corner office in Madison, Wis., the 65-year-old scientist leads the largest single experiment on the continent of Antarctica.

Those working on issues relating to the Arctic know of the tremendous influence the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment  (ACIA) has had far beyond the Arctic since its release in 2004 by the International Arctic Science Committee  (IASC) and the Arctic Council .  A southern hemisphere equivalent has now been published. In a December 1, 2009, press release the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) publicizes one of its major contributions to the International Polar Year 2007-2008 : Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment  (ACCE).  Although the report was printed in October in order to be delivered to heads of delegation in advance of the  15th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Conference on Climate Change, and parts have...

Announced earlier this year , the U.S. Navy has now published its " Arctic Road Map ."   The Oceanographer of the Navy, Rear Admiral David Titley, discussed plans for the Roadmap at the Naval Academy last June, as part of the  3rd Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations  (his presentation is available at the symposium website).  The road map was produced by the Navy's " Task Force Climate Change ," (highlighted on National Public Radio in July 2009) which collaborates with the US Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . TO SEE ALL POSTS TO THIS BLOG, INCLUDING ALL POSTS FROM ON BOARD THE HEALY (August 14-September 5, 2008) please see "BLOG ARCHIVE" in the right-hand margin.

The size of the annual ozone hole over Antarctica peaked in late September at 23.8 million square miles, slightly smaller than the North American continent, according to a news release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in November.

A large iceberg spotted about midway between Australia and Antarctica by scientists on Macquarie Island may be a distant relative of one of the big bergs that harried people and penguins earlier this decade near the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station.

Scientists who normally spend much of the austral summer in the McMurdo Dry Valleys conducting long-term studies on that polar desert ecosystem are taking their research on the road to the Transantarctic Mountains.

Findings by an international team of scientists using a telescope located at the U.S. Antarctic Program's South Pole Station show that cosmologists probably do know what they believe they know about the universe.

Sea ice extent grew throughout October, as the temperature dropped and darkness returned to the Arctic. However, a period of relatively slow ice growth early in the month kept the average ice extent low

By studying the tissue remains of penguins in Antarctica, scientists are not only learning more about the modern diet of the continent's iconic seabird but also what was on the menu thousands of years ago. And that information can provide insight into past climate and how penguins could respond to future changes.

An international group of scientists contributed to the peer-reviewed annual Arctic Report Card , issued this month under the auspices of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) and working groups within the Arctic Council -- the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program ( AMAP ),  Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna ( CAFF ), and Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program ( CBMP ).  The Report Card summary notes the following key points for 2009: " Atmosphere Large scale wind patterns impacted by loss of summer sea ice Sea Ice Multi-year sea ice is being replaced by first year sea ice Ocean Upper ocean remains warm and less salty Land Increased runoff in Siberia, less snow in North America Greenland Ice sheet loss c...

A satellite launched by NASA in 2003 to keep an eye on the massive ice sheets that cover the polar regions will soon reach the end of its operational lifetime. Launch of a new satellite is about six years away. But NASA has a backup plan to cover the gap - Operation Ice Bridge.

Antarctica once enjoyed summer-time temperatures that averaged 10 degrees Celsius - a climate more suited for a warm fleece than a thick parka - about 15.7 million years ago. That's the conclusion scientists drew from the discovery of a thick layer of fossils from in a sediment core drilled into the seafloor of McMurdo Sound in 2007.

There's not much in the ice-covered lakes in the McMurdo Dry Valleys to interest anglers looking to land the big one. But for scientists who want to know more about some of Earth's earliest organisms - and, by extension, to recognize what life may look like on other planets - those unique ecosystems represent a useful portal to the past.

A team of U.S. and British scientists braved lions and hyenas in East Africa to extract microfossils in samples of rocks, which helped them link declining levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the formation of an ice sheet on Antarctica about 34 million years ago.

At the end of the Arctic summer, more ice cover remained this year than during the previous record-setting low years of 2007 and 2008. However, sea ice has not recovered to previous levels.

The September 2009 Interim Report * of the U.S. Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force proposes a National Ocean Policy (pp. 13-17), and identifies "Changing Conditions in the Arctic" (pp. 7, 26, 37) as one of nine priority areas for which strategic action plans should be developed (p. 28). The proposed Policy incorporates the "precautionary approach" and "best available science" among its principles. The Interim Report is open for a 30-day public review and comment period, which ends October 16, 2009. *NOTE: If the URL for the Interim Report is not responsive, NOAA summarizes some of the report's highlights here . In the case of the Arctic, the Interim Report calls for the strategic action plan to address "Improvement of the scientific understanding of the Arctic system and ...

It took the EPICA project more than five field seasons to drill down into 850,000 years of climate history. Andrei Kurbatov and his colleagues believe that they can retrieve a nearly limitless supply of ice for climate research that dates back at least 2.5 million years - located right at the surface and retrievable in a single season.

Field researchers in Antarctica have returned with more than 17,500 meteorites over the 30-plus years that the extraterrestrial material has been collected from the frozen continent. Yet meteorite science is still in its infancy, and the collected rocks still hold plenty of surprises that could shape our understanding of the solar system.

BBC and the Discovery Channel have teamed once again on a new documentary series. Filming on "Frozen Planet" began last year, and a team of filmmakers will head to McMurdo Station and beyond this summer field season with the support of the National Science Foundation.

Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2009. This year's minimum is the third-lowest extent since the start of satellite measurements in 1979.

Atmospheric circulation patterns in August helped spread out sea ice, slowing ice loss in most regions of the Arctic. Despite slower rate of ice loss this month, ice extent has reached the third-lowest extent in the satellite record.

On the midnight watch we passed again by the seamount discovered last week: Polar stereographic image (75deg N), 6X vertical exaggeration, measured in meters. For other images visit LDEO To chart our course we combine information from a variety of maps and data sources. Very little of the historical information we rely on was produced with GPS or the kind of multibeam echosounder equipment we are mapping with on HEALY, which provides very detailed images of the areas being mapped. Thus, last week we had only a previous contour line to indicate that a small rise might protrude from the seafloor in that spot. The earlier maps gave no indication that the feature would rise more than 1,000 meters or .6 miles from the seafloor, which is required for a seamount. Christ...

A year ago, on the HLY0805 leg of Arctic Summer West, after three weeks we had completed our mapping for the summer and were preparing to pack up and disembark. This year, as we enter our fourth week on board HEALY for 0905, we still have the luxury of two and half weeks to continue our work with the Canadian LOUIS S. ST-LAURENT. I continue to marvel at how different one day is from the next, even as we keep a routine watch and regimented daily schedule. And even as the weather has been an almost unbroken string of fog-filled days and nights. Visibility waxes and wanes, but a number of you following the photos on the Aloft Con camera (see link upper right) have commented on the, well, "consistency" of our weather. Left: The Louis S. St-Laurent seen through the fog The weather is in...

During the first half of August, Arctic ice extent declined more slowly because of a change in atmospheric conditions. It is now unlikely that 2009 will see a record low extent, but the minimum summer ice extent will still be much lower than the 1979 to 2000 average.

The Louis S. St. Laurent and the Healy are now underway together, having rendezvoused on August 10th. Three members of the Healy science crew are blogging on day-to-day science operations on board: Barbara Moore , for the Extended Continental Shelf Interagency Task Force, Christine Hedges , a NOAA Teacher at Sea, and Jon Pazol for the Armada Project. Being surrounded again by marine geophysicists is a good reminder of the ways in which our different disciplines see the world. An excellent piece in the August 4, 2009 EoS, How Geoscientists Think and Learn (and the Supplementary Material published online) is especially illuminating with respect to how their spatial and temporal perceptions differ from the general population, emphasizing perceptions of geological time, spatial thinki...

Dear Readers, Greetings from Barrow (more specifically from BASC and the Ilisagvik cafeteria), where we are preparing to transfer to HEALY today, for its 09-05 cruise. Many operations in and around Barrow have been delayed by forest fires near Fairbanks and the ensuing transport-domino effect up and down Alaska's airways. First, thank you for your enthusiastic support over the last year. You have visited from many places around the U.S. and the globe. Because my postings will become less regular once we are on board, and through mid-September when we are scheduled to disembark, I wanted to take time now to thank you for reading along since I began this weblog one year ago, as we embarked on Healy 08-05. Over the next few weeks my focus will be more on science operations o...

Arctic sea ice extent for the month of July was the third lowest for that month in the satellite record, after 2007 and 2006. The average rate of melt in July 2009 was nearly identical to that of July 2007.

The Canadian Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Natural Resources and Fisheries and the U.S. Department of State, Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, have released the details of the joint icebreaker mission to map portions of the Arctic Ocean continental shelf (reported on in last week's entry ).  See the State Department announcement and reports of the Canadian statement.   Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Natural Resources Lisa Raitt and Fisheries Minister Gail Shea all emphasized the exceptional partnership between the two countries, Shea also touching on the millions of dollars each country saves by working together on mapping the Arctic Ocean. Readers who also subscribe to Caitlyn Antrim's Ocean Law Daily will already know of the new Canadia...

During the first half of July, Arctic sea ice extent declined more quickly than in 2008, but not as fast as in 2007. As in recent years, melt onset was earlier than the 1979 to 2000 average.

The Canadian Coast Guard Cutter Louis S. St-Laurent is scheduled to embark Halifax , Nova Scotia, on Monday, July 20, en route to an early August rendezvous with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy (WAGB-20) in the Arctic Ocean.  There the two vessels will begin their second joint  Canadian - United States mission to map the Arctic Ocean under the process established by Article 76 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).  The Healy left its home port of Seattle earlier this month and is currently (July 18) transiting from the Gulf of Alaska along the Aleutian Peninsula to the Bering Sea. Both ships can be tracked online, the Louis here and the Healy here . Accounts of the 2008 joint cruise are available from the U.S. Geological Survey ( Jon Childs and Debo...

The Barents Observer reported July 6, 2009, on the joint commission created by Presidents Medvedev and Obama as part of the latter's visit this week to the Russian Federation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will serve as Commission Coordinators, overseeing its 13 working groups. While the Arctic was not named specifically in either the Kremlin or White House Fact Sheets about the Commission, at least two working groups have the potential to address issues relevant to  arctic mapping and scientific cooperation.  The Energy and Environment Working Group will be headed by Sergei I. Shmatko, Minister of Energy , and Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy , and the Science and Technologies Working Group by Andrei A. Fursenko, Minister of Ed...

The Arctic is now in the midst of the summer melt season. During June, warm temperatures and southerly winds led to quickly declining ice concentration in some regions, and an atmospheric circulation pattern set up that looks similar to summer 2007.

On 22 June 2009, the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) published a noteworthy article by Alastair Cameron , "The Arctic Uncovered: Refuting the Last Colonial Grab Theory."  The article (summarized here ) appears in the institute's monthly Newsbrief and is available for purchase at the RUSI website . The article makes a short but useful contribution to correcting the rampant misconceptions in the media and elsewhere that the circumpolar Arctic states are heading for conflict or engaged in some form of land grab.  Cameron disagrees that an "energy free-for-all" is underway in the Arctic, pointing to the fact that many of the major petroleum fields identified by the USGS in recent studies are believed to be within Russia's EEZ.  He lays out the orderly legal p...

On June 12, 2009, US Representative Don Young ( R ) Alaska  introduced the HR 2865 Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment Implementation Act of 2009 in the US House of Representatives.   The  Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment  (AMSA)is a negotiated document of the  Arctic Council  approved by its Ministers at Tromsø, Norway, on April 29, 2009.   AMSA is a comprehensively researched and detailed and usefully presented study of the multiple issues arising from melting ice and increasing shipping in the Arctic Ocean.  AMSA lays out specific recommendations in three broad areas: Enhancing Arctic Marine Safety, Protecting Arctic People and the Environment, and Building the Arctic Marine Infrastructure.  Among the  "Findings" in the Bill, HR 2865, are that:  "(7) The United States h...

At the opening day of the 3rd Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval and Maritime Operations , sponsored by the National Ice Center and the US Arctic Research Commission, Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska) called for ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention in his speech to the conference, as did Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in a letter read on her behalf.  Senator Begich proposed four additional policy recommendations, including U.S. ratification of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants , designation of a US "Arctic Ambassador", more investment in arctic science and, finally, strengthening arctic infrastructure, including "replacement of America's aging ice-breakers, ensur[ing] that new Virginia class submarines are fully Arctic c...

After a slow start to the melt season, ice extent declined quickly in May. Scientists are monitoring the ice pack for signs of what will come this summer.

NSIDC has transitioned from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) F13 satellite, to the DMSP F17 satellite. Daily image updates of Arctic sea ice extent are again available.

Arctic sea ice extent declined quite slowly in April; as a result, total ice extent is now close to the mean extent for the 1979 to 2000 reference period. The thin spring ice cover nevertheless remains vulnerable to summer melt.

Arctic sea ice extent has begun its seasonal decline towards the September minimum. Ice extent through the winter was similar to that of recent years, but lower than the 1979 to 2000 average. More importantly, the melt season has begun with a substantial amount of thin first-year ice, which is vulnerable to summer melt.

Arctic sea ice extent reached its maximum extent for the year on February 28. This year's maximum was the fifth lowest in the satellite record. NSIDC will release a more detailed analysis of winter sea ice conditions during the second week of April.

Arctic sea ice extent continued to increase through the month of February, as it approaches its annual maximum. Ice extent averaged for February 2009 is the fourth lowest February in the satellite record.

Near-real-time sea ice data image updates are again available. We have switched to the SSMI Sensor on the DMSP F13 Satellite.

NSIDC has discovered a significant problem with the daily sea ice data images. The problem arose from a malfunction of the satellite sensor we use for our daily sea ice products. We have removed the most recent data and are investigating alternative data sources that will provide correct results. It is not clear when we will have data back online, but we are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

As is typical during mid-winter, sea ice extent increased overall in January; maximum extent is expected in March. However, January ice extent remained well below normal compared to the long-term record.

In this month's entry, we offer a review of the 2008 year in Arctic sea ice. We also discuss the noticeable pause in ice growth from December 12 to 19, apparently caused by an anomalous atmospheric pressure pattern combined with unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the Barents Sea.

The period of very rapid ice growth that characterized October and early November has ended. Air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean stayed well above average during November, partly because of continued heat release from the ocean to the atmosphere and partly because of a pattern of atmospheric circulation transporting warm air into the region.

As is normal for this time of year, ice extent increased sharply through most of October. However, this year, the increase was particularly fast, which contributed to above-average air temperatures near the surface.

Arctic Sea Ice Down to Second-Lowest Extent and Likely Record-Low Volume Despite cooler temperatures and ice-favoring conditions, the long-term decline continues.

Arctic sea ice extent, after reaching its seasonal minimum last week, has begun its annual cyclical increase in response to the setting sun. A cooler melt season, retention of first-year ice, and dispersive ice motion set the 2008 melt season apart from 2007.

The Arctic sea ice cover appears to have reached its minimum extent for the year. The near-record low reinforces the strong negative trend observed over the past thirty years.

Following a record rate of ice loss through the month of August, Arctic sea ice extent already stands as the second-lowest on record, further reinforcing conclusions that the Arctic sea ice cover is in a long-term state of decline.

Sea ice extent has fallen below the 2005 minimum, the second-lowest extent recorded since the dawn of the satellite era. Update: Numbers available.

Sea ice extent is declining at a fairly brisk and steady pace. Surface melt has mostly ended, but the decline will continue for two to three more weeks.

The pace of sea ice loss sharply quickened in the past ten days, triggered by a series of strong storms that broke up thin ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas.

The Arctic sea ice is now at the peak of the melt season. Although ice extent is below average, it seems less likely that extent will approach last year's record low.

Arctic sea ice extent on July 16 fell roughly between the extent for the same day in 2007 and the long-term average. The spatial pattern of summer ice loss has evolved differently from last year; this reflects the prevailing pattern of atmospheric circulation

Arctic sea ice extent for June 2008 is close to that for 2007, which went on to reach the lowest minimum since at least 1979. More notably, however, satellite data indicate that melt began significantly earlier than last year over most of the Arctic Ocean.

Arctic sea ice extent has declined through the month of May as summer approaches. Daily ice extents in May continued to be below the long-term average and approached the low levels seen at this time last year.

April extent has not fallen below the lowest April extent on record, but it is still below the long-term average. An assessment of the available evidence points to another extreme September sea ice minimum.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) has launched Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis. The site provides year-round monthly updates on Arctic sea ice conditions; the April 7 entry details maximum sea ice extent and conditions as we enter the melt season.