http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/ Science news items and articles displayed on the Antarctic Sun web site. Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/contentHandler.cfm?id=1192 en-us websupport@usap.gov Public Domain; Courtesy of the United States Antarctic Program West Antarctica remains the most climatically dynamic region of Antarctica, which continues to be largely shielded from the effects of global warming thanks to the persistence of the ozone hole. But that's likely to change before the end of the century, according to a revised report from SCAR. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2859 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2859_pigcamp-sm.jpg Aerial view of a field camp on Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf. The National Ice Core Laboratory reopened for business once again in May to prepare about 280 meters of ice drilled from a lonely, snowy region of West Antarctica for analysis by U.S. scientists studying past climate change. Ice and Snow Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2858 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2858_icecorelab-sm.jpg Slender tubes await slivers of ice that are being processed in the National Ice Core Laboratory at the Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado. A satellite image released this month by NASA shows the disintegrating Wilkins Ice Shelf is still shedding icebergs five years after news broke that a major collapse was first under way. The most recent break-up is likely not due to climate change, according to a leading scientist. Ice and Snow Thu, 30 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2857 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2857_wilkinsshelf-sm.jpg A satellite image first captured in March and released this month by NASA shows the disintegrating Wilkins Ice Shelf. There are few places left in the world where the big predators still naturally dominate their ecosystem. Except perhaps one: The Ross Sea is still relatively pristine. Its intact marine food web offers ecologists an opportunity to challenge scientific orthodoxy about ecosystem structure. The Biological World Fri, 24 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2849 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2849_fattideploy-sm.jpg Research assistant Marty Hynes works on getting FATTI ready for deployment down a hole through the sea ice into McMurdo Sound. If Captain Ahab of Moby Dick literary fame had been a scientist, it might have been an orca and not a sperm whale that drove him to madness. Not because of some antagonistic relationship, but because killer whales have proven to be a tricky animal to study. The Biological World Fri, 24 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2853 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2853_sealhunt-sm.jpg Two Type B killer whales eye a Weddell seal for lunch. The Adélie penguin boomtown known as Cape Royds went bust in the 2000s. Now there are signs that a recovery is under way. The volcanic rocky headland on Ross Island has always been a sleepy place compared to the other Adélie penguin colonies in the region. It represents the farthest south Adélies have dared to set up breeding grounds. The Biological World Fri, 24 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2854 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2854_caperoyds-lg.jpg The Adélie penguin colony at Cape Royds shows signs that the population may be bouncing back. A new study in the Journal of Climate suggests widespread warming across the Antarctic Peninsula during the fall is being influenced by atmospheric circulation patterns originating in the tropics. Oceans and Atmosphere Mon, 20 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2848 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2848_PeltierChannel-sm.jpg The Antarctic Peninsula where new research suggests that tropical influences are causing widespread warming during the autumn months. Time is ever so slowly eating away at the bad habits of the past. A decade-long environmental monitoring program at McMurdo Station is showing that contamination around the facility and the nearby marine ecosystem is holding steady or slightly decreasing. The Biological World Thu, 09 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2847 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2847_soilsample-sm.jpg Scientists Andrew Klein, left, and Steve Sweet, with Texas A&M University, collect soil samples at McMurdo Station to test for contaminants. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., is rolling back the clock on the satellite record for tracking sea ice in the polar regions. NSIDC is releasing new sea ice data from the 1960s after scanning nearly 40,000 images and stitching them together to create composite images. Ice and Snow Thu, 02 May 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2845 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2845_nimbus1image-sm.jpg The National Snow and Ice Data Center scanned close to 40,000 images from Nimbus 1 satellite data to produce the earliest satellite images of Arctic, left, and Antarctic sea ice extent in the 1960s. News emerged this week that scientists with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory likely captured evidence of the two highest-energy neutrinos ever observed. Space and Atmospheric Physics Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2843 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2843_berternie-sm.jpg A computer image of one of the two ultra-high-energy neutrino events detected by IceCube. Scientists from the United States and New Zealand, using a mix of old and new technology, found that the population size of an Adélie penguin colony on Antarctica's Beaufort Island near the southern Ross Sea increased 84 percent over a 50-year period as the ice fields retreated. Earth Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2841 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2841_beaufortisle-sm.jpg Researcher Kattie Dugger walks among nesting Adélie penguins on Beaufort Island in the Ros Sea. The Biological World Once upon a time, in the age of brick-sized mobile phones and big-hair bands, a high-precision GPS receiver was a high-priced commodity. Today, university-governed organization UNAVCO supports research around the world with these and other high-precision instruments, including Antarctica. Earth Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2840 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2840_MaczRebuild-sm.jpg High on Mount Erebus, the continuously operating GPS site, MACZ, is rebuilt with a more robust frame and other components by UNAVCO staff. A NASA satellite recently spied a remnant piece of the mighty B-15 iceberg 13 years after it first calved off the Ross Ice Shelf. B-15T was spotted floating along the Amery Ice Shelf nearly halfway around the continent from where it started. Ice and Snow Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2834 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2834_bergB15T-sm.jpg A NASA satellite caught this image on March 16 of iceberg B-15T near the Mawson Coast of East Antarctica. Marco Tedesco was recently appointed the Polar Cyberinfrastructure Program director at the National Science Foundation's Division of Polar Programs. In an interview, Tedesco talks about the potential benefits of cyberinfrastructure to the U.S. Antarctic Program. Education and Outreach Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2833 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2833_stampedesim-sm.jpg A computer simulation of Antarctic ice sheet dynamics on the new Stampede supercomputer at the University of Texas at Austin. The first couple of months of 2013 brought some unusual ice behavior in the Weddell Sea, east of the Antarctic Peninsula, as sea ice pushed northward toward warmer latitudes. The ice edge was roughly 200 to 300 kilometers north of what is normal for that time of year. Ice and Snow Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2829 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2829_weddelsea-sm.jpg The first couple of months of 2013 brought some unusual ice behavior in the Weddell Sea. Glaciologists plan to SPICE things up at the South Pole. The South Pole Ice Core (SPICE) project aims to retrieve an ice core 1,500 meters long beginning in the 2014-15 austral summer field season to reconstruct past climate to predict future changes. Ice and Snow Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2822 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2822_DonVoigtCore-sm.jpg Scientists Don Voigt examines an ice core extracted from a site in West Antarctica. A new U.S. project will extract a 1,500-meter-long ice core from near the geographic South Pole. Scientists revealed what lies underneath Antarctica's massive ice sheets in unprecedented detail in a new map that was published in the open-access journal The Cryosphere last month. Researchers say it will be an important tool in modeling future sea-level rise. Earth Thu, 07 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2824 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2824_bedmap2-sm.jpg The international Bedmap2 project reveals Antarctica's subglacial landscape in greater detail than ever before. Twenty years after an arachnid-shaped robot stalled out on its descent into the noxious crater of an Antarctic volcano, an altogether different rover could be found on the slightly safer slopes of Erebus volcano scanning for ice caves. Earth Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2818 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2818_yetierebus-sm.jpg Engineer Rebecca Williams controls Yeti, a four-wheeled robot that carries a ground-penetrating radar, on the slopes of Erebus volcano. Snow retrieved from a pit dug at the South Pole is helping scientists reconstruct past climactic cycles. Particles from the upper atmosphere trapped in a deep pile of Antarctic snow hold clear chemical traces of global meteorological events. Ice and Snow Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2821 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2821_polesnowpit-sm.jpg A scientist removes a sample from the wall of a snow pit during field work at the South Pole. It's life. But is it life as we know it? That question will be answered in the months ahead, but it appears that the first evidence that something lives in a lake covered by nearly a kilometer of ice in West Antarctica emerged at the end of January. The Biological World Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2810 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2810_lakebottom-sm.jpg The first view of the bottom of subglacial Lake Whillans. Soft lake sediments crumble as the WISSARD underwater camera touches the bottom. Earth Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Education and Outreach A pair of studies published this month in the prestigious journal Science link ozone depletion over the Antarctic to powerful changes in atmospheric and ocean circulation. Such changes may have global implications, from altering precipitation patterns to weakening the sequestration of carbon dioxide in the ocean. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 08 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2811 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2811_arthurharbour-sm.jpg Twilight in Arthur Harbor, Antarctic Peninsula. Climate change is particularly acute in this region of the world. Researchers have spent the last two field seasons tracking and studying Weddell seals on the sea ice near McMurdo Station for a project asking a very fundamental question about the world's southernmost mammal: Do seals get cold? The Biological World Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2806 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2806_weddelweighing-sm.jpg Jo-Ann Mellish, far right, helps measure a female adult Weddell seal that other researchers are outfitting with instruments. In the end, it took a little bit of magic and quite a lot of effort, but U.S. scientists announced this week that they successfully reached a lake buried nearly a kilometer below the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. a custom-made, high-powered hotwater drill reached subglacial Lake Whillans on Jan 28. The Biological World Mon, 28 Jan 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2804 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2804_wissardcamera-sm.jpg A camera captures an image of the borehole into subglacial Lake Whillans. Earth Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Education and Outreach The final push by a team of U.S. scientists to explore a lake nearly a kilometer below the ice sheet is about to begin. Their destination: subglacial Lake Whillans, a liquid body of water trapped under about 800 meters of ice. Their mission: To make some of the first explorations of a subglacial ecosystem. The Biological World Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2793 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2793_wissarddrill-sm.jpg Image from the borehole camera at the WAIS Divide field camp in West Antarctica. Earth Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Education and Outreach A team of scientists and drilling engineers performed the Antarctic equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of the hat deep under the ice sheet. They reentered a 3,405-meter-deep borehole and collected ice along a parallel vertical path. It is the first time anyone has recovered a replicate ice core in this manner. Ice and Snow Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2788 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2788_waisborehole-sm.jpg Image from the borehole camera at the WAIS Divide field camp in West Antarctica. West Antarctica is heating up and is among the most rapidly warming regions on the planet. That's the conclusion of a team of scientists who analyzed and reconstructed a 50-year climate record that showed average temperatures have risen by as much as 3 degrees Celsius. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 28 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2786 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2786_byrdstation1957-sm.jpg Byrd Station in 1957 with Aurora Tower emerging from the roof of the buried living quarters. Some consider a trip to the South Pole as going to the literal end of the world. In that case, Craig Kulesa has found a site in Antarctica somewhere between the Earth and starry skies above. The high-altitude polar plateau is home to a new telescope observing interstellar clouds where stars are made. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 14 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2780 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images4/rss-2780_heatinstall-sm.jpg Astronomer Craig Kulesa installs the HEAT telescope at Ridge A. The three-mirror telescope focuses light to a small cryostat that holds detectors cooled to 50 Kelvin (minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit). A community of bacteria has been discovered eking out a living in Lake Vida, a subfreezing ecosystem and one of several unique lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The Biological World Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2778 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2778_fritsenvidacore-sm.jpg Desert Research Institute scientist Christian H. Fritsen examines ice core segments recovered by drilling into Lake Vida for particulate matter. Exploring the deep ocean requires expensive research vessels and complex instruments to retrieve samples from the seafloor, why travel down so far when you can do the same sort of research at a mere 20 meters in the sub-freezing waters of Antarctica? The Biological World Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2777 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2777_rorywelsh-sm.jpg Research diver Rory Welsh prepares to return to the surface through a dive hole after collecting specimens from the seafloor. James McClintock, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and National Science Foundation-funded researcher, has distilled 30 years of research and experiences in Antarctica into a new book, Lost Antarctica: Adventures in a Disappearing Land. Education and Outreach Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2770 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2770_palmerdive-sm.jpg Members of the University of Alabama at Birmingham research team dive near Palmer Station for a study on the marine ecosystem. The annual ozone hole that forms above Antarctica during the Southern Hemisphere spring is the second smallest recorded in two decades. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2769 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2769_ozonesonde-sm.jpg An ozone sonde is released from the Balloon Inflation Facility at the South Pole Station earlier this year. The biggest research program of the post-International Polar Year (IPY) era for the U.S. Antarctic Program, WISSARD brings together more than a dozen principal investigators to delve into a subglacial lake buried nearly a kilometer below the ice sheet. The Biological World Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2765 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2765_Whillans-sm.jpg Scientist Slawek Tulaczyk, left, and British colleague John Woodward set up a GPS station on the Whillans Ice Stream during previous fieldwork. Ice and Snow Earth Oceans and Atmosphere The first support staff arrived at the remote WAIS Divide field camp in West Antarctica on Oct. 26, only a day after the first LC-130 flight was scheduled to land in support of a multi-year ice-coring project. Ice and Snow Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2764 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2764_waisdivide-sm.jpg A satellite image of the WAIS Divide field camp captured on Oct. 14, 2012. There are few places in Antarctica that have been studied as long as Mount Erebus, with continuous research atop of the active volcano stretching across four decades. But one of its most mysterious phenomena is only recently drawing attention by scientists. Earth Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2757 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2757_erebuscaves-sm.jpg Scientists William McIntosh, left, and Aaron Curtis explore Hut Cave, one of more than 100 subterranean systems formed by Mount Erebus' geothermal processes. The discovery of a lava lake on Mount Erebus 40 years ago offered a window into the "plumbing" of Antarctica's southernmost active volcano. It turns out there are scores of peepholes into the volcano's inner workings through the ice caves and towers that form where fissures on the flanks of Mount Erebus vent gas and steam. Earth Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2760 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2760_erebussurvey-sm.jpg Scientist Aaron Curtis descends into Sauna Cave on Mount Erebus. Curtis is conducting an ongoing survey of the dozens of ice caves along the flanks of the volcano. It's cliche but true: Antarctica represents the harshest environment on the planet. That offers a hint about the nature of the research under way by Hubert Staudigel and colleagues, who head to some of the continent's most gnarly environments to study how life ekes out a living. Earth Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2761 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2761_microbes-sm.jpg Hair-sized tunnels drilled by microbes into volcanic glass, which is a material that forms when lava cools very fast. Researchers involved in a long-term population study of Weddell seals near the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station recently reported that it had found a 29-year-old mother that had given birth to her 20th pup. The Biological World Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2762 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2762_weddellmom-sm.jpg Researchers involved in a long-term population study of Weddell seals recently reported that they had found a 29-year-old mother that had given birth to her 20th pup. Lasers: They're not just for evil geniuses with access to an aquarium filled with sharks. It turns out sending pulses of light into the sky is an excellent way to study the little-understood regions of the upper atmosphere. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 19 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2754 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2754_lidarbeams-sm.jpg Two LIDAR beams shoot out of the Arrival Heights lidar observatory during the winter at McMurdo Station. While the world's attention was focused on the record low sea ice in the Arctic and its implications for climate change, Antarctic sea ice reached a new record high, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Snow and Ice Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2750 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2750_sheathbil-sm.jpg A snowy sheathbill overlooking the ocean near Palmer Station on Anvers Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. The Arctic and Southern oceans are both high-latitude environments characterized by the seasonal ebb and flow of sea ice and the sun - but they're poles apart when it comes to the microbial communities that make their home in those frigid waters. The Biological World Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2749 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2749_amundseninice-sm.jpg The research vessel AMUNDSEN in multiyear ice during a winter expedition in the Arctic Ocean led by Connie Lovejoy during the International Polar Year. The cold-loving fish that inhabit the Southern Ocean are Antarctica's version of Darwinian finches. Now, researchers are delving into molecular genetics to understand how millions of years of evolutionary adaptations will fare against changes in the Antarctic climate. The Biological World Fri, 05 Oct 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2745 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2745_fishingonLMG-sm.jpg Fishing aboard the research vessel LAURENCE M. GOULD using fish pots. Scientists are capturing Antarctic fish for experiments to learn more about how the various species may respond to climate change. It's been about 20 years since anyone attempted to follow Weddell seals through the Antarctic winter. But a multidisciplinary team of scientists is using the latest in satellite tag technology to track the movements of the world's most southerly mammals. The Biological World Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2742 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2242_weddeltagging-sm.jpg Researchers outfit a Weddell seal with a satellite tag on its head for a project tracking its behavior and movement. New data from the South Pole Telescope (SPT) indicate that the birth of the first massive galaxies that lit up the early universe was an explosive event, happening faster and ending sooner than suspected. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 14 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2737 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images3/rss-2737_sptauroras-sm.jpg Auroras shimmer above the South Pole Telescope during the winter. An iconic chinstrap penguin colony on Deception Island, a popular stop for tourists to the Antarctic Peninsula, has declined by more than 50 percent in the last 25 years. The Biological World Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2734 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2734_chinstrapcolony-sm.jpg Chinstrap penguins at Baily Head, Deception Island, off the Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers have documented at least a 50 percent decline in the population over the last 20 years. A new study by an international team of scientists in the August 30 issue of the prestigious journal Nature suggests that Antarctica could be an overlooked but important source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.. Ice and Snow Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2735 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2735_transantarcticmtns-sm.jpg The Transantarctic Mountains peak out from the vast Antarctic ice sheet. An international team of scientists recently reported that Antarctica could be an overlooked but important source of methane. Earth The world's newest ocean, only recognized as such in 2000, is the least understood by scientists thanks, in part, to its remoteness, its wild weather and often ice-choked coasts... Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2736 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2736_nbpwaves-sm.jpg Waves crash over the stern of the research vessel NATHANIEL B. PALMER. The Southern Ocean is a difficult place to work. There's typically a lag in traffic above the airspace around McMurdo Station during the month of September before the beginning of the Antarctic summer field season in October. Not so this year. Small unmanned aerial vehicles will fly around Ross Island and much farther afield for research on atmospheric dynamics in Antarctica. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 24 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2726 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2726_aeroSondeLaunch-sm.jpg An Aerosonde Mk4.4 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launches from the top of a pickup truck at the Pegasus White Ice Runway in September 2009. Scientists are returning to Antarctica this month to use the UAV and a model-airplane sized UAV to study atmospheric conditions. DNA analysis of some "little brown mushrooms" discovered on an island off the Antarctic Peninsula has found that the fruiting bodies of the fungi are extremely poisonous but relatively common, even in the extreme southern location in which they were found. The Biological World Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2723 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2723_galerinaSPCraterLake-sm.jpg The mushroom Galerina antarctica from Deception Island in the South Orkney Islands. A similar species was recently found and identified near Palmer Station. The fungi are widespread on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula and offshore islands to just south of Palmer Station. Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the universe, breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix Cluster with the National Science Foundation's South Pole Telescope and other observatories may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 17 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2722 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2722_spTelescope-sm.jpg The South Pole Telescope (SPT) in January 2012. Observations with the SPT have found a galaxy cluster that produces stars at a prodigious rate never before detected. The object also is the most powerful producer of X-rays of any known cluster and among the most massive. Large numbers of humpback whales are remaining in bays along the western Antarctic Peninsula to feast on shrimplike krill late into the Southern Hemisphere autumn season, long after their annual migrations to distant breeding grounds were believed to begin, according to new research led by Duke University. The Biological World Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2721 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2721_humpbackTagGould-sm.jpg Humpback whales breach the surface of the water near the research vessel LAURENCE M. GOULD. Note the tag on the whale in the foreground. Scientists found high numbers of whales around Antarctica at a time when the animals were thought to migrate. One of the most frigid places on the planet appears to be an ideal location to help protect humans living and working in the cold of outer space against radiation bursts from the sun. Neutron detectors at the South Pole Station appear to offer an early-warning system to detect damaging radiation associated with solar storms. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2720 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2720_poleAurora-sm.jpg An aurora over the South Pole Station during the winter season. A pair of neutron detectors located at the station appears to offer a reasonably reliable early-warning system to detect damaging radiation associated with solar storms. It's been 26 years since the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) had held one of its biannual meetings in the United States before July's gathering of about 900 scientists, national program managers, students and others in Portland, Ore. It was long overdue, according to outgoing SCAR President Mahlon "Chuck" Kennicutt II. Education and Outreach Fri, 3 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2718 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2718_scarGroup-sm.jpg About 900 scientists, students and others from more than 30 nations took part in the biennial meeting of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research in Portland, Ore., in July. It was the first time in 26 years that the nongovernmental organization met in the United States. Antarctica faces an uncertain future amidst growing pressures from global climate change and human activities - a major conservation challenge that will require a commitment from scientists, policymakers and others with interests in protecting the environmental and scientific values of the southernmost continent. Education and Outreach Fri, 3 Aug 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2719 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2719_mtWilliam-sm.jpg Mount William and surrounding glaciers around the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the fastest warming regions of the planet. More of the Antarctic may undergo additional climate and human pressures in the coming decades, according to an assessment by an international panel of researchers published in a Science journal policy paper. Not much more than a large, icy bump on the northern edge of the nearly Texas-sized Ross Ice Shelf, Roosevelt Island is the site of an international research campaign to learn more about the climate and deglaciation history of the region for the last 30,000 years or more. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Jul 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2708 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2708_RICEscenic-sm.jpg A big beautiful sky dominates the horizon on Roosevelt Island, with the RICE field camp at the bottom left. Scientists are drilling an ice core about 750 meters deep in an effort to reconstruct the climate of the Ross Sea region. Another group is taking measurements with GPS and radar to map the deglaciation of the ice sheet that once protruded into the Ross Sea thousands of years ago. Microscopic bacteria in the ocean play a big role in the food web and carbon cycle, two interrelated processes that affect life on Earth. How abundant and active a particular subgroup of sun-loving microbes is in the Southern Ocean remains a mystery that a team of researchers is trying to unlock. The Biological World Fri, 6 Jul 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2705 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2705_microbesPalmerSampling-sm.jpg Mrinalini Nikrad, Tommy Purcell, Jill Mikucki and Julie Schram, from left, sample the sunlit surface layer of the coastal ocean along the western Antarctic Peninsula to collect marine microbes. Researchers are interested in the role of sun-loving bacteria in the carbon cycle and food web. If global temperatures continue to rise, an emperor penguin colony in East Antarctica may eventually disappear, according to a new study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The team suggests that the decline of the Terre Adélie colony may be linked to shrinking sea ice. The Biological World Fri, 6 Jul 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2706 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2706_penguinGroup-sm.jpg A group of emperor penguin adults make their way across sea ice in Terre Adélie in East Antarctica. The seabirds rely on sea ice for breeding and raising their young, but declines in sea ice from warmer temperature may be affecting the colony, according to new research. Scientists have been extracting ice cores from Antarctica for the better part of 50 years. But no one has tried to do what a team of researchers and engineers propose in one of the snowiest regions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet: Re-enter an existing borehole and recover replicate ice cores. Ice and Snow Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2697 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2697_waisDisc-sm.jpg The Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) drill tilts toward the borehole for coring operations during the 2010-11 field season. Later this year, the drill will be modified with a new replicate coring system to extract ice cores from the side of the present borehole that are of interest to scientists, such as abrupt climate change events. It took a month to prepare for a week's worth of work at the National Ice Core Laboratory. It was a long time in coming. But the final sections of ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide were sliced and diced in mid-June, with samples of ancient ice destined for labs across the country to analyze the paleoclimate record. Ice and Snow Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2703 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2703_waisFrontOfLine-sm.jpg A section of ice core from the WAIS Divide borehole awaits processing at the National Ice Core Laboratory. About 75 meters of ice from the bottom of the hole arrived in Denver earlier this month. Samples will be sent all over the country. Ancient Antarctica was warmer and wetter than previously suspected, enough to support vegetation along its edges. Researchers came to that conclusion by examining plant fossils found in sediment cores taken from below the seafloor during the two-year ANtarctic Geological DRILLing Program (ANDRILL). Earth Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2694 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2694_andrillCamp-sm.jpg The ANDRILL field camp on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in 2006. Sediment cores taken the next year from under the sea ice at a similar camp yielded plant fossils that revealed a far greener Antarctica more than 15 million years ago. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory recently made headlines for delving into particle physics with the announcement that the under-ice telescope observed the highest-energy neutrino oscillations ever detected. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2690 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2690_iceCubeDomeDeployment-sm.jpg A digital optical module is lowered into the ice at the South Pole in 2010 for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. The under-ice telescope recently observed the highest-energy neutrino oscillations ever detected. The International Polar Year resulted in astounding discoveries and built new observation networks in the most remote and inhospitable places on the planet. But perhaps one its most enduring legacies won't be found in a journal or dataset: The Association of Polar Early Career Scientists has grown into a major force in cyrospheric research. Education and Outreach Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2681 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2681_hannahPtPenguin-sm.jpg José Xavier, left, and student José Seco at Hannah Point on Livingston Island off the Antarctic Peninsula study gentoo penguins during the 2011-12 field season. Xavier is one of the founding members of APECS, an organization dedicated to helping early-career polar scientists. Scientists have revealed a key cog in the biochemical machinery that allows marine algae at the base of the oceanic food web to thrive. They have discovered a previously unknown protein in algae that grabs the essential but scarce nutrient B12 out of seawater, based on studies conducted around the Southern Ocean. The Biological World Fri, 8 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2679 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2679_saitoBertrand-sm.jpg Erin Bertrand, right, studies how marine phytoplankton get, use and compete for nutrients in the ocean. She worked with her advisor, WHOI marine biogeochemist Mak Saito, left, whose lab group has been working to advance techniques using proteomics to study critical proteins in the marine environment. In 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf shattered in spectacular fashion, shocking the polar science community with the rapidity of its disintegration. A decade later, a multidisciplinary team of scientists traveled to the region of the Weddell Sea that had once been under the shadow of the ice shelf to understand the changes wrought by its disappearance. The Biological World Fri, 8 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2675 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2675_larissaBrendanReilly-sm.jpg Crewmembers aboard the NATHANIEL B. PALMER bring a kasten core on deck of the ship during the LARISSA research cruise to the Larsen Ice Shelf region earlier this year. Scientists are studying the effects wrought on the local ecosystem by the disappearance of the ice shelf. Oceans and Atmosphere Earth The Arctic crossed a disturbing threshold this past spring. And the Antarctic isn't too far behind. NOAA scientists recently announced that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere around Barrow, Alaska, reached 400 parts per million in April, the first time the greenhouse gas has been that high at a remote location. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2674 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2674_cleanAir-sm.jpg A clean air-monitoring instrument at the South Pole Station measures for CO2 and other atmospheric constituents. NOAA scientists recently reported CO2 hit 400 ppm in the Arctic. Researchers expect the South Pole's Atmospheric Research Observatory to be the last place on Earth to measure 400 ppm in about seven years. Three years after its official end, the groundbreaking discoveries of the International Polar Year have been collected in a new report sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The consensus: The historic scientific collaboration between nations was a smashing success. Education and Outreach Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2670 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2670_lacroix-sm.jpg The Lacroix Glacier flows into the Taylor Valley between the Matterhorn and Scar peaks in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. A new report on the legacies and lessons of the International Polar Year, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, was recently released. In the surface waters of the ocean, where microscopic plants called phytoplankton live, the lack of iron limits the productivity of these organisms that form the base of the food web. A team of scientists on a seven-week cruise to the Ross Sea earlier this year investigated at least four sources of the trace element. The Biological World Fri, 25 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2667 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2667_seahorse-sm.jpg PRISM participants Randy King and Dan Powers prepare to bring the SeaHorse ocean profiler aboard the research vessel NATHANIEL B PALMER during a cruise around the Ross Sea earlier this year. The McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica have proven to be an ideal natural laboratory for scientists to study ecological connections thanks to its relative simplicity. Environmental historian Adrian Howkins similarly believes that the region's relatively short and simple history makes it an excellent place to examine questions of human interactions with the natural world. The Biological World Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2666 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2666_howkins-sm.jpg Adrian Howkins pauses during a trek through the McMurdo Dry Valleys during the 2011-12 field season. An environmental historian at Colorado State University, Howkins recently joined the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program. A science team led by researchers from Brigham Young University and NASA has spent the last two field seasons in West Antarctica driving snowmobiles and pulling the latest high-tech radars hundreds of kilometers across the ice to find out just how much snow is falling. That will help future predictions of sea-level rise from ice sheets. Ice and Snow Fri, 27 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2648 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2648_seatTraverseRadars-sm.jpg Lora Koenig, left, and Clement Miege operate the two SEAT traverse radars that image the top 30 meters or so of the ice sheet. The project is seeking to verify if remote sensing data jive with on-the-ground measurements of snowfall, an important component to predict the mass balance of ice sheets and future sea-level rise. Analysis of data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector deployed deep within the ice sheet under the South Pole Station, recently provided new insight into one of the most enduring mysteries in physics, the production of cosmic rays. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2647 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2647_iceCubeDomeDeploy-sm.jpg IceCube technicians lower a cable with digital optical modules into the ice at the South Pole Station during the final year of construction in December 2010. Data from the massive neutrino detector suggest gamma-ray bursts are not a source of the high-energy particles. A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought. The results provide an important benchmark for monitoring the impact of environmental change on the population of this iconic bird. Earth Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2646 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2646_ponganisEmprorChx-sm.jpg Emperor penguin adults attend to their chicks at Cape Crozier on Ross Island in Antarctica. A new study using satellite mapping technology reveals there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought. A European Space Agency satellite has shown that one of West Antarctica's most unstable ice shelves has halved in size in the last decade since a major break-up occurred in 2002. Meanwhile, U.S. Antarctic Program scientists are engaged in a second major expedition to the region to understand the Larsen B system. Ice and Snow Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2645 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2645_capedisEarlyTower-sm.jpg Scientists assemble an AMIGOS tower on the Cape of Disappointment in November 2011. The observatory has various instruments to monitor the remnant of the Larsen B Ice Shelf, which continues to shrink dramatically, according to recent satellite data. A new study, funded by the National Science Foundation and published in the journal Nature this month, suggests that rises in global temperature follow increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The finding complements ongoing research by scientists studying a new ice core extracted from West Antarctica. Ice and Snow Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2644 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2644_waisIceSlice-sm.jpg A scientist cuts an ice core extracted from West Antarctica during the 2008-09 field season. Research on the climate record contained in the ice will help scientists refine their understanding of the relationship between temperature and CO2. A new study suggests that temperature changes follow increases in CO2. Explorers Cove is the gateway to the Taylor Valley, one of the most intensely studied areas in Antarctica. For scientist Sam Bowser, the ice-covered cove is also a portal back in time to explore a period more than half a billion years ago when the dominance of single-celled organisms suddenly ended with the rapid evolution of multicellular life. The Biological World Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2639 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2639_bowserDiveHole-sm.jpg Rifts appear along the northern shear margin of Pine Island Glacier in 2011 during a flight by NASA's IceBridge campaign. Ice shelves in West Antarctica are losing their grip onto rocky bay walls or surrounding ice, causing them to fracture and retreat inland, according to a new study. A new study examining nearly 40 years of satellite imagery has revealed that the floating ice shelves of a critical portion of West Antarctica are steadily losing their grip on adjacent bay walls, potentially amplifying an already accelerating loss of ice to the sea. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2638 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2638_pigRifts-sm.jpg Rifts appear along the northern shear margin of Pine Island Glacier in 2011 during a flight by NASA's IceBridge campaign. Ice shelves in West Antarctica are losing their grip onto rocky bay walls or surrounding ice, causing them to fracture and retreat inland, according to a new study. The world's oceans play a huge role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But that service comes at a price: The oceans are projected to become more acidic over the next century. The cold polar oceans would be the first to acidify. Three projects funded by the National Science Foundation are studying this problem in different ways in Antarctica. The Biological World Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2631 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2631_acidification-sm.jpg The world's oceans play a huge role in absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, especially as human emissions of the greenhouse gas continue to rise. But that service comes at a price: The oceans are projected to become more acidic over the next century. Most of the fish that inhabit the Southern Ocean have enjoyed a highly stable, if icy cold, environment for millions of years. Climate change threatens to not only raise the heat on these so-called icefish in the coming decades and centuries, but also alter the pH of the seawater. Will that push a species already living on the edge into dangerous waters? The Biological World Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2635 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2635_shellGame-sm.jpg Various species of Antarctic icefish, which have evolved special adaptations over millions of years living in cold polar waters, sit in an aquarium tank at McMurdo Station. Scientist Sean Place is testing whether changes in ocean temperature and pH pose a threat to these unique organisms. By the end of the 21st century, if humans keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the world's oceans may become a very inhospitable place for shell-building organisms. That has drawn a team of researchers to McMurdo Station in Antarctica to gauge the effects of ocean acidification on a purplish sea urchin and to establish a baseline for pH in polar waters. The Biological World Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2632 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2632_diverRobCollection-sm.jpg Diver Robb Robbins collects sea urchins from the seafloor in McMurdo Sound for an ocean acidification experiment being conducted by researchers at McMurdo Station. Already one of the fastest warming regions on the planet, where penguin colonies are blinking out of existence and hordes of king crabs are invading up the continental slope, the Antarctic Peninsula will likely be one of the first places where the effects of a more acidic ocean are first felt. The Biological World Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2636 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2636_peninsulaAcid-sm.jpg Scientists Kate Schoenrock, left, and Julie Schram set up the ocean acidification and temperature experiments in the Palmer Station aquarium. There are two temperature treatments maintained by circulating water baths and three pH treatments maintained by microprocessor-controlled CO2 addition in each individual container. The discovery of mushrooms near Palmer Station in Antarctica is a rare but not unheard of phenomenon, with about 20-odd species of macro-fungi known to exist on islands near the southernmost continent. Still, the find will be examined to see if the species is native to the area or part of an ongoing biological invasion caused by climate change and human activity. The Biological World Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2629 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2629_palmerAmslerMushroom-sm.jpg Mushrooms were discovered growing earlier this year on Amsler Island near Palmer Station. The discovery is a rare but not unheard of phenomenon. Still, the find will be examined to see if the species is native to the area or part of an ongoing biological invasion caused by climate change and human activity. The discovery of mushrooms near Palmer Station in Antarctica is a rare but not unheard of phenomenon, with about 20-odd species of macro-fungi known to exist on islands near the southernmost continent. Still, the find will be examined to see if the species is native to the area or part of an ongoing biological invasion caused by climate change and human activity. The Biological World Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2629 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2629_palmerAmslerMushroom-sm.jpg Mushrooms were discovered growing earlier this year on Amsler Island near Palmer Station. The discovery is a rare but not unheard of phenomenon. Still, the find will be examined to see if the species is native to the area or part of an ongoing biological invasion caused by climate change and human activity. Its five-year mission: To survey the early universe for massive galaxy clusters, a search designed to understand more about one of cosmology's greatest mysteries, dark energy. Mission complete. Now the South Pole Telescope will begin a new quest to learn about the exponential expansion of the universe right after the Big Bang called cosmic inflation. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2623 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2623_sptConstruction-sm.jpg Construction workers on a lift assemble the metal superstructure for the ground shield on the South Pole Telescope during the 2011-12 field season. The shield will eliminate ground reflection inteference as the telescope begins a new experiment on cosmic inflation. While a sensitive barometer to present-day climate change, the McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica are also proving to be a useful tool to understand climate change during the end of the last ice age. Earth Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2626 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2626_garwoodValleyIceCliff-sm.jpg A cliff section of ancient ice capped by layers of sediment in Garwood Valley stands more than 10 meters tall in most places. The ice was deposited in the valley when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet grew thousands of years ago. Permafrost geologist Joseph Levy calls the salty tale of water formation on the floor of the McMurdo Dry Valleys the story of how Antarctica got its spots. He and colleagues discovered that the salty soils in Antarctica's largest ice-free region can draw moisture out of the atmosphere to create wet patches of ground. Earth Fri, 16 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2627 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2627_wetPatches-sm.jpg Scientist Andrew Fountain samples a patch of wet, salty soil in Taylor Valley. Researchers discovered that the salty soils in the McMurdo Dry Valleys can draw moisture out of the air to create wet patches of ground. Last year, Michelle Brown stepped away from her eighth-grade classroom at O. Henry Middle School in Austin, Texas, and made her way to the icy world of Antarctica, as a participant in the PolarTREC program, which brings together polar researchers and teachers to help strengthen science curriculum in the classroom. Earth Fri, 9 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2619 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2619_brownHappyCamperTrek-sm.jpg Austin, Texas middle school teacher Michelle Brown hikes near McMurdo Station shortly after arriving in Antarctica as a participant in the PolarTREC program, which brings together polar researchers and teachers to help strengthen science curriculum in the classroom. The problem of doing long-term research in Antarctica is related to the daunting logistics: the vast distances, the unpredictable, brutally cold weather. That makes Terry Wilson's efforts to instrument, in essence, all of West Antarctica in a bid to learn more about its ice sheet and the earth below, just that much more impressive. Earth Fri, 9 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2615 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2615_gpsInstallGearSpread-sm.jpg Brian Bonnett, with IRIS PASCAL, installs GPS instruments on Fallone Nunatak in West Antarctica as part of the POLENET array. The project measures various earth properties below the ice, as well as its response to the unloading of ice over long and short periods of time. It's certainly not a flood of biblical proportions, but rising lake levels and pulses of flooding events in the McMurdo Dry Valleys are threatening established field camps and could eventually change the nature of the cold desert ecosystem. The Biological World Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2605 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2605_lkBonneyChemLabConst-sm.jpg Carpenters build a new lab building, bottom right corner, at the Lake Bonney field camp so that it will be far enough away from flooding due to the rising lake level. Scientists who study the McMurdo Dry Valleys ecosystem say warmer temperatures are causing the lakes to rise rapidly, threatening field camps and science experiments. The story of how three little penguin species are coping with significant changes in climate around the Antarctic Peninsula has followed a familiar narrative in recent years. A new study suggests the bigger regional picture involves many factors outside of the classic sea ice hypothesis. The Biological World Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2598 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2598_oceanitesForrest-sm.jpg Steve Forrest of the Oceanites/Antarctic Site Inventory team conducts a census on a subcolony of chinstrap penguins at Baily Head, Deception Island. Baily Head is home to the largest congregation of chinstraps in the world, but their numbers appear to be in steep decline. Penguins from outer space. Sounds like the title of some new B-movie science fiction film starring Vin Diesel. But polar researchers are increasingly using high-resolution imagery shot from orbiting satellites to find, count and assess the population health of penguin and seal colonies around the Antarctic. The Biological World Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2595 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2595_satelliteLynch-sm.jpg A satellite image shows chinstrap penguin colonies at Baily Head, Deception Island, in 2003. The white patches are the colonies. Researchers are using high-resolution imagery shot from satellites to find, count and assess the population health of penguin and seal colonies around the Antarctic. Reports in early February confirm that Russian scientists have penetrated a lake buried deep under an ice sheet in remote East Antarctica after about two decades of drilling. Scientists are hopeful they may find unique microorganisms in the freshwater body that have been isolated from the environment for possibly millions of years. The Biological World Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2587 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2587_vostokSowers2001-sm.jpg Russia's Vostok Station in 2001. The station was founded in December 1957 during the International Geophysical Year. Years later, scientists realized a large subglacial lake existed below. Russian researchers reportedly penetrated the lake in early February 2012. In more than four decades since Don Siniff, now a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, helped pioneer the study of Weddell seal populations, researchers have carried out their annual census despite lean budget years, summer storms and other wild extremes that come with working in Antarctica. The Biological World Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2588 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2588_garrottSealsDuo-sm.jpg Scientists Thierry Chambert, right, and Jesse DeVoe walk among Weddell Seals on the sea ice near McMurdo Station. They are part of a team conducting a long-term population dynamics study on the Weddell seal colonies in a place called Erebus Bay. A long-term study of the diving physiology of emperor penguins has learned much about the deep-diving seabirds over the decades. The project also studies population trends within the seven Ross Sea colonies, and recently tried to add the elusive leopard seal to its research. The Biological World Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2593 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2593_ponganisEmperors-sm.jpg A group of emperor penguins exits the water at Cape Washington. The birds are regularly capable of going down to depths of 500 meters for five to 12 minutes at a time. The balloon-borne Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory carries the world's most complicated high-frequency radios, but it doesn't tune into your favorite rock station. Instead, it will pick up the faint, high-frequency radio signals emitted by carbon atoms within violent interstellar clouds of gas and dust that are found in the Milky Way Galaxy. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2586 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2586_stoVehicleOutside-sm.jpg The Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory is prepared for launch from the Long Duration Balloon facility on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in January 2012. The telescope carried high-tech "radios" to tune into the violent dust clouds from where stars are born in galaxies. A method originally developed to find groundwater in Denmark might have research applications in Antarctica, from mapping the geology of a unique valley system and determining the ecological relationships with the subsurface structures to finding geothermal connections between the marine system and an active volcano. Earth Fri, 3 Feb 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2585 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2585_skyTemHeloLiftoff-sm.jpg A helicopter lifts off from the sea ice on McMurdo Sound carrying a transmitter loop capable of creating a magnetic field that can penetrate into the ground. The instrument can tell scientists the kind of material below the surface based on its conductivity or resistivity. Two climate scientists at The Ohio State University, Lonnie Thompson and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, known for their paleoclimate research using ice cores drilled from around the world, will be among nine individuals honored by The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia later this year at an awards ceremony. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2572 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2572_larissaCoresScientists-sm.jpg Ellen Mosley-Thompson, left, assists cutting an ice core drilled along the Antarctic Peninsula with Roberto Filippi and Benjamin Vicencio, during fieldwork in 2010. Mosley-Thompson and her husband Lonnie Thompson will be among nine individuals honored by The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia later this year at an awards ceremony for their paleoclimate research. A different sort of countdown was under way on New Year's Eve at a remote field camp in West Antarctica. In this case, the count literally went down to near the bottom of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, where drillers extracted about 72 more meters of ice cores in five days, reaching a final depth of 3,405 meters for the multiyear WAIS Divide Ice Core project. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2566 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2566_waisVoigt-sm.jpg Scientist Don Voigt logs the last meter of WAIS Divide ice core from a depth of 3,404 meters. The research team deepened the borehole by more than 70 meters over last year, when project personnel had completed major coring operations after five years of drilling. The project represents the deepest core ever drilled by the U.S. ice-coring community. Lasers aren't just for evil geniuses in spoof movies who want to outfit sharks with the latest in weapon technology. Scientists are using fiber-optic and laser technology to make precise temperature measurements in places as diverse as Lake Tahoe the arid soils in Nevada. Now add Antarctica to the list. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 6 Jan 2012 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2565 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2565_dtsDrill-sm.jpg Victor Zagorodnov, left, empties snow out of the drill used to core through the ice shelf at Windless Bight, while David Holland prepares for the next flight. The researchers deployed a distributed temperature sensing system to make sustained ocean temperature measurements underneath the ice. Bob Bindschadler doesn't want to spend the next few weeks at Pine Island Glacier, one of Antarctica's most inhospitable locations. But it's on glacier's floating ice shelf where he and his colleagues believe they'll learn how the ocean is changing the ice. For the glaciologist from NASA, this is ground zero for research into how Antarctica will contribute to future sea-level rise. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2558 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2558_Bob-Bindschadler-sm.jpg Robert Bindschadler, an emeritus glaciologist with NASA, was the first person in 25 years to walk on the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf in January 2008. He and a team of researchers are finally returning four years later to complete their mission: a study of the ocean 500 meters below. Ice and Snow Paul Morin and his mapmakers at the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota are doing all they can to ensure the whole world can get a good look at Antarctica by teaming up with Google. The Internet giant is putting high-resolution satellite imagery of the continent into its mapping applications. Earth Fri, 9 Dec 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2550 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2550_googleMaps-sm.jpg The Mackay Glacier Tongue in Granite Harbor is one of the features that anyone with an Internet connection can now see in sharp detail thanks to an informal partnership between the Polar Geospatial Center and Google. Scientists have described how a mountain range the size of the European Alps - but buried under Antarctica's giant ice sheet - came into existence through a process that began a billion years ago. Earth Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2546 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2546_mtnsRadar-sm.jpg Radar images of the Gamburtsev Mountains, buried deep under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, reveals chiseled peaks, some towering 4,500 feet above deep valleys. New research suggests the process that began to form the subglacial mountain range began a billion years ago. Three years after first visiting the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula to assess its stability in a rapidly changing environment, a team of scientists is headed back to the Larsen C Ice Shelf during the 2011-12 field season one last time to check on its health. The prognosis isn't good. Ice and Snow Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2545 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2545_steffenSkidoo-sm.jpg Gradate student Daniel McGrath installs the ground penetrating radar to a snowmobile at a field camp on the Larsen C Ice Shelf. The radar enables the researchers to map the underside of the ice shelf, where bands of marine water frozen to the bottom of the fresh water ice is crucial to its stability. The retreat of Antarctica's fast-flowing Thwaites Glacier is expected to speed up within 20 years, once the glacier detaches from an underwater ridge that is currently holding it back, says a new study in Geophysical Research Letters. Ice and Snow Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2544 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2544_thwaites-sm.jpg New discoveries about the seafloor topography off Antarctica's Thwaites Glaciers in West Antarctica has led scientists to predict melting will accelerate in the next 20 years. The study is the latest to confirm the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how these glaciers will behave in the near future. New research published by NOAA scientists suggests a type of Antarctic killer whale migrates north not necessarily to breed or forage but to regenerate skin tissue in a warmer environment, according to new research that documented the first long-distance migration ever reported for orcas. The Biological World Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2542 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2542_orcas-sm.jpg Two killer whales breach the surface of the water among bergy bits of ice in McMurdo Sound. New research published by NOAA scientists suggests a type of Antarctic killer whale migrate north not necessarily to breed or forage, but to regenerate skin tissue in a warmer environment. The transition from one season to the next is associated with all sorts of changes, from budding flowers and bothersome allergies to longer days and hotter nights, as colder months give way to warmer ones. One team of scientists is investigating how seasonal changes in Antarctica affects phytoplankton at the genetic level. The Biological World Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2539 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2539_phytoSeaIce-sm.jpg A team of scientists clears ice from underneath a Zodiac in an attempt to take samples farther from Palmer Station. The researchers are collecting water samples containing phytoplankton, microscopic marine organisms, to see how they respond to seasonal changes at the genetic level. A little worm that inhabits organically enriched sediment in the subfreezing waters of Antarctica may help shed light on how all organisms interact with their environment on a genetic level. The Biological World Fri, 4 Nov 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2538 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2538_wormsDiver-sm.jpg Scientist Stacy Kim collects a sediment sample under the sea ice that may contain a marine worm that researchers are using to study genetic adaptations to the cold polar environment, which may help shed light on how all organisms interact with their environment on a genetic level. The devastating earthquakes that struck New Zealand and Japan earlier this year demonstrated that scientists still have much to learn about these catastrophic events. The NSF responded to the need of collecting data that could be applied to better disaster response in the future by funding 42 RAPID grants for a total of more than $2.5 million. Earth Fri, 28 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2537 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2537_quakeAerial-sm.jpg Image from Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K Orion that conducted aerial surveys of areas affected by the Feb. 22 earthquake in Christchurch. NSF funded about a dozen grants after the earthquake so that data collected could be applied to better disaster response in the future. A large crack has been spotted in the Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, threatening to break loose in what scientists believe is part of the natural cycle of calving in a region of Antarctica undergoing profound changes. The ice shelf could calve around the time an expedition expects to be in the area conducting research just 15 kilometers away. Ice and Snow Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2536 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2536_pigCrack-sm.jpg A crack transects the Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. The rift was seen and photographed on Oct. 14 by scientists aboard NASA's DC-8 as part of Operation IceBridge. Scientists expect an area of about 800 square kilometers may break off in next weeks or months. Collecting flowers to determine what bugs might be present would seem to be a pretty straightforward research project. But sampling frost flowers during the spring bloom in Antarctica to study the bacteria that inhabit the delicate ice structures is an altogether different job. Scientists believe the frost flowers are capable of traveling vast distances, spreading microbes from the continent's edge to the glacial interior. The Biological World Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2535 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2535_flowersHauling-sm.jpg Dan Mahon, left, and Jeff Bowman haul snow samples from the sea ice on a sled. Conditions on the sea ice limited vehicle traffic, particularly to the ice edge, where the frost flowers grow that Bowman and his team are studying. The ice structures can carry bacteria far into the continental interior. Researchers at NOAA recently announced that the ozone hole that appears over Antarctica every spring in the Southern Hemisphere may start showing signs of recovery in the next decade. Meanwhile, NASA scientists have reported the Arctic experienced its worst ozone-depletion event ever in 2011. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2529 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2529_cryoBalloon-sm.jpg NOAA Corps officer Christy Schultz releases a balloon into the polar night to monitor ozone depletion above the South Pole in Antarctica. NOAA scientists recently announced that the ozone hole that appears over Antarctica every spring in the Southern Hemisphere may start showing signs of recovery in the next decade. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative focuses on questions about how that part of the continent fits into planetary processes. At the group's 18th annual meeting, it was apparent those questions are still at the forefront, but new technologies and techniques are bringing scientists ever closer to understanding Antarctica's complex ice dynamics and its role in the global climate system. Ice and Snow Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2530 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2530_waisWorkshopIceEdge-sm.jpg The edge of the Larsen Ice Shelf on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula. Parts of the ice shelf have disintegrated over the last 20 years. Scientists recently met to discuss the latest research on this and other parts of West Antarctica, which is expected to contribute to sea-level rise in the coming century. Remote observatories generating gigabytes of data on the weather from Antarctica's vast ice sheets. An array of buoys and gliders bobbing and cruising through the Southern Ocean. Satellites using ever more powerful sensors to peer through disintegrating ice shelves. It's a possible vision of the future offered by a committee of scientists and experts tasked with identifying and summarizing priorities in the Antarctic. Education and Outreach Fri, 7 Oct 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2524 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2524_cTamHasiotis-sm.jpg A geologist hikes up a rock outcrop in the Transantarctic Mountains, a remote region in the world's most isolated continent. A panel of scientists and other experts recently completed a report recommending creation of an observation network in Antarctica, as part of a 20-year plan. Engineers and scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are about to embark on developing an underwater vehicle that will be specially designed and equipped to explore one of Earth's true last frontiers: the polar regions. Ocean and Atmosphere Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2519 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2519_polarROVnereusLaunch-sm.jpg The remotely operated vehicle Nereus, developed by engineers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is launched from the research vessel Kilo Moana during a test cruise in 2007 off Hawaii. WHOI engineers were recently funded by the National Science Foundation to develop a similar ROV for the polar regions. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh professor of Geosciences at Penn State, is a recipient of a $100,000 Heinz Award for being a leader in climate and polar ice studies. Education and Outreach Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2518 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2518_alleyWaisDivide-sm.jpg Scientists examine the stratigraphic layers in a snow pit at the WAIS Divide field camp in 2008 where researchers drilled the longest U.S. ice core in history. Scientist Richard Alley is an expert on the physical properties of ice cores and is a funded investigator on the WAIS Divide project. He was recently awarded a major prize for his research and public outreach efforts. The thawing of frozen soil in the Arctic is becoming a familiar story. The picture in the Antarctic is less clear, largely due to the scarcity of monitoring sites until recently. An international effort involving U.S. researchers is now under way to learn more about the characteristics of Antarctic permafrost and its sensitivity to climate change. Earth Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2517 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2517_permaFrostDSC-sm.jpg University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students Adam Beilke, left, and Kelly Wilhelm drill a shallow borehole at a site known as Old Palmer on an island off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The researchers are monitoring changes in permafrost. Ross MacPhee and his field parties have been blinded by snowstorms, nearly blown off an island by hurricane-force winds, and stymied by pack ice in the pursuit of Cretaceous-age fossils from Antarctica. Third time's a charm? Try the fourth, when he and fellow paleontologists recovered some 200 samples. Earth Fri, 16 Sep 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2509 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2509_macPheeTent-sm.jpg A tent at a field camp on Vega Island in March 2011 where paleontologists recovered numerous Cretaceous-age fossils. The Naze of James Ross Island, where bits of dinosaur fossils were recovered, is visible in the background. The WAIS Divide Ice Core project reached its target bottom depth of about 3,331 meters in January. But the work to reconstruct past climate from the ice is just beginning. The job really starts at the National Ice Core Laboratory where researchers spent the summer processing hundreds of meters of ice for later analysis in labs across the country. Ice and Snow Fri, 2 Sep 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2501 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2501_waisCplMick-sm.jpg National Ice Core Lab intern Mick Sternberg measures the final section of ice core from the WAIS Divide project. This summer a team of interns and scientists processed the bottom cores of ice drilled from West Antarctica. The ice will be shipped to labs across the country to analyze. An international team of researchers has found evidence that parts of North America and East Antarctica were connected 1.1 billion years ago in an ancient supercontinent called Rodinia. Earth Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2497 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2497_ctamWindowShot-sm.jpg An aerial view of the central Transantarctic Mountains, which split East and West Antarctica. A paper published earlier this month suggests that part of East Antarctica was once joined to North America more than a billion years ago as part of a supercontinent called Rodinia. The South Pole Station's Atmospheric Research Observatory is one of the key sites in the world for climatological data thanks to the extraordinarily clean air. The blue two-story building with funky, dark bubble windows is located about a half-kilometer from the main station in an area called, appropriately enough, the Clean Air Sector. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 19 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2493 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2493_aroAirSamples-sm.jpg NOAA Station Chief Christine Schultz places an air sample bottle into a case destined for a university stateside for atmospheric research. NOAA's Atmospheric Research Observatory at the South Pole is part of a global network that monitors air constituents, among other studies. A 70-million-year-old ammonite that was spotted in about a meter of water only hours before a research expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula was scheduled to end turned out to be a rare find. It may not only be the largest of its kind found in Antarctica, but possibly the first-ever where the jaws of the animal were encased in the fossil. Earth Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2492 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2492_ammoniteJoeSertich-sm.jpg Paleontologist Joe Sertich reassembles a giant ammonite at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. The specimen may not only be the largest of its kind found in Antarctica, but possibly the first-ever where the jaws (a parrot-like beak) of the animal were encased in the fossil. Few topics in science are as hotly debated as the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, though evidence continues to pile up in favor of the theory that an asteroid impact on Earth dealt a geologically swift blow to the Earth's dominant fauna. But a team of scientists suggests there was at least one "pre-cursor" extinction under way before a giant space rock hit the planet. Earth Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2486 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2486_ammoniteDrilling-sm.jpg Scientists Peter Ward and Joe Kirschvink use a paleomag drill to extract an ammonite fossil from the side of a hill during their expedition to a series of islands off the Antarctic Peninsula. The researchers believe they found evidence of a minor extinction prior to the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Scientists have linked the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011 with the calving of a Manhattan-sized iceberg from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf more than 13,000 kilometers away in Antarctica. Ice and Snow Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2485 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2485_iceShelfNasaPost-sm.jpg Icebergs separate from Antarctica's Sulzberger Ice Shelf on March 16 in this satellite image, after waves from the devastating tsunami spawned by an earthquake on March 11 traveled more than 13,000 kilometers. This is the first direct observation of such a connection between tsunamis and icebergs. Visiting the underwater world of corals in the Southern Ocean isn't exactly like a tropical vacation. But the inhospitable waters didn't deter a team of scientists from traversing the Drake Passage to collect samples of live and fossil cold-water corals. The research will tell them something about the life history of the corals, as well as the climate history of the region back to the last ice age. Earth Fri, 5 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2477 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2477_coralsFossilSorting-sm.jpg Scientists and technicians aboard the research vessel Laurence M. Gould dry, sort and pack the multitude of coral fossils collected from deep-sea dredges along Cape Horn. The corals' hard skeletons contain chemical signatures that "record" some of the ocean properties at the time of their growth. An international team of researchers has combined data from multiple sources to provide the clearest account yet of how much glacial ice surges into the sea following the collapse of Antarctic ice shelves. Ice and Snow Fri, 5 Aug 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2483 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2483_iceShelf-sm.jpg The Larsen Ice Shelf, on the Antarctic Peninsula, has experienced an unprecedented series of collapses. That has allowed the ice behind the shelf to flow more quickly. Researchers have combined data to understand more fully how Antarctica's ice is changing. For some scientists, Antarctica's ice is the main focus of their research. For others, the continent's vast cover of frozen water is an obstacle to be overcome, an impediment to the secrets buried below. In the case of a team of researchers hoping to recover sediments tens of millions of years old in the Ross Sea region, the Ross Ice Shelf is not an insignificant barrier. Earth Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2469 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2469_andrillTractor-sm.jpg A Caterpillar tractor hauls modules for the ANDRILL field camp from McMurdo Station to the Ross Ice Shelf, where scientists hope to drill through more than 250 meters of ice into the seafloor to access sediments that could reveal what the climate was like before Antarctica turned into an icehouse. The end of a mini ice age 11,500 years ago was marked by high concentrations of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Scientists studying climate change want to know where all that methane came from. They just need old ice. Lots of old ice. And they have found a nearly limitless supply of it at the top of Taylor Glacier. Snow and Ice Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2467 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2467_severingHausDrill-sm.jpg Drillers use the Blue Ice Drill, an agile drill capable of retrieving cores about 24 centimeters in diameter to depths up to 15 meters in solid ice, on Taylor Glacier. The drill was built by the Ice Drilling and Design Operations group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The latest State of the Climate report from NOAA found that 2010 was one of the two warmest years on record. In Antarctica, sea ice continued to grow in marked contrast to the warming of the Arctic. The seemingly paradoxical trend is what NSF-funded scientists and others expect to happen as the climate changes. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2463 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2463_climateStoryFogtFieldwrk-sm.jpg Ryan Fogt, left, and Shelley Knuth install an acoustic depth gauge on the Windless Bight automatic weather station in January 2006. Mount Erebus looms in the background. The weather station is part of a network around the continent that helps scientists collect climate data. New information about increased melt rates for a key glacier in West Antarctica has added to the sense of urgency for a team headed to the Pine Island region later this year to make oceanographic measurements below an ice shelf. Earth Fri, 8 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2461 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2461_PIGIceShelfFrankNitsche-sm.jpg Stronger ocean currents are thinning Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf in West Antarctica. A research cruise to the Amundsen Sea in 2009 found the ice is melting 50 percent faster than it was 15 years ago. An overland expedition to the ice shelf in 2011-12 hopes to answer more questions. A detailed, three-year examination of sediment cores extracted from the continental shelves of Antarctica has revealed that the last remnant of vegetation existed in a tundra landscape on the continent's northern peninsula about 12 million years ago. Earth Fri, 8 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2460 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2460_SHALDRIL-Palmer-sm.jpg Researchers pieced together a history of glacial activity in the Antarctic Peninsula, thanks to samples returned from SHALDRIL expeditions aboard the NSF research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer in 2005 and 2006. The icebreaker was outfitted with a diamond core drilling rig for the expedition. In a paper recently published in the journal Polar Biology, researchers David Ainley and Grant Ballard suggest Adélie and emperor penguins make choices about foraging for food based on the risk of becoming the prey rather than the predator. The Biological World Fri, 8 Jul 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2459 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2459_adeliesWet-sm.jpg Shiny, wet penguins jump up onto the ice after their feeding swim. A recent study says the Antarctic seabirds will not forage at night in order to avoid predators, a behavior rarely documented before in a marine animal. A new topographical map of the bedrock below Antarctica's biggest ice sheet has revealed some of the largest fjords on Earth. The findings should provide important insights into the history of ice in Antarctica, as well as improve computer models of how the ice sheet might behave in the future as the climate changes. Earth Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2453 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2453_fjordsDC3flying-sm.jpg A modified WWII-era DC-3 airplane conducts an aerogeophysical survey over the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Data from three years of flights have revealed giant fjords that may indicate the continent's largest ice sheet is vulnerable to climate change. Much of the research in Antarctica these days is directed at how quickly the continent's ice sheets and glaciers may respond to climate change. But Jaakko Putkonen is interested in how the 2 percent of Antarctica not covered by ice reacts to a different kind of environmental change. Earth Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2447 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2447_ctamMoraineValleyCamp-sm.jpg A field team led by Jaakko Putkonen from the University of North Dakota camps in the beautiful Moraine Canyon, where exposed rock offers them an ideal location to study landscape evolution in Antarctica. The McMurdo Station Cosmic Ray Observatory first started counting the charged subatomic particles that bombard the Earth in 1960. Fifty years later, the U.S. Antarctic Program's longest running experiment still keeps an eye on the activity of the solar system's hottest object. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 10 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2438 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2438_cosRaySunflare-sm.jpg This is an image of an extremely powerful solar flare event that occurred in 2003. The image reveals hot gas in the solar atmosphere in false color, and the flare is the bright, white area on the right edge of the sun. The McMurdo CosRay Observatory detects secondary particles created when primary cosmic rays from the sun hit Earth's atmosphere. The observatory can help scientists predict so-called magnetic storms that can disrupt satellites and power grids. Mount Erebus appears benign from the comfort of McMurdo Station. But on a speedy aerial ascent the volcano's looming bulk almost creates a feeling of vertigo. The smell of sulfur saturates the air, offering a sniff of the potent brew of gases venting from within. Its convecting lava lake beats like a heart. The volcano offers no end of interesting questions for researchers. Earth Fri, 3 Jun 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2435 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2435_erebusRimInstruments-sm.jpg A tent sits next to instruments on the rim of Mount Erebus to monitor the gases that emerge from Antarctica's famous volcano, which features a rare lava lake. In the past, "bombs" from the lava lake have destroyed equipment on the rim. The South Pole Telescope is a bold experiment that has already made some big discoveries. But the latest feat involving the project is one researchers have no wish to repeat. For a few tense days during the 2010-11 season, about half of the towering telescope was jacked up more than a meter in the air to repair the azimuth bearing. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 27 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2434 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2434_sptAzimuthBulldozer-sm.jpg Equipment used to repair the South Pole Telescope is removed from the facility. Repairs to the telescope's azimuth will allow the instrument to turn smoothly as it searches the universe for galaxy clusters that will help scientists understand dark energy. Scientist Philip Wannamaker lets nature do half the work when it comes to studying the deep geology of the Earth. He led a research team this past season to Antarctica's largest mountain range to map the earth below the ice sheet using a technique called magnetotelluric sounding. Earth Fri, 20 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2430 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2430_wannaHelo-sm.jpg Scientists John Stodt and Virginia Maris deploy the magnetotelluric sounding equipment for imaging the deep earth at a site near the Transantarctic Mountains and Ross Sea transition, an area often visited by fog. Team mountaineer Danny Uhlmann is in the background by the helicopter. Ice sheets in the northern hemisphere began a relatively quick retreat at the end of the last ice age. Antarctica didn't really get going until about 10,000 years ago, but when the ice sheet finally began to pull back across the Ross Sea region, it did so with amazing rapidity. A team of scientists spent weeks camped in the mountains to retrace Ice and Snow Fri, 13 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2425 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2425_ctamGlacierSampling-sm.jpg Scientist Perry Spector collects a rock sample from the summit ridge of Mount Hope, from a site looking across Beardmore Glacier to Mount Kyffin. Researchers use special techniques to date the rocks, which can help them determine when the ice sheet retreated from this area. Lesley Urasky went to Antarctica to teach her students at Rawlins High School in Wyoming something about polar science and the history of the continent's vast ice sheets. But perhaps the biggest lesson she imparted from her month-long adventure with a team of scientists in the central Transantarctic Mountains is never give up on a goal. Education and Outreach Fri, 13 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2426 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2426_ctamGlacierLesley-sm.jpg Wyoming teacher Lesley Urasky kneels by ice underlying the Last Glacial Maximum moraine. The ice is what remains from when the Beardmore Glacier covered the slopes of Mount Kyffin thousands of years ago. Urasky joined John Stone's research team to look at the deglaciation history of the Ross Sea region. The PolarTREC program matches teachers with scientists to strengthen educational outreach. Scientists reported last week in the online science journal PLoS ONE that they observed a super-aggregation of more than 300 humpback whales gorging on the largest swarm of Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years in bays along the western Antarctic Peninsula. The Biological World Fri, 6 May 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2423 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2423_humpBackTagging-sm.jpg A scientist tags a humpback whale in Wilhelmina Bay off the western Antarctic Peninsula. Scientists reported last week that they observed a "super-aggregation" of more than 300 humpback whales gorging on the largest swarm of Antarctic krill seen in more than 20 years in the region. A team of seasoned geologists braved hurricane-force winds in the central mountain range of Antarctica to learn more about the continent's ancient landscape, which they believe might have influenced its climate hundreds of millions of years ago. Earth Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2415 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2415_ctamTectonicIsbellgrp-sm.jpg Scientists John Isbell, Danielle Sieger and Zelenda Koch, left to right, work on the stratigraphy from the Permian era on Mount Bowers in the Transantarctic Mountains. The researchers are interested in understanding the evolution of the landscape, and its influence on climate. Eight years ago, when paleobotanists Edith and Tom Taylor and their team were last in the central Transantarctic Mountains searching for fossils, foul weather and mechanical difficulties with the helicopters kept them more often than not in the camp. In the field season just ended, the Taylors packed it in a couple of days early, hauling some 5,000 kilograms of rock back to the University of Kansas. Earth Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2412 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2412_fremouwPeakFossilWood-sm.jpg A petrified fossil tree trunk sits in the foreground on Fremouw Peak in the central Transantarctic Mountains, as the members of the Taylor paleobotany team prepare to return to the CTAM field camp. The scientists are interested in flora that thrived during the Triassic and Permian, more than 200 million years ago. A decline in the abundance of krill, a food favored by two species of penguins, is the most likely cause for why the seabird populations are suffering along the western Antarctic Peninsula, say researchers in a recent paper. The Biological World Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2414 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2414_krillPenguinColony-sm.jpg A small Adélie penguin colony on Torgerson Island on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, which is one of the fastest warming places on the planet. Researchers say climate change there is influenced by warming surface waters in the Pacific Ocean. New research from scientists at the University of Washington suggests that rising sea surface temperatures in the area of the Pacific Ocean along the equator and near the International Date Line drive atmospheric circulation that has caused some of the largest shifts in Antarctic climate in recent decades. Ice and Snow Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2413 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images2/rss-2413_gerlache-sm.jpg The western Antarctic Peninsula, West Antarctica, which has become one of the fastest warming regions on the planet. A new study suggests rising sea surface temperatures in the Pacific cause changes in atmospheric circulation that affect the climate in West Antarctica. Paleontologists working on a high peak in the central Transantarctic Mountains have recovered more than half of the fossils belonging to the first dinosaur found in Antarctica - 20 years after its initial discovery. And the unearthing of yet two new Early Jurassic dinosaur species this season promises to keep scientists busy for years to come. Earth Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2407 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2407_ctamDinoHeloLanding-sm.jpg A helicopter approaches the landing zone on Mount Kitkpatrick in the central Transantarctic Mountains where paleontologists recovered dinosaur fossils. Mount Falla is in the background. Given the location, all equipment, people, and rocks had to be trasnported by helicopter. Paleontologists spent weeks in Antarctica flying and hiking among the peaks and outcrops of the continent's longest mountain range to collect the rare and unusual bones of vertebrates that once burrowed and bounded across a much different landscape - including at least one never before found on the southernmost landmass. Earth Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2404 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2404_ctamVertebrateRoger-sm.jpg Scientist Roger Smith displays part of an archosauromorph called Prolacerta that was discovered this season at Graphite Peak. It's one of the few and most complete specimens of this type of early dinosaur ancestor ever found. Paleontologist Stephen Hasiotis and his team of 'time trackers' found tracks, burrows and other trace evidence of animals that lived in Antarctica more than 200 million years ago while working in the central Transantarctic Mountains during the 2010-11 field season. Earth Fri, 8 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2401 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2401_ctamHasiotisWahlglacier-sm.jpg Paleontologist Stephen Hasiotis, left, and mountaineer Brian McCullough hike up an outcrop nicknamed 'the castle' near Wahl Glacier. The team found burrows on the outcrop, as well as fossililzed trees at another nearby site. The theory of inflation holds that just a fraction of a second after the universe exploded into existence, it expanded exponentially. The search for the evidence that will finally prove or disprove one of the key concepts of the Big Bang model of cosmology has similarly expanded in the last decade or so. The South Pole Station has become one of the preeminent locations for that quest. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 1 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2393 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2393_bicepBrevik-sm.jpg Physicist Justus Brevik works in the BICEP 2 telescope control room in the Dark Sector Lab at the South Pole Station. The telescope, with the pedestal in view at left, is searching the southern sky for the telltale sign of inflation, the rapid expansion of the universe that occurred after the Big Bang. Ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is rising to the top as the main contributor to higher sea level. Ice and Snow Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2389 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2389_ctamMoraineValley-sm.jpg Glaciers and ice-covered peaks in the central Transantarctic Mountains. A recent study that looked at satellite data says ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland is now the main contributor to global sea-level rise. Lake Vida isn't a particularly accommodating place to live. Oxygen is completely absent and what little liquid water exists in this frozen block of ice is up to seven times saltier than seawater. Yet this extreme environment could reveal how life might exist on other worlds and fill in important gaps in the geologic history of the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The Biological World Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2380 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2380_vidaDrill2-sm.jpg Members of the Lake Vida expedition team - Peter Doran, Chris Fritsen and Jay Kyne - use a sidewinder drill during the 2010-11 season to drill an ice core from the frozen lake. They did not find a liquid layer at the bottom of the lake that they believed existed based on radar data, adding a new mystery to one of the most enigmatic features in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. An international team of scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's ice sheet regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom. The finding turns common perceptions of glacial formation upside down, with implications for how the ice will react to future climate change. Earth Fri, 4 Mar 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2377 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2377_agapFlags-sm.jpg Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure. The penguin colonies of the Ross Sea are in flux, with one colony in steep decline while the populations at other colonies in the region are growing tremendously. Researchers suspect a combination of natural and human causes are creating shifts in the numbers of penguins and associated marine species. The Biological World Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2361 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2361_crozierAdelie-sm.jpg Adélie penguins float on an iceberg near Cape Crozier on Ross Island. Cape Crozier is home to one of the largest colonies of Adélie in the world. Scientists hypothesize its growth may, in part, be to shifts in the number of marine species in the Ross Sea due to pressures caused by a fishery that captures commercially available Chilean sea bass. For 15 years, U.S. researchers in Antarctica have watched the ebb and flow of Adélie penguin colony populations around the Ross Sea. Now they are looking at what determines breeding success at the individual level, which may help them predict how the penguins may fare in the future as climate change re-writes the script for survival. The Biological World Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2360 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2360_penguinPop-sm.jpg Adélie penguins squabble at the Cape Royds colony on Ross Island. Scientists studying the population dynamics of these seabirds for the last 15 years have noted some "super breeders" seem to be consistently successful in producing chicks that reach adulthood. A supraglacial stream on the Cotton Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys contains a unique type of dissolved organic matter found nowhere else in the world. Researchers are interested in learning more about its chemical characteristics as it evolves over time. Earth Fri, 4 Feb 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2354 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2354_cottonStream-sm.jpg Scientists Michael San Clements and Maya Wei-Haas sample the supraglacial stream on the Cotton Glacier in November 2010 while the stream was only a few centimeters deep. The waters rose quickly, swallowing instruments that the researchers left in the stream, which contains a unique type of dissolved organic matter. The U.S. Antarctic Program has drilled and recovered its longest ice core to date from the polar regions. It took five years working from a lonely field camp in one of the stormiest regions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to extract the ice, which contains clues about Earth's past climate from the last 100,000 years. Ice and Snow Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2349 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2349_waisRebecca-sm.jpg Rebecca Anderson, a scientist at the Desert Research Institute, examines an ice core at WAIS Divide during a previous drilling season. The WAIS Divide project completed major coring operations on Jan. 28, 2011, after five years of work, reaching a target depth of 3,331 meters. The theory that close relatives of modern birds once co-existed with non-avian dinosaurs before a mass extinction 65 million years ago had trouble flying with many paleontologists until recently. Scientist Julia Clarke hopes to get her hands on additional material from Antarctica during an upcoming expedition that will fill in more of the story about the early spread of all living birds. Earth Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2338 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2338_clarkeCleanRock-sm.jpg Julia Clarke exposes a wing feature on a fossilized penguin specimen recovered from Peru. She and colleagues found evidence from fossils collected in Antarctica in the 1990s that at least one species related to modern birds lived at the same time as dinosaurs. She and a science team are headed to the Antarctic Peninsula in February 2011 in hopes of finding more fossils. Ross MacPhee will lead a fourth attempt to find mammalian fossils in Antarctica that would prove some of those early species were present on the continent long before it finally separated from other southern land masses and started to go into a deep freeze 40 million years ago. Earth Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2335 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2335_macPheeSnowIsland-sm.jpg Paleontologists led by Ross MacPhee look for fossils on Snow Island in the South Shetland Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula. MacPhee is particularly interested in marsupial fossils that could fill out the picture of their dispersal through the Southern Hemisphere. On Dec. 18, 2010, there was an air of reluctance in the IceCube drill tower, even as the anticipation and excitement built. This was the 86th and final string deployment for the subglacial neutrino detector, marking the culmination of seven seasons of construction at the U.S. Antarctic Program's South Pole Station. Space and Atmospheric Physics Mon, 3 Jan 2011 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2326 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2326_iceCubeDeployment-sm.jpg The IceCube deployment team prepares the final string of digital optical modules for the subglacial neutrino detector on Dec. 18, 2010. It took seven years to build the 86-string array, which will attempt to create a skymap from high-energy neutrinos that originate from events like supernovae. Ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns have helped keep most of Antarctica from warming up with the rest of the planet. But the continent's isolation hasn't shielded it from manmade pollutants entering the polar food web. Scientists are using special techniques to track chemical signals from these pollutants to learn more about the feeding ecology of Antarctic animals. The Biological World Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2319 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2319_dickHutSnowSmpling-sm.jpg Rebecca Dickhut and Swedish colleagues dig for snow and ice samples in the Amundsen Sea in 2007 during a previous expedition. Dickhut is interested in tracking persistent organic pollutants through the polar food web, believing the source to be glacial meltwater. Scientists aboard a Swedish icebreaker are on a two-month expedition to study a large swath of the sea ice system in the Southern Ocean. The U.S. and Swedish researchers will work on problems that range from sea ice thickness to the gases released to the atmosphere by microbial organisms living in and around the ice pack. The Biological World Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2313 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2313_arrigoIceCoreTeam-sm.jpg Scientists return to the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer after collecting an ice core from the sea ice. The ice cores will provide information about the physical structure of the sea ice and the microbial organisms within. Sea ice is a key ecosystem that nearly doubles the size of Antarctica in the winter. Oceans and Atmosphere The National Science Foundation has signed a five-year, $34.5-million agreement with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to operate the unique IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a one-of-a-kind telescope buried in a cubic kilometer of ice in the Antarctic ice sheet. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 3 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2312 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2312_iceCubeCountingHouse-sm.jpg The IceCube Neutrino Observatory laboratory building at the South Pole contains the project's technical equipment. Cables from the detector strings feed into the two towers on either side of the building. The final seven strings of detectors will be installed this season. In a region famously isolated from the rest of the planet, there are plenty of hard-to-reach places in the Antarctic, such as crevassed and thinning ice shelves or glaciers squeezing through mountain peaks. And then there are the really remote places to visit, like the Amundsen Sea polynya, where scientists are interested in understanding what's behind its high biological activity. The Biological World Fri, 3 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2308 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2308_yagerPolynyaCraneArm-sm.jpg A scientist deploys Rob Sherrell's trace metal water pump system off the Swedish icebreaker Oden during a previous visit to the Amundsen Sea. Researchers say a polynya in the ocean, an open area in the sea ice, is unusually productive biologically. They will spend three weeks in the region this season to find out why. The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the fastest warming spots on the planet. Now scientists believe at least one species of king crab is slowly creeping from the deep ocean habitats onto the continental slope as the waters slowly warm, threatening marine communities. The Biological World Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2305 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2305_crabParalomisA-sm.jpg An image of Paralomis elongata, one of about 17 species of crabs that inhabit the Southern Ocean. Investigators believe at least one species of shell-crushing king crab may soon make its way onto the continental slope, threatening the seafloor communities that have evolved over millions of years without such predators. Why do Adélie penguins forage in the locations that they do? Scientists working in the Antarctic Peninsula plan to find out by following the seabirds to their hunting grounds with a high-tech robot that can match their speed and endurance. The Biological World Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2299 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2299_molineFloridaBoat-sm.jpg Scientists deploy a REMUS AUV over the side of a small boat off the coast of Florida. Mark Moline will employ a similar instrument in Antarctica to track Adélie penguins as they hunt for food during their breeding season to learn about the places they favor. Sridhar Anandakrishnan never had any ambitions on becoming an Earth scientist, let alone a specialist in the behavior of Antarctic ice, while attending graduate school in the 1980s. Now a professor at Pennsylvania State University, Anandakrishnan has made 17 trips to the Ice in the last 25 years, becoming the foremost expert in the USAP using reflection seismology. Ice and Snow Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2296 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2296_sridharStudents-sm.jpg Huw Horgan, left, and Paul Winberry, both former students of Sridhar Anandakrishnan at Penn State University, perform field work in the summer of 2007 in Greenland. Both men are now scientists at other institutions, using seismic techniques, among others, to learn about Antarctic ice behavior. The Whillans Ice Stream in West Antarctica offers a sticky problem for glaciologists seeking to understand how ice moves from the interior of the ice sheet to the ocean. Ice and Snow Fri, 12 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2294 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2294_whillansShothole-sm.jpg Paul Winberry drills a shot hole on Thwaites Glacier for active seismic imaging of the bed below the ice during a previous project. A glaciologist from Central Washington University, Winberry will lead a team this season to Whillans Ice Stream to learn more about its strange stick-slip behavior. Scientists returned to the skies above Antarctica in October for the second year of NASA's Operation IceBridge. The airborne mission monitors the region's changing sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers using radar and other instruments flown aboard a specially outfitted DC-8. Ice and Snow Fri, 5 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2292 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2292_iceBridgeWeddell-sm.jpg With the sun on the horizon, NASA's DC-8 flies over Antarctica's Weddell Sea on Oct. 28 during a mission to map sea ice and underfly the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite. It was one of the great rivalries of the 20th century, a sort of heavyweight matchup of the day's great polar explorers: Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott. The Race to the South Pole is now a major exhibit at New York's American Museum of Natural History. Education and Outreach Fri, 5 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2289 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2289_raceEntrance-sm.jpg Entrance to the Race to the End of the Earth exhibit at New York's American Museum of Natural History. The exhibit portrays the spirited competition between polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott to be the first at the South Pole. A team of glaciologists associated with the multidisciplinary LARISSA project is headed back to the Antarctic Peninsula this month to repair equipment left on several glaciers meant to track changes in the region after the disintegration of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002. Ice and Snow Fri, 5 Nov 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2288 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2288_scambosFlask-sm.jpg A team of glaciologists associated with the multidisciplinary LARISSA (LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica) project is headed back to the Antarctic Peninsula this month to repair equipment left on several glaciers meant to track changes in the region after the disintegration of the Larsen B Ice Shelf in 2002. Byrd Glacier, a massive river of ice that cuts through the Transantarctic Mountains and drains the East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf, isn't your ordinary ice stream. A team of scientists will land on the heavily crevassed glacier this year to take a closer look at its strange behavior. Ice and Snow Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2286 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2286_brdGlcrStrnsHelo-sm.jpg Glaciologist Leigh Stearns lands on Helheim Glacier in Greenland by helicopter in 2008. She and a team of researchers will employ similar methods to study Byrd Glacier in East Antarctica, which has displayed interesting behavior in the past. "It's just physics." That's the mantra coming from Richard Alley, a professor of geosciences at Penn State and one of the world's leading experts in paleoclimatology and climate change, in a discussion about global warming. Education and Outreach Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2285 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2285_climateCore-sm.jpg An ice-core handler at the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver prepares to process a section of the WAIS Divide ice core. The core will provide a window into the past 100,000 years of climate. It hasn't been a good year for climate scientists. It started in November 2009 with the illegal release of thousands of e-mails and other documents from that climate-change critics seized upon as proof that global warming was a conspiracy. For researchers involved in the U.S. Antarctic Program, the recent backlash against science can be summed up in one word: frustrating. Education and Outreach Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2284 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2284_climatePeninsula-sm.jpg Palmer Station personnel navigate a Zodiac through the nearby islands and icebergs around the Antarctic Peninsula, which is one of the fastest warming regions on the planet. Most scientists believe humans are to blame for climate changes here and elsewhere. Astronomers using the South Pole Telescope report that they have discovered the most massive galaxy cluster yet, tipping the scales at the equivalent of 800 trillion suns, and holding hundreds of galaxies. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2283 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2283_southPoleTelescope-sm.jpg Red lights illuminate the South Pole Telescope during the 2010 winter. Researchers using the telescope have found the most massive galaxy cluster to date, tipping the scales at 800 trillion suns. For the past 42 years, a research team has gone to Erebus Bay in Antarctica to gather new population data on Weddell seals, representing one of the longest field investigations of a long-lived mammal in existence. This year their work will be captured in a video blog live from the field. The Biological World Fri, 8 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2276 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2276_sealsVideoWindow-sm.jpg Every year beginning in October, Weddell seals gather in Antarctica's Erebus Bay to give birth and raise their pups. Pine Island Glacier is the fastest flowing glacier in Antarctica. The ice flows into a relatively small but thick ice shelf. Thinning of that ice shelf allows the glacier to flow more quickly, ultimately adding to the global equation of sea-level rise. To learn more about what's happening, a team of scientists must brave the crevasse-riddled ice fields. Ice and Snow Fri, 8 Oct 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2272 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2272_pigPrepTongue-sm.jpg The Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf in 2001. The dark bands are crevasse fields. The crack at left was an iceberg preparing to calve. A camp will be established near the ice shelf, where scientists will fly to using helicopters. Oceans and Atmosphere Earth A research team headed by polar veterans Paul Dayton and John Oliver are going to Antarctica to search out historical experiments left in McMurdo Sound more than 40 years ago. The "lost experiments" will show them how the ecosystem has changed over time. The Biological World Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2264 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2264_scubaDudes-sm.jpg Scuba divers prepare to enter the water with SCINI to explore McMurdo Sound during the 2008-09 field season. Some of the same team members will return with polar veterans Paul Dayton and John Oliver to study changes in the marine ecosystem. An airborne mission to observe changes in the Earth's polar regions is making sure the data will make it to researches as quickly as possible. NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center have teamed to move information about the planet's changing cyrosphere from the aircraft and instruments to researchers' computers. Ice and Snow Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2261 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2261_iceBridgeSnoValley-sm.jpg The IceBridge flight on Nov. 16, 2009, took scientists through a tour of the Antarctic cryosphere, including this look at a steep valley on the continent's peninsula. Small caps of stagnant ice cover the summits while the ice in the valley moves quickly toward the coast. A sudden cold snap in the northern hemisphere about 13,000 years ago, shortly after the end of the last ice age, apparently never touched Antarctica. In fact, much of the southern half of the planet appeared to be warming up while the other side of the equator cooled off for about a thousand years. Earth Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2262 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2262_nzGlacierWoman-sm.jpg Scientist Alice Doughty from the University of Maine takes notes during fieldwork in New Zealand. The boulder she is sitting on is glacial debris from when a glacier advanced and then retreated, allowing researchers to reconstruct past climate by dating the rock's exposure to cosmic rays. Scientists trolling the shallow waters near Livingston Island off the Antarctic Peninsula found significantly higher krill biomass density in coastal areas than in deeper, offshore waters. The finding could have future implications for managing the krill fisheries in the region. The Biological World Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2259 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2259_krillZodiac-sm.jpg Boat driver Steve Sessions and scientist Joe Warren head out on a Zodiac boat to conduct acoustic surveys of krill in the waters around Livingston Island off the Antarctic Peninsula. New research out of the Georgia Institute of Technology offers an explanation as to why sea ice in Antarctica is growing while it continues to shrink in the Arctic. The scientists also suggest the opposing polar trends may soon end. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2258 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2258_tentRazorBack-sm.jpg A channel of broken ice cuts through the sea ice in McMurdo Sound in the Ross Sea. Antarctic sea ice has increased about a quarter-of-a-million square kilometers for the past 30 years. That trend may soon end. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2254 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2254_rsvltCampScottGlcr-sm.jpg A field camp at Siple Dome on the Antarctic continent takes a beating during a snowstorm. Howard Conway and his team will use a similar set up during their fieldwork on Roosevelt Island to take measurements using radar and GPS to learn about the deglaciation history of the Ross Sea Embayment. 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. The Biological World Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2253 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2253_underWater-sm.jpg An underwater scene in McMurdo Sound, which is covered by sea ice. A census of marine plant and animal life has tallied more than 8,200 species in the Antarctic. The final report is due out next month. 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. The Biological World Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2248 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2248_nightSealsHead-sm.jpg A Weddell seal sports a video data recorder that scientists use to create a three-dimensional map of its movement in the water as it hunts for prey. Researchers hope to learn more about their hunting behavior during late-winter darkness. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2247 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2247_frickerSkidoo-sm.jpg Helen Fricker in Antarctica doing fieldwork with GPS. The 41-year-old glaciologist was recently awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica for her research, particularly involving subglacial lakes. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2233 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2233_waisCplTommy-sm.jpg Science technician Tommy Cox measures a section of the WAIS Divide ice core as it begins its journey down the core processing line at the National Ice Core Lab near Denver. The technicians will cut the ice so it can be sent to labs around the country for anlaysis. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2237 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2237_waisCplCloudy-sm.jpg The WAIS Divide Ice Core field camp in West Antarctica under a cloudy sky during the 2009-10 field season. While the site is ideal for recovering an ice core with a high-resolution record of past climate, horrendous weather makes it a difficult place to work. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2231 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2231_edgeLines-sm.jpg This satellite image shows a portion of a new map of Antarctic's ice edge. Where ice extends beyond the edge of the continent, the map shows the grounding line, the point where the ice sheet separates from land and begins to float on the ocean. The red line is the new analysis, while the previous best estimate is shown in gray. Adélie 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 Biological World Fri, 13 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2230 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2230_penguinTag-sm.jpg Two Adélie penguins, with the one in the foreground sporting a satellite tag used to track its migration from its southern breeding grounds at Ross Island to the north in the winter and back again. 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. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 6 Aug 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2228 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2228_iceCubeTrencher-sm.jpg IceCube workers cut a trench in the snow at the South Pole to lay a communications cable for the detector array buried underneath the ice. The neutrino telescope has made new discoveries about cosmic rays, something it was not originally designed to do. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2196 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2196_concordVorcore-sm.jpg A super-pressure balloon developed by the French space agency CNES floats above the Royal Society Range in 2005 for a project called VORCORE that studied the dynamics of the polar vortex. Similar balloons will be launched this year for a new project called Concordiasi. Adélie 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. The Biological World Fri, 9 Jul 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2192 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2192_slvrfshDaybrkTrwl-sm.jpg The crew of the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer prepares to deploy a net off the stern of the ship. The net is used to capture silverfish, an important species in the Antarctic food web that appears to be vanishing along parts of the peninsula. 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. Education and Outreach Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2184 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2184_osloVenue-sm.jpg The venue for the International Polar Year Science Conference in Oslo, Norway. The meeting drew more than 2,300 scientists and others to celebrate the discoveries of the IPY. 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. The Biological World Fri, 2 Jul 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2183 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2183_gouldShealthBill-sm.jpg A snowy sheathbill bird perches on a rock while the U.S. Antarctic Program's research vessel Laurence M. Gould steams past. The ship is used every January for the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research cruise. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2172 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2172_pigAutoSub3-sm.jpg The robotic sub is about to be deployed into Pine Island Bay and sent underneath the ice shelf, seen in the distance. The sub discovered a high seafloor ridge where the ice shelf once sat. With the ice now floating above the ridge, more warmer water is getting underneath the ice shelf and causing it to thin. 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. The Biological World Fri, 18 Jun 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2160 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2160_iterInstrmtDplymnt-sm.jpg Scientists and ship crew aboard the research vessel Laurence M. Gould lower the AC-9 instrument in the water. The device measures light properties in the ocean, which tells researchers where they want to take water samples for analysis. 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. Earth Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2153 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2153_beachLandscape-sm.jpg Members of Alexander Simms' research team survey a raised beach along the Antarctic Peninsula. The scientists collect rocks that they can date to reconstruct the size of the ice sheet that once covered the Antarctic Peninsula. 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. Education and Outreach Fri, 4 Jun 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2143 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2143_heloLandingNBP-sm.jpg A helicopter prepares to land on the deck of the research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer during an expedition earlier this year around the Antarctic Peninsula for an IPY-funded project called LARISSA. 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. The Biological World Fri, 28 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2132 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2132_larissaNBPHeloview-sm.jpg The research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer en route to Barilari Bay on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, where it took sediment cores in support of an ice-coring paleoclimate project on the Bruce Plateau. Earth Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Education and Outreach 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. The Biological World Fri, 28 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2137 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2137_larissaEarthquake-sm.jpg A collapsed building in Concepcion, Chile, following the Feb. 27, 2010 earthquake. Scientists responded to the quake by deploying a suite of instruments to measure aftershocks in the hopes of better understanding and predicting future earthquakes. Earth Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Education and Outreach 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. The Biological World Fri, 21 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2122 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2122_amlerSubstrate-sm.jpg Divers Kate Schoenrock and Chuck Amsler prepare to release a concrete substrate from the boat's davit and escort it down to the seafloor as part of an experiment to understand the marine ecosystem around Palmer Station. 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 The Biological World Fri, 14 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2118 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2118_pondSterile-sm.jpg A researcher wears a sterile suit and mask and uses sterile instruments for sampling to avoid possible contamination of Don Juan Pond in Antarctica. The high-saline pond may be the source of an important greenhouse gas. 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. The Biological World Fri, 14 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2117 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2117_whalesTypebSeal-sm.jpg A type B killer whale, showing distinctive two-tone gray 'cape' pattern and large eye patch, checks out a Weddell seal on an ice floe near Rothera Station, along the Antarctic Peninsula. A seal prey specialist, it may represent a distinct species. 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. Earth Fri, 7 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2115 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2115_joidesWaves-sm.jpg The research vessel JOIDES Resolution encounters rough seas around Antarctica. An international team of scientists spent two months aboard the ship drilling sediment cores from the continental margin around the continent. The samples provide clues to past climate, back to 53 million years ago when Antarctica was much warmer. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 7 May 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2106 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2106_aurorasScottTent-sm.jpg An aurora shimmers above a Scott tent pitched at the South Pole during the 2009 winter. Last year was the warmest on record at the South Pole since measurements began in 1957. This year has also been unseasonably warm, though a cold snap in April took the mercury to minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 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. Earth Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2092 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2092_coulmanAerial-sm.jpg The ANDRILL drill site on the McMurdo Ice Shelf during the 2006-07 field season. This year the team will head to the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf to determine the feasibility for setting up a similar operation to drill into seafloor sediments that date back millions of years. 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. Education and Outreach Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2072 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2060_wuGesture-sm.jpg Norbert Wu, left, discusses the dive plan with Andy Day, center, Ryan Caldwell and Martin Schuster (not pictured) near the wreck of the Bahia Paraiso, seen in the upper right. This is the photographer's second trip to the Antarctic Peninsula for a new project funded by the National Science Foundation. 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. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2059 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2059_ariannaTesting-sm.jpg Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory engineer Thorsten Stezelberger debugs hardware at the ARIANNA field camp during the 2009-10 season in Antarctica. ARIANNA proposes to capture radio waves created by neutrinos to learn more about the universe. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 5 Mar 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2048 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2048_bergCollision-sm.jpg Photo Credit: NASA 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. The Biological World Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2040 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2040_birdersDonna-sm.jpg Donna Patterson-Fraser handles a giant petrel chick on Humble Island off the coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. She and other members of Bill Fraser's field team closely monitor the huge scavenger-predators as part of a larger ecological study. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2031 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2031_mLazzaraWAIS-sm.jpg Matthew Lazzara, left, adjusts a wind vane on an automatic weather station (AWS) at the WAIS Divide field camp in West Antarctica, while Charles Bentley looks on. Lazzara is the principal investigator for the AWS program and Antarctic Meteorological Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 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. Earth Fri, 5 Feb 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2026 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2026_christianSidor-sm.jpg Christian Sidor collects fossils in the Allan Hills in 2005, where he and fellow scientists discovered the first 245-million-year-old fossilized burrows - some of the first such finds in Antarctica. He recently co-authored a paper that suggests Antarctica served as a climate refuge during a mass extinction event during the same time period. 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. The Biological World Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2018 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2018_richLeeBelgica-sm.jpg Richard Lee examines a piece of dry Prasiola crispa, a green algae underneath which Belgica antarctica like to live, on Torgersen Island. Lee's arrival in late December coincided with molting of the adults, which only live for two weeks after spending two years as larvae. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2010 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2010_uavLaunch-sm.jpg An unmanned aerial vehicle launches from the back of a pickup truck, which drives down a groomed runway near McMurdo Station. The robot made 16 total flights during the early part of the 2009-10 summer field season in Antarctica. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2001 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-2001_windlessBight-sm.jpg A science field camp at Windless Bight, with smoking Mount Erebus in the background. A small team of researchers spent a week at the camp to deploy an instrument through a 200-meter-long hole in the ice shelf to prepare for a larger project in the future. Oceans and Atmosphere 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. Earth Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1991 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1991_paulMayewskiIceCore-sm.jpg Scientists on Paul Mayewski's research team handles a recently drilled ice core from Antarctica. Ice cores are one of the key tools scientists use to study past climate. Much longer cores have shown that CO2 levels today are the highest in the last 800,000 years. Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere The Biological World 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. Education and Outreach Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1996 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1996_outReachHike-sm.jpg Kallin Tea, second from right, hikes with students and teachers in Rocky Mountain National Park. Tea and three other CU-Boulder graduate students will work with scientists in Antarctica this season to improve their research and outreach skills. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1979 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1979_discDrillWAIS-sm.jpg Construction of the DISC drill for the WAIS Divide ice core project in Madison, Wis. It's the most advanced drill of its kind in existence, according to the engineers with the Ice Drilling and Design Operations group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 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. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1975 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1975_francisHalzen-sm.jpg Francis Halzen at the IceCube project offices in Madison, Wis. Halzen has spent more than 20 years of his life in pursuit of the elusive neutrino. In two years, with completion of the IceCube detector at South Pole, that long quest may finally come to an end. 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. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1969 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1969_balloonLaunchMcM-sm.jpg Scientists with the University of Wyoming launch a balloon near McMurdo Station that carries instruments to measure ozone in the atmosphere. The 2009 ozone hole over Antarctica was the 10th largest on record. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1968 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1968_iceBergB15A-sm.jpg The edge of iceberg B15A in the Ross Sea on Nov. 17, 2004. The iceberg largely choked off the normal wind and water currents into McMurdo Sound for several years. Now it appears the remnants of the berg may be headed toward New Zealand. 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. The Biological World Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1958 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1958_byronAdamsMcMDryValley-sm.jpg Byron Adams gathers a soil sample at the peak of a long hike up a hillside in Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys. Adams will lead a small team of colleagues to the Transantarctic Mountains to look for areas of refuge that may contain life. 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. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1943 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1943_QUaD_SoPole-sm.jpg An aerial view of the QUaD telescope in the reflective ground shield at South Pole. The shield prevents interference from the ground. The experiment ran from 2005-2007, and scientists recently published results that confirm the standard model of the cosmos. 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. The Biological World Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1938 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1938_capeAdarePenguins-sm.jpg Cape Adare is home to the largest Adélie penguin colony in Antarctica. Until about 200 years ago, when humans decimated whale and seal populations, the penguins subsisted mainly on fish. But the ensuing surplus of krill created by the dearth of top predators caused a shift in diet. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1932 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1932_digMapSysIceCapture-sm.jpg The first flight of Operation Ice Bridge's Antarctic campaign flew Oct. 16, 2009, along the Amundsen Coast. The aircraft's downward-looking Digital Mapping System camera captured images of sea ice from an altitude of about 6,000 meters. 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. Earth Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1934 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1934_aerialANDRILL-sm.jpg An aerial view of the ANDRILL drilling camp on the ice over McMurdo Sound in 2007. The drill rig, located under the tall white shroud, recovered a sediment core more than 1,000 meters long from below the seafloor. 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. Earth Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1925 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1925_lakeUnterseeMicrobial-sm.jpg Scientist Dale Andersen prepares to dive in Lake Untersee in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. Andersen and colleagues will dive in Lake Joyce in the McMurdo Dry Valleys this season to study unusual microbial communities that grow coral reef-like structures. 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. Earth Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1921 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1921_bridgetWade-sm.jpg Bridget Wade collects sediments in Tanzania. Wade and colleagues 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 the Antarctica ice sheet about 34 million years ago. 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. Ice and Snow Fri, 2 Oct 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1919 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1919_leighSternSnwMbl-sm.jpg Leigh Stern pulls an instrument behind a snowmobile to map the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area in 2004. Andrei Kurbatov and colleagues will return to the area during the 2009-10 field season to determine the feasibility of recovering ice that is 2.5 million years old. 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. Earth Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1906 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1906_meteoriteCollection-sm.jpg ANSMET team members collect a meteorite in Antarctica during the 2006-07 field season. Field teams have sent back about 17,500 space rocks to the United States in the last 30-plus years. 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. Education and Outreach Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1911 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1911_bbcCameraman-sm.jpg A BBC cameraman films king penguins on sub-Antarctic South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The LARISSA project is a way for scientists to look at a small system and all the bits and pieces that contribute to its fundamental change and refine their methods and models of how the larger parts of the Antarctic cryosphere will respond to the future. Earth Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1883 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1883_larissaRVIB-sm.jpg Most of the LARISSA team will work from the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer for two months in the Weddell Sea in an area infamous for being choked with sea ice. The Biological World Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere The LARsen Ice Shelf System, Antarctica, project is an interdisciplinary program to study as many facets of an ice shelf ecosystem as possible, from the remaining ice shelf itself to marine sediments piling up on the continental shelf below and from the critters that call the Larsen Embayment home to ocean circulation patterns. Earth Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1887 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1887_larsenIceShelf-sm.jpg The front of the Larsen Ice Shelf along the Antarctic Peninsula in March 2002, as tons of ice disintegrated in spectacular fashion. Scientists on the LARISSA project are interested in finding out the conditions that preceded the collapse and what's happened to the ecosystem since the ice shelf disappeared. The Biological World Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere LARISSA brings together more than 30 scientists for one expedition, some working from an ice core camp on the Antarctic Peninsula while most will carry out experiments from a vessel for two months. Earth Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1888 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1888_drygalskiGlacier-sm.jpg The Drygalski Glacier on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, as seen from the Weddell Sea in February 2005. Previous expeditions to the region haven't included the range of instruments and personnel who will explore the Larsen Embayment in 2010. The Biological World Ice and Snow Oceans and Atmosphere Scientists Douglas Wilson and Bruce Luyendyk haven't found the lost continent of Atlantis, but their discovery that far more of West Antarctica may have existed above sea level millions of years ago could help solve one of the great mysteries in the climate history of the continent. Earth Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1876 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1876_rvibConductsResearch-sm.jpg The RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer conducts research in front of the Ross Ice Shelf in the Ross Sea in 2004. Luyendyk and Wilson were aboard the vessel for work related to their interest in the tectonic history of the continent, which they recently reported had more land above sea level millions of years ago. Ice cores from Antarctica, Greenland and elsewhere in the world serve as a way for scientists to travel back in time to understand past climate. But they only tell part of the story. Ryan Bay and his colleagues send an optical dust logger down the finished holes to peer farther into the ice sheet to glean more details. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1868 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1868_darkSector-sm.jpg The Dark Sector at the South Pole where many of the astrophysical experiments are located. At bottom is the IceCube drill camp, which is building a neutrino detector under the ice. Ryan Bay has sent an optical dust logger down some of the boreholes. The South Pole has become the place to be for scientists searching for high-energy neutrinos or to understand the nature of the dark energy that is pushing the universe apart - some of the grandest mysteries about the universe. But the Pole may offer an ideal vantage point for a different study of the cosmos. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1864 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1864_gattiniCamera-sm.jpg Sky images taken by a Gattini camera at Dome A on the Antarctic polar plateau. Anna Moore and colleagues will install a similar camera at the South Pole this season to determine if it would be an ideal spot to locate a telescope capable of looking for the cosmic web that permeates the universe. An extinct southern elephant seal colony that once existed in huge numbers along sandy and rocky beaches in Antarctica has provided new insight into how quickly a species can respond to the emergence of a new habitat as climate changes - and just as quickly disappear. The Biological World Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1852 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1852_mumEleSealSkull-sm.jpg The mummified skull of an elephant seal found on the Victoria Land coast in Antarctica by a team of scientists led by Brenda Hall. The remains of the seals indicate the region was warmer in the past than it is today, among other findings. The fish that swim in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica have evolved over millions of years to survive and thrive in salty ocean water that hovers around minus 1.8 degrees centigrade at its coldest. But what might happen to them in a warming world? A team of scientists goes fishing to find out. The Biological World Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1843 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1843_cllctIceFish-sm.jpg Bruce Sidell, foreground, assists with deploying fish traps during a 2007 science cruise. Sidell, Kristin O'Brien and their colleagues are collecting icefish for experiments to determine if some are more sensitive to changes in temperature than others - and what mechanism is responsible. Nearly a third of the ice in West Antarctica drains through the Pine Island Glacier area. Were it to all pour out in a catastrophic uncorking, sea level would rise more than a meter. It's an inhospitable place, but scientists led by Robert Bindschadler of NASA plan to go there anyway to learn more about Antarctica's most dynamic region. Ice and Snow Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1828 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1828_davidHollandPowerSys-sm.jpg David Holland sets up the power system for an automatic weather station near Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica during the 2007-08 field season. Oceans and Atmosphere Ian Joughin and his team have a tough job ahead of them: Determine how much ice from a vast swath of West Antarctica is being lost into the Amundsen Sea compared to the amount of snowfall the area receives. The project will require the scientists to fly across thousands of kilometers of ice later this year. Ice and Snow Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1810 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1810_twinOtter-sm.jpg Twin Otter flies over the ice of Antarctica during a previous field season. A similar aircraft outfitted with unique radars will fly Ian Joughin and members of his team over West Antarctica later this year. Stephen Warren has made eight previous trips to Antarctica to study its climate. But on his ninth visit to the frozen continent later this year, the University of Washington professor will use Antarctic ice to learn more about the planet's climate hundreds of millions of years ago during a time of extreme glaciation called Snowball Earth. Ice and Snow Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1797 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1797_mountHowe-sm.jpg Researchers explore the Mount Howe area in the Transantarctic Mountains during a previous field season. The blue ice area is similar to an ice type that likely existed during Snowball Earth events, a time of severe glaciation in the distant past. Penguin guano stains, visible from space, have helped British scientists locate emperor penguin breeding colonies in Antarctica. For the survey, the researchers used satellite images downloaded from the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA), a project partly funded by the National Science Foundation. Earth Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1790 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1790_penguinPoop-sm.jpg An emperor colony located near Britain's Halley Research Station. Using a satellite mosaic map created during the International Polar Year that was partly funded by the National Science Foundation, British scientists identified 10 new colonies. The previous discovery of a new bird species related to ducks and geese on an island off the Antarctic Peninsula has encouraged scientists to look more closely at the fossils collected from the region over the last 20 years. They believe modern birds may have originated in Antarctica more than 65 million years ago when dinosaurs still stalked the Earth. Earth Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1785 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1785_sandwichBluff-sm.jpg Sandwich Bluff on Vega Island, northern Antarctic Peninsula, where the Vegavis specimen and many other late Cretaceous, Antarctic bird specimens, have been recovered. The specimens here range in age from 70 to 67.5 million years ago. A new study in the journal Science challenges the long-held idea that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise sea level by as much as five or six meters if it were to collapse. Instead, the authors contend the ice would increase sea level by about half of previous estimates. Ice and Snow Fri, 29 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1782 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1782_zodiacIceburg-sm.jpg A Zodiac inflatable boat passes close to an iceberg near the Antarctic Peninsula in West Antarctica. A new study says total ice loss from West Antarctica will be less than previously calculated, meaning sea level would rise by about half of earlier projections. It seemed unlikely too many marine organisms could make a living under the dark shadow of an ice shelf, with the ice some 200 meters thick in spots. But when a newly developed robot penetrated the deep ocean below, it found a surprising amount of life. SCINI is already changing what we know about McMurdo Sound. The Biological World Fri, 22 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1779 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1779_SCINIlaunch-sm.jpg Bob Zook, left, and Francois Cazenave prepare to launch SCINI into McMurdo Sound. The remotely operated vehicle is skinny and light enough to be deployed easily with only a couple of people. A robot that may one day explore distant worlds made its first successful foray into an ice-covered lake in Antarctica last year. The Biological World Fri, 22 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1780 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1780_ENDURANCE-sm.jpg The ENDURANCE robot made its first exploration of Lake Bonney during the 2008-09 field season in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Scientists will return this year to complete the mapping of the west lobe of the lake. Polynyas, areas of open water in sea ice, play an important role in global ocean circulation and heat exchange in the atmosphere. A team of scientists will brave frigid spring in Antarctica to learn more about the phenomenon using unammed aerial aircraft that have been used to fly into hurricanes. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 8 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1769 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1769_aerosondeUAV-sm.jpg An Aerosonde UAV in flight over the Arctic. John Cassano and his team will use the unmanned aircraft to study atmospheric conditions over polynyas in Antarctica this spring. The open areas in sea ice play a critical role in ocean circulation and exchange of heat in the atmosphere. The ice bridge is gone. Now ice bergs are calving off the new front. But the Wilkins Ice Shelf is still hanging on, and Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center said he believes small bits of the West Antarctic ice shelf could survive for several more years. Ice and Snow Fri, 1 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1762 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1762_wilkinsIceShelf-sm.jpg The Wilkins Ice Shelf before, left, and after the ice bridge collapsed in earlier April. The ice bridge had become superfluous to the integrity of the remaining ice shelf by the time it shattered, said NSIDC scientists Ted Scambos. A cold, dark and oxygen-poor reservoir of water chemically similar to seawater seems an unlikely place to find a functioning ecosystem, particularly one trapped under an inland glacier in Antarctica. But samples collected from such an environment turned up an unusual microbial community. The Biological World Fri, 1 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1765 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1765_bloodFalls-sm.jpg The unique microbial community was found below Taylor Glacier near a feature called Blood Falls. Scientists believe the microbes subsist on iron and sulfur compounds to survive. A joint team of Norwegian and American scientists spent more than three months in East Antarctica drilling ice cores, exploring subglacial lakes and taking measurements of the thick ice sheet to learn more about the past one thousand years of climate on the continent. Ice and Snow Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1758 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1758_tomNeumannHandDrill-sm.jpg Tom Neumann hand drills a shallow ice core on a relatively warm, sunny day on the East Antarctic ice sheet. The ice cores, some as deep as 90 meters, will help the scientists reconstruct the climate in Antarctica for the last 1,000 years. Few ships ever make it to the front of the Pine Island Glacier because of the near-constant blockade of sea ice in the adjoining bay. But a team of U.S. and British scientists not only got up close to the fast-moving glacier, but even went below it using a robotic sub, one of the first such explorations. Ocean and Atmosphere Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1752 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1752_NatBPalmer-sm.jpg Scientists are lowered to an ice floe from the Nathaniel B. Palmer during a science cruise to Pine Island Bay earlier this year. After two years analyzing data from the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope project, an international group of astronomers and astrophysicists from the United States, Canada and the U.K. reported in the journal Nature this month that half of the starlight of the universe comes from young, star-forming galaxies several billion light years away. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1744 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1744_BLASTpayload-sm.jpg The BLAST payload, at right, is readied for launch from the Long Duration Balloon facility near McMurdo Station in December 2006. The International Polar Year (IPY) officially comes to a close this month. But the legacy of the two-year campaign to learn more about the world's polar regions will likely last far into the future. Education and Outreach Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1731 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1731_galleyOutside-sm.jpg The AGAP field camp in East Antarctica during the 2008-09 summer season. Two National Science Foundation experiments at the South Pole will be featured in a live Webcast as part of a special event marking the 2009 Year of Astronomy. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1737 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1737_iceCubeSunset-sm.jpg The IceCube neutrino detector laboratory collects the data from the strings of detectors buried in the ice below the South Pole. Natural releases of carbon dioxide from the Southern Ocean due to shifting wind patterns could have amplified global warming at the end of the last ice age - and could be repeated as manmade warming proceeds, according to a new paper in the journal Science. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1730 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1730_glacierAfloat-sm.jpg A glacier afloat in the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic Peninsula. A new study by scientists at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory says shifting winds appear to pull CO2 out of the ocean and into the atmosphere. Just what does a humpback whale in the Southern Ocean do all day? Well, eat, that's for certain. A lot. But how much? It's a question that a team of scientists will address with some high-tech tagging instruments - and steady hands and sharp eyes. The Biological World Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1727 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1727_suctionCupHumpBack-sm.jpg Ari Friedlaender attaches a suction-cup tag to a humpback whale off the coast of New England. Scientists have known that lakes exist beneath Antarctica's ice sheets since the late 1960s, but only more recently have glaciologists like Slawek Tulaczyk discovered that the subglacial waterworks appears to play a key role in ice sheet dynamics. Ice and Snow Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1726 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1726_gpsStationSetUp-sm.jpg Slawek Tulaczyk and British colleague John Woodward set up a GPS station on the Whillans Ice Stream to help study subglacial lakes that regularly drain and fill, a process that appears to speed ice flow. A U.S.-led international team of scientists has created the first detailed picture of a rugged mountain range buried under more than 4 kilometers of ice in East Antarctica. Earth Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1720 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-gamburtsev-sm.jpg An artist's rendering of the Antarctic Gamburtsev Province project shows the location of the mountain range in East Antarctica, which scientists mapped using instrumented aircraft. Hundreds of meters below the sea ice sits the continental shelf, home to a unique marine menagerie. How this community will respond to climate change is a story that interests scientists like Craig Smith, David DeMaster and Carrie Thomas. The Biological World Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1715 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-1715_boxCorePrep-sm.jpg Scientists prepare a box core for deployment off the ARSV Laurence M. Gould in 2008. The device takes samples of sediment and marine life from the seafloor. Scientists studying climate change have long believed that while most of the globe has been getting steadily warmer, a large part of Antarctica - the East Antarctic Ice Sheet - has actually been getting colder. But new research shows that for the last 50 years, much of Antarctica has been warming at a rate comparable to the rest of the world. Ice and Snow Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1686 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-aArcticaThrmlImg_012209-sm.jpg This illustration depicts the warming that scientists have determined has occurred in West Antarctica during the last 50 years, with the dark red showing the area that has warmed the most. The NSF-funded study was recently published in the journal 'Nature.' Researchers from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia have teamed up to explore one of the last relatively uncharted areas of East Antarctica, an expanse that may prove to be the soft underbelly an ice sheet once thought inviolate from climate change. Ice and Snow Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1678 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-twinOtter-sm.jpg A ski-equipped Twin Otter flies over a field camp in West Antarctica during an aerogeophysical survey of two fast-moving glaciers during the 2004-05 field season. The National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have successfully launched and demonstrated a newly designed super-pressure balloon prototype that will one day enable a new era of high-altitude scientific research. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1684 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-ldblaunch-sm.jpg A long-duration balloon is inflated at a balloon launch facility near McMurdo Station for an experiment studying the origins of cosmic rays. It all started with a science fair project at James Monroe Middle School in Albuquerque, N.M. Last month, teacher Turtle Haste and her student Andy Olander presented their data on a project studying sun shadows around the world - including Antarctica - at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco. Education and Outreach Fri, 9 Jan 2009 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1677 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-shadowproject-sm.jpg Polies measure the shadow cast by the geographic pole during the austral summer last year. A team of scientists working around Byrd Glacier in Antarctica this season may shake up scientific orthodoxy about the formation of the continent's tallest and longest mountain range. The researchers believe the Transantarctic Mountains are the remnant of an ancient plateau, challenging the commonly held theory that the mountains were uplifted through geologic forces. Earth Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1668 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-fieldsafety-sm.jpg From left, Audrey Huerta, Stephanie Kay, Meilani Bowman-Kamahao and Ann Blyth take a field safety course in the Sierra Mountains in preparation of their fieldwork this season in the Transantarctic Mountains. It won't help the Titanic, but a newly derived, simple law may help scientists improve their climate models and glaciologists predict where icebergs will calve off from their parent ice sheets, according to a team of Penn State researchers. Ice and Snow Fri, 5 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1638 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-rossseabergs-sm.jpg Icebergs afloat in the Ross Sea. Mike Goebel uses high- and low-tech methods to find what Antarctic fur seals had for dinner. The interest in diet isn't simply for curiosity's sake. Goebel and his NOAA colleagues use the information to study the health of the marine ecosystem around Livingston Island. The Biological World Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1625 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-shirreff-sm.jpg An Antarctic fur seal lounges in front of the Cape Shirreff field camp on Livingston Island. There's an old saying: You are what you eat. But the krill-based diet of penguins breeding and living on King George Island off the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula first tipped scientists off that food could provide an altogether different insight. The Biological World Wed, 26 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1621 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-adeliecolony-sm.jpg An Adélie penguin colony near the Copa field camp on King George Island. A team of oceanographers will spend more than three weeks in the infamously rough Drake Passage to learn more about the world's largest ocean current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1607 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-cpiesdeploy-sm.jpg Scientists and ship crew deploy a CPIES instrument during calm weather in Drake Passage last year. There are more than 200 science projects around the world flying the International Polar Year banner. One group envisions weaving all those stories of scientific discovery into one photographic tapestry. Education and Outreach Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1604 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-andrillipy-sm.jpg The ANDRILL drill camp on the ice shelf in 2006. ANDRILL is one of 200 International Polar Year projects that Louise Huffman would like to weave into a photographic tapestry. Anil Ananthaswamy talks about how cosmology today is in crisis. He asks, "Can the next generation of experiments in cosmology and particle physics help anchor the theories to reality?" Experiments at the South Pole may be key to answering that challenge. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1610 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/images/rss-spt-sm.jpg The South Pole Telescope, left, and BICEP experiments collect data about the origins of the universe from the South Pole during the winter Was part of Antarctica once a sort of highway upon which vertebrates, perhaps even early mammals, traversed between South America and Australia? That is just one of the intriguing questions drawing Ross MacPhee to little-visited Livingston Island off the Antarctic Peninsula this austral summer. Earth Thu, 6 Nov 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1570 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-seymourdig-sm.jpg Scientists, from left, Kate Keeley, Louis Jacobs, Yosuke Nishida and Clare Flemming dig for fossils on Seymour Island December 2007. Outside of penguins and seals that congregate on the continent's coastal fringes, Antarctica appears to be a lifeless cube of ice, where only humans have the temerity to venture and survive for brief periods of time. But John Priscu sees the ice sheets as home to a potentially rich community of microorganisms - life lived at the extreme. Ice and Snow Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1591 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-priscu-sm.jpg John Priscu, center, works with students in the McMurdo Dry Valleys during the extended season in 2008 to study life in the cold and dark. It's been about 20 years since the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs initiated a program to recover an ice core from Greenland. Now the U.S. Antarctic Program is in the midst of its most ambitious ice-coring project to date, one that will augment and improve the Greenland climate record. Ice and Snow Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1590 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-icecorelab-sm.jpg The shelves of the National Ice Core Lab in Lakewood, Colo., are filled with ice cores, including many from the GISP2 project. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core program will enter its second drilling season as the team races against the clock to get through about 800 meters of brittle ice in just a few short weeks. The eventual payoff: The most detailed record of greenhouse gases over the last 100,000 years. Ice and Snow Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1573 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-waiscore-sm.jpg WAIS Divide drillers handle an ice core under the arch facility built at the camp for that purpose. This will be the second drilling season for the project. The bottom of McMurdo Sound is teeming with life - from brittle stars to scallops to wildly diverse single-celled critters called foraminifera. That's the story today. But what happened in the ocean millions of years ago? That's a hard question to answer because there are few signs of these critters in the fossil records. Earth Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1566 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-explorerscove-sm.jpg Marine fauna abounds on the seafloor of Explorer's Cove, New Harbor, in McMurdo Sound. As the tropics go, so goes West Antarctica. That's the conclusion from scientists who analyzed ice cores recovered by the U.S. component of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) program, funded by the National Science Foundation. Ice and Snow Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1560 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-itase02-sm.jpg The ITASE team in the field in December 2002 during which it collected ice cores for climate research. Scientists have studied the night sky for thousands of years searching for clues to help them understand the universe. The South Pole Telescope team achieved a major milestone toward using a new technique to probe the most mysterious component of the universe, dark energy. Space and Atmospheric Physics Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1558 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-sptdiscovery-sm.jpg The Milky Way and aurora australis color the night sky behind the South Pole Telescope, an experiment to unlock the mysteries of the universe, including the nature of dark energy. Stephen Pekar, a geologist at Queens College in New York, will lead a 15-member team across the sea ice of McMurdo Sound to a site called Offshore New Harbor. The scientists hope to find the best spot to drill for sediments that would have recorded the climatic transition of Antarctica from a greenhouse to an icehouse 34 million years ago. Earth Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1555 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-seismicsurvey-sm.jpg Scientists conduct a seismic survey on the sea ice covering McMurdo Sound during the 2005-06 field season. The Larsen C Ice Shelf is the most likely suspect to succumb to the warming climate along the Antarctic Peninsula in the next decade. Scientists are headed to the remote ice shelf this season to install instruments that will monitor the floating block of ice before it disintegrates to learn about how such collapses occur. Ice and Snow Fri, 3 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1545 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-weathergps-sm.jpg An automatic weather and GPS station in Greenland. Scientists will install similar instruments on the Larsen C Ice Shelf along the Antarctic Peninsula. West Antarctica and Greenland get all the press when it comes to stories about climate change. But East Antarctica has more ice than both of those ice sheets combined, and some of its glaciers appear to be thinning. An aerial survey will use the latest technology to take a closer look. Ice and Snow Fri, 3 Oct 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1550 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-airsar-sm.jpg NASA JPL scientists Yunling Lou, left, and Eric Rignot work on line selection while flying AirSAR missions over the Antarctic Peninsula in 2004. Antarctic icefish would seem to serve as odd specimens for study, a family of fish endemic to the Southern Ocean that probably couldn't survive anywhere else. But their unique characteristics are helping teach scientists about human diseases. The Biological World Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1540 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-icefishes-sm.jpg Scientists aboard the ARSV Laurence M. Gould prepare fish traps during a science cruise this past winter around the Antarctic Peninsula. Photo Courtesy: Bill Detrich Dinosaurs, asteroids and death - mass extinctions don't get more exciting than the most recent one of 65 million years ago when an asteroid apparently hit the Earth and wiped out most of life, including the dinosaurs. But one team of scientists is heading to Antarctica to possibly challenge that orthodoxy. Earth Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1534 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-kirschvink-sm.jpg Geobiologist Joe Kirschvink points to the KT extinction boundary on Seymour Island. Photo Courtesy: Joe Kirschvink The early summer season flights arrived in McMurdo later than normal to help the U.S. Antarctic Program save money in a tight fiscal environment. For Terry Deshler's group, which studies the annual ozone depletion over Antarctica, that means more than two weeks of lost data. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 12 Sep 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1530 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-deshler-sm.jpg The University of Wyoming science team launches a balloon carrying an ozonesonde from near the sea ice at McMurdo Station in 2005. Photo Courtesy: Terry Deshler Ted Scambos is the lead scientist at Boulder, Colo.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, which supports research into the frozen places of the world. The Antarctic Sun sat down with Scambos at his office at the University of Colorado-Boulder to talk about climate change, ice shelves and his upcoming projects in the Antarctic. Ice and Snow Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1516 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-scambos_sled-sm.jpg Glaciologist Ted Scambos hauls a sled during an expedition to an Antarctic iceberg. As the lead scientists at Boulder, Colo.-based National Snow and Ice Data Center, Scambos is one of the foremost experts on polar ice dynamics, particularly ice shelves. Photo Courtesy: Ted Scambos About a quarter of a billion years ago, the most severe extinction event in the planet's history wiped out just about every form of life on Earth. Why? That's the big question that spurred Matthew Saltzman and colleagues to go to the Transantarctic Mountains of Antarctica to find the answer. Earth Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1511 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-extinct_ridge-sm.jpg A ridge in the Transantarctic Mountains where the Permian-Triassic extinction boundary is evident. Matthew Saltzman and colleagues spent five weeks in the region collecting samples to see if they can find clues as to what caused a mass extinction 250 million years ago. Photo Courtesy: Matthew Saltzman National Science Foundation-funded scientists working in an ice-free region of Antarctica have discovered the last traces of tundra - in the form of fossilized plants and insects - on the interior of the southernmost continent before temperatures began a relentless drop millions of years ago. Earth Wed, 6 Aug 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1510 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-fossil_allan-sm.jpg In December 2006, Allan Ashworth picks through a pile of shale looking for fossils and other evidence of a tundra environment that he and others believe disappeared in the McMurdo Dry Valleys about 14 million years ago. Their findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek Diminishing sea ice. Declining krill populations. Increasing snowfall and rain. Now it appears even ticks are harassing Adélie penguins along the rapidly warming Antarctic Peninsula. One group of researchers is using statistical analyses to figure out exactly what's going on. The Biological World Fri, 1 Aug 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1506 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-naveen_lynch-sm.jpg Heather Lynch monitors a gentoo penguin study group on Petermann Island. Visible to the south is a refuge constructed by Argentina in 1955. Across the ice-filled Penola Strait are Mount Mill, Lumiere Peak, Mount Demaria and Cape Tuxen. Photo Credit: Ron Naveen/c 2008 Oceanites, Inc. It's not every day hiking around the Transantarctic Mountains that one stumbles upon a piece of granite that's 1.4 billion years old. But that "one-in-a-million" chance has proven to be a pivotal piece of evidence connecting East Antarctica to the western United States as part of an ancient supercontinent called Rodinia. Earth Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1505 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-goodge_field-sm.jpg Researchers Andrew Barth, left, and Devon Brecke collect rocks near Milan Ridge in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic Mountains. A 1.4-billion-year-old chunk of granite found by John Goodge's team has proven to be a valuable piece of evidence linking Antarctica to the western United States as part of an ancient supercontinent. Photo Credit: John Goodge Antarctica is a tough place to predict the weather. A new forecasting model used around the world may help forecasters improve their predictions, which are essential for safe operations on the continent. Oceans and Atmosphere Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1503 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-aws-sm.jpg Former Byrd Polar Meteorology group member Ryan Fogt, left, and Shelley Knuth, with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, install an acoustic depth gauge on the Windless Bight Automatic Weather Station in January 2006. Weather models rely on data from these weather stations to produce accurate forecasts. Mount Erebus looms in the background. Photo Credit: Polar Meteorology Group/Byrd Polar Research Center Not all of the research related to the ANDRILL coring project relates to climate change. Scientists at Byrd Polar Research Center are examining small fragments of the core to learn more about Antarctica's tectonic history, which may help understand modern-day earthquakes. Earth Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1501 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-cristina-sm.jpg Cristina Millan examines fragments of the ANDRILL core under a microscope in Terry Wilson's laboratory at The Ohio State University. The researchers are interested in learning more about the tectonic history of Antarctica, which will tell them something about earthquake processes elsewhere. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek The Wilkins Ice Shelf is experiencing further disintegration that is threatening the collapse of the ice bridge connecting the shelf to Charcot Island. It is likely the break-up of the bridge will put the remainder of the ice shelf at risk. Ice and Snow Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1499 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-wilkins08-sm.jpg This image from the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite is one of a series of images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Photo Credit: European Space Agency Ellen Mosley-Thompson helped pioneer ice core research beginning in the 1970s, when she and her colleague, Lonnie Thompson, discovered that dust particles could tell scientists much about past climate. At age 60, she's planning her first ocean-going expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula. Ice and Snow Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1481 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-dome1-sm.jpg Navy Seabees constructed the South Pole Dome Station in the 1970s, during which time a 100-meter-long ice core was extracted from the site. Researcher Ellen Mosley-Thompson used the core to reconstruct a 900-year climate record, using the dust content and isotope analysis. Photo Credit: John Perry/Antarctic Photo Library Ice cores contain a wealth of information about past climate and environmental conditions, with clues in the form of trapped bubbles of gas and varying concentrations of chemical species and insoluble dust. Paolo Gabrielli wants to improve that history by studying miniscule amounts of metals carried to the ice mainly by dust, what scientists call ultra-trace elements. Ice and Snow Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1491 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-paolo-sm.jpg Scientist Paolo Gabrielli examines an ice core in the cold storage facility at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center. Gabrielli studies trace and ultra-trace elements in ice cores, miniscule amounts of metals that say something about past environmental conditions and pollution. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek Earth scientists David Barbeau and Ian Dalziel both want to know exactly when the Drake Passage between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula opened, an event that may have played a key role in turning Antarctica to ice 35 million years ago. Earth Thu, 3 Jul 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1477 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-drake_rockoutcrop-sm.jpg Members of Team Barbeau - from left, students Willy Guenthner, Kendra Murray and David Gombosi - collect rocks from an outcropping along the Antarctic Peninsula during a science cruise aboard the ARSV Laurence M. Gould during the 2006-07 summer season. Photo Credit: David Barbeau Douglas Wiens and colleagues combined seismological and GPS data to reveal that an ice stream in West Antarctica releases two bursts of seismic waves every day, each one equivalent to a magnitude 7 earthquake. Ice and Snow Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1476 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-wiens-sm.jpg Douglas Wiens, at left, led a project in West Antarctica that discovered ice streams release enough seismic energy when they move to cause a 7 magnitude earthquake. Lonnie Thompson has made more than 50 science expeditions to some 15 countries over the last 30-odd years. He solidified his reputation earlier this decade after warning that Mount Kilimanjaro would permanently lose its frosty cap by 2020. Approaching 60, Thompson's quest to retrieve subtropical and tropical ice cores from around the world isn't slowing down in the least. Ice and Snow Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1470 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-thompson_alpaca-sm.jpg Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, left, and University of Texas botanist Blanca Leon examine a deposit of ancient alpaca moss recently exposed by the retreat of the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes during field work in 2005. The deposit was covered some 5,200 years ago as the ice cap expanded. Photo Courtesy: Lonnie Thompson/OSU Carol Landis retired from teaching five years early - and went right to work educating the public about what scientists are doing at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center as its education and outreach coordinator. Education and Outreach Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1465 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-BPRC_outreach-sm.jpg Rachel Hintz, a Ph.D. candidate in science education, works as the graduate research associate in the BPRC Learning Center. She schedules and carries out the tours, does classroom visits, and refines curricular materials for the outreach and education office at BPRC, overseen by Carol Landis. Photo Credit: Carol Landis Even the Antarctic winter cannot protect the Wilkins Ice Shelf. More ice broke away from the disintergrating ice shelf, the European Space Agency reported in June, the first time such an event has occurred in the winter. Ice and Snow Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1466 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-wilkins_satimage2-sm.gif Wilkins Ice Shelf has experienced further break-up, with an area of about 160 square kilometers breaking off. This image was acquired by ESA's Envisat Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar, which highlights the rapidly dwindling strip of ice that is protecting thousands of kilometers of the ice shelf from further collapse. This is the first ever-documented episode to occur in winter. Photo Credit: ESA The San Francisco-based science museum Exploratorium is bringing polar research in the Arctic and Antarctic to a laptop or home computer near you with live interviews and reports from the field. Education and Outreach Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1451 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-explo_mary-sm.jpg Mary Miller, seated, interviews penguin biologist David Ainley, seen on monitor behind her, during a live Exploratorium Webcast with McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Miller is the principal investigator on an International Polar Year Project called Ice Stories, which brings live interviews and reports from the field to the Web. She and an Exploratorium crew will head to Antarctica for the 2008-09 season. Photo Credit: Exploratorium In Antarctica, where the weight of its mighty ice sheets have squashed the earth's crust below, Terry Wilson and an international team of scientists are studying a phenomenon called post-glacial rebound. The work is part of an ambitious project, called POLENET, which will help put some real numbers to sea level rise. Earth Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1453 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-polenet_hownun-sm.jpg Scientists install a POLENET station on Howard Nunatak in West Antarctica in January 2008. The sites include GPS and/or seismic instruments that provide data about the bedrock below the ice sheets. Solar panels are used in the summer for power, while batteries keep the instruments running in the winter. Photo Credit: Mike Willis Climate change remains a complex issue. It's not as simple as turning up the heat by burning fossil fuels. Many scientists at Byrd Polar Research Center study the problem by various methods, from drilling ice and sediment cores to mapping changes in ice sheets via satellites. Ice and Snow Fri, 30 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1438 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-change_kili-sm.jpg Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro, made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway, is the only ice-capped peak on the African continent. Researchers believe that more than 80 percent of the ice fields atop the peak have wasted away within the last century, taking with them one of our most important records of past climate history. Photo Credit: Lonnie G. Thompson/OSU More than three decades after much of the world banned or restricted its use, the pesticide known as DDT is still showing up at consistent levels in the tissue of Adélie penguins in Antarctica. The Biological World Fri, 30 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1436 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-DDT_mountain-sm.jpg Researchers Heidi Geisz, right, and Dan Evans survey seabird populations in the Antarctic Peninsula. Geisz recently published a paper that says DDT levels in penguins aren't declining as they are elsewhere in other animal populations around the world. She and her co-authors believe glaciers store the chemical and release it as they melt into the ocean. Photo Credit: Geoffrey Gilbert A decade after using an Earth-observing satellite to image Antarctica to create the first high-resolution mosaic of the continent, Ken Jezek hopes the world's space agencies will pull together their spaceborne resources to map the cryosphere in unprecedented detail and breadth. Ice and Snow Fri, 23 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1433 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-bprc_Ice-sm.gif The first high-resolution satellite mosaic of Antarctica was created by Byrd Polar Research Center in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency. The image revealed features never seen before, such as ice streams some 800 kilometers long. Photo Credit: NASA A team of scientists discovered three years ago that icebergs are hotspots of biological activity. The researchers are returning to the Weddell Sea to further investigate this phenomenon and to determine its potential for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Biological World Fri, 16 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1424 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-iceberg_phantom-sm.jpg Researcher Ken Smith, right, led an expedition in 2005 to study Antarctic icebergs using a multidisciplinary approach that included examining life beneath the icebergs using this small remotely operated vehicle. Smith and company are returning to the Weddell Sea to learn more about how icebergs affect the marine ecosystem. Photo Credit: Rob Sherlock Edith Taylor, a paleobotanist at the University of Kansas, seeks answers to how flowering seed plants, the dominate flora species today, evolved over time. She recently received a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue laboratory work on Antarctic plant fossils collected earlier this decade from the Beardmore Glacier area. Earth Fri, 2 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1413 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-plantfossils-sm.jpg Edith L. Taylor, left, and Ruben Cuneo excavate rocks at a site informally called Alfie's Ridge at the head of the Shackleton Glacier during a previous field season in Antarctica. Children's author Nancy Etchemendy, known for spinning science fiction and horror tales for young adults, hopes to tell the story of an Antarctic science expedition to the Weddell Sea through her own self-described "gothic sensibilities," as well as through the words of a curious boy named Gib Finney. Education and Outreach Fri, 9 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contentHandler.cfm?id=1420 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/images/rss-etchemendy-sm.jpg Children's author Nancy Etchemendy will get a close look at some bergs in June aboard a research vessel, as she writes about the expedition for a series of books for kids and young adults. Researchers with the Palmer Long Term Ecological Research program are using a powerful new tool to sweep the ocean of important data - the Slocum glider, a versatile autonomous robot that can cover hundreds of kilometers for weeks at a time. The Biological World Fri, 2 May 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1416 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-slocum-sm.jpg Coastal Ocean Observation Lab Web site A crew deploys a Slocum glider. The robots can cover hundreds of kilometers on a single battery pack, sampling the ocean far more efficiently that a vessel on its own. A new online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, provides a one-stop site of resources specifically designed for teachers of grades K-5. The NSF-funded site provides resources for understanding and teaching about the polar regions. Education and Outreach Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1411 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-beyondmag-sm.jpg A Web screen shot of the second issue of "Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears," a new online magazine that presents educational material on polar issues that elementary school teachers can use in the classroom. The search for life on Jupiter's moon Europa will begin in an ice-covered lake in Antarctica, where scientists and engineers will test an autonomous robot that can make three-dimensional maps. The Biological World Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1409 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-bloodfalls-sm.jpg Blood Falls "pours" out of the Taylor Glacier onto the ice-covered surface of Lake Bonney. A robot that scientists will deploy during the 2008-09 season will detect if the ancient saltwater deposit is seeping into the water below The spectacular disintegration of a large chunk of the Wilkins Ice Shelf off the Antarctic Peninsula in March may be part of an accelerating pattern of climate change in the region. The collapse could prove to be a boon to scientists studying climate change in the region. Ice and Snow Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1408 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-wilkins-sm.jpg The British Antarctic Survey captured live images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf beginning to collapse. Alison Murray studies tiny critters with a potentially big role in the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. She is interested in how bacterioplankton make their living in the Antarctic winter waters. The Biological World Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1403 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-microbes-sm.jpg Members of Alison Murray's field team in 2001 take water samples down to 45 meters off shore of Bonaparte Point on the Antarctic Peninsula. Antarctic sea ice remains relatively healthy while the sea ice in the Arctic continues a precipitous decline in overall volume, according to the latest report from scientists using remote sensors to track sea ice extent each year. Oceans and Atmosphere Thu, 3 Apr 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1401 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-seaice-sm.jpg The bow of the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea easily pushes its way through the sea ice channel to McMurdo Station. Researchers involved in the United States component of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) make use of many tools, from ice cores to satellites, as they attempt to reconstruct the continent's climatic history over the last 200 to 1,000-plus years. Ice and Snow Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1384 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-itase0708-sm.jpg ITASE team member Dan Dixon measures the diameter of an ice core during the 2007-08 field season Soon we may have to call it the Subantarctic Peninsula. Scientists who monitor the ecosystem at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula say a warmer, moist climate has migrated into their research area, virtually eliminating perennial sea ice there and driving the local Adélie penguin population to the brink of extinction. The Biological World Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1387 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-gettingwarmer-sm.jpg Gentoo penguins watch the research vessel Laurence M. Gould near Petermann Island. A couple of years ago, life at Cape Royds for the world's most southerly Adélie penguin colony looked dire. But after two successful reproductive seasons, the colony may be poised to spring back, while changes are under way at other larger rookeries around Ross and Beaufort islands. The Biological World Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1381 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-leopardseal-sm.jpg A leopard seal crosses an ice floe at Cape Crozier during the 2006-07 field season. The South Pole Telescope was constructed during the 2006-07 austral summer. The following winter, the telescope achieved what scientists call "first light" (meaning, it worked), found two quasars (bright objects that may represent massive, radiation-emitting black holes at the center of a galaxy), and spied some small, dark spots that represent galaxy clusters. Now it's time to start really unraveling the mysteries of the universe. Space and Atmospheric Physics Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1369 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-sptupgrade-sm.jpg An iridium flare flashes across the night sky over South Pole. The six-month night sky and dry, clear conditions at the Pole are ideal for experiments like the South Pole Telescope. Construction of the world's largest, and perhaps most unique, telescope is 50 percent complete. Drillers deployed the 18th string of digital sensors for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory array on Jan. 25, 2008. That means there are now 40 strings of digital optical modules buried up to 2,500 meters into the ice around the South Pole. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1366 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-halfdone-sm.jpg IceCube drillers Eric "Bear" Coplin, left, and Graham Tilbury monitor an ice hole as the hotwater drill ascends. To look deep inside an Antarctic volcano, scientist Phil Kyle and his team have to use a little force. Researchers spent more than three months installing an array of seismometers around Mount Erebus to listen to waves of energy generated by small, controlled blasts from explosives they buried along its flanks and perimeter. By studying the refracted and reflected seismic waves, the scientists can map the interior of the volcano. Earth Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1355 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-plumbingerebus-sm.jpg Seismologist Catherine Snelson sets off small explosions on the flank of Mount Erebus to produce energy, or seismic waves, that instruments will measure and record. Photo Credit: Martin Reed Quick deployment is one of the key components that NASA is after for a space habitat that will shelter astronauts on long-term missions to the moon and beyond to Mars. One leading concept is an inflatable building. A team from NASA brought a terrestrial version of the structure to McMurdo in January to test a number of variables, including its resiliency in the tough Antarctic environment. Space and Atmospheric Physics Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1350 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-moonshelter-sm.jpg The NASA inflatable lunar habitat took less than an hour to erect. It will remain at McMurdo Station for one year to test how well it does in the elements. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek A leading expert in ocean acidification from California State University San Marcos, Victoria Fabry is the principal investigator for a team of scientists in Antarctica studying how Southern Ocean pteropods, small gastropod mollusks (sea snails and slugs), may respond to higher acidic levels of seawater predicted for the next century. The Biological World Thu, 7 Feb 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1343 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-acidification-sm.jpg Graduate student Tansey Hall, left, and undergraduate John Tollison bubble water in the aquarium room located in the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center at McMurdo Station. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek Mike Comberiate and his team of engineers and students are using a small robotic vehicle to test a host of systems that NASA may use in future missions to the moon and Mars, as well as in more immediate operations like a maintenance flight to the Hubble Space Telescope. Space and Atmospheric Physics Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1335 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-nasabot-sm.jpg Steve Strasburg prepares the NASAbot for a demonstration at McMurdo Station. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek The Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) is a National Science Foundation-funded Science and Technology Center. CReSIS pulls together some of the top scientists and engineers nationally and from abroad to solve the deficiencies in today's ice sheet models through developing new technologies and field research. Ice and Snow Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1324 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-cresis-sm.jpg Pennsylvania State University graduate students Huw Horgan, left, and Paul Winberry perform field work last summer in Greenland for the CReSIS project. Photo Credit: Sridhar Anandakrishnan/CReSIS For the second straight season the scientific program known as ANDRILL enjoyed unprecedented success, extracting a sediment core 1,138.54 meters below the seafloor with a recovery rate of 98 percent. Earth Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1307 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-andrillseason2-sm.jpg Emperor penguins appear to march in line in front of the ANDRILL camp on the ice shelf. Photo Credit: Cristina Millan/ANDRILL One of three long-duration balloon experiments launched on the ice shelf near McMurdo Station at the end of December made an encore appearance during its sub-orbital spin around the Antarctic. The joint National Science Foundation-NASA program marked an historic first with the successful launch and operation of three balloon-borne experiments in one season. Space and Atmospheric Physics Fri, 4 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1306 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-balloons-lg.jpg Scientist John Mitchell watches a balloon carrying the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass (CREAM) payload. Photo Credit: Peter Rejcek A chance meeting between a digital cartography whiz and a geologist in need of a three-dimensional way to represent the McMurdo Dry Valleys has spawned a new map-making and archiving service for the U.S. Antarctic Program. Earth Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1304 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-agic-sm.jpg The newly created Antarctic Geospatial Information Center will become the primary repository and resource for mapmaking in the U.S. Antarctic Program. Graphic Credit: Paul Morin It doesn't get any better than the McMurdo Dry Valleys if you want to get at the deep roots of a volcano's magma system, to see how the liquid rocks pushes its way through the Earth's crust. Earth Thu, 3 Jan 2008 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1303 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-magma-sm.jpg Bruce Marsh, third from the right, and his science team study a map from their camp in Bull Pass in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Photo Credit: Paul Morin The polar regions and those who have devoted their careers to studying them are stars in their own traveling road show, POLAR-PALOOZA. A public education and outreach initiative supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, POLAR-PALOOZA is something of a "scientific circus", in the words of one of its organizers, Geoff Haines-Stiles. Education and Outreach Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1298 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-palooza-sm.jpg Alaskan native Richard Glenn and other POLAR-PALOOZA speakers present stories about the polar regions to a packed house. Photo Credit: Sophie Warny/Louisiana State Museum of Natural Science After 25 years of conducting research in the Antarctic, glaciologist Robert Bindschadler finally got his wish - a true color map of the continent that offers unparalleled details of its features. The Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) is the first major, tangible product to emerge from the International Polar Year. Earth Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1301 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-mosaic-sm.jpg The LIMA mosaic is the first major product to emerge from the International Polar Year. Photo Credit: NASA More than 15 years since first discovering dinosaur bones on Antarctica's Mount Kirkpatrick, scientists confirmed this month that the remains belonged to a previously undiscovered genus and species from the Early Jurassic. Earth Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1300 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-dino-sm.jpg Artist's reconstruction of Glacialisaurus hammeri and Antarctica during the Early Jurassic 190 millions years ago. Painting by William Stout; copyright William Hammer. A two-month science cruise aboard the Research Vessel Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer called Sea Ice Mass Balance in the Antarctic (SIMBA) set out in September 2007 to characterize a sea ice ecosystem off the coast of West Antarctica. Oceans and Atmosphere Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1293 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-simba-sm.jpg Belgian researchers on the SIMBA science cruise prepare gear for use on an ice floe. Photo Credit: SIMBA A handful of school teachers across the nation are joining Antarctic science teams as part of an International Polar Year (IPY) program that pairs educators and scientists - Polar Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating, or PolarTREC, for short. Education and Outreach Thu, 6 Dec 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1289 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-polartrec-sm.jpg Teacher Sarah Anderson (inset) spent nearly two months aboard the Research Vessel Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer. Photo Credit: SIMBA Web site (inset) and Sarah Anderson/PolarTREC So what happens when you turn off the lights in Antarctica? John Priscu and his team of scientists plan to stay in the McMurdo Dry Valleys until April to find out what happens to the ice-covered lake ecosystem as polar night approaches. The Biological World Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1283 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-polarnight-sm.jpg John Priscu and a team of scientists will remain in the Dry Valleys until April as twilight and cold creeps across the valleys and ice-covered lakes. Photo Credit: John Priscu Scientist Bob Bindschadler will journey to one of the harshest parts of Antarctica to study how the ocean interacts with ice at the continent's perimeter by looking underneath the ice sheet. Ice and Snow Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1277 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-pineglacier-sm.jpg A satellite image from NASA's Landsat Program shows one of Antarctica's fastest moving glaciers, Pine Island Glacier. Photo Credit: NASA Oceans and Atmosphere The Antarctic Integrated System Sciences program will administer projects that transcend disciplinary boundaries. It will consider proposals that delve for a deeper, more complex understanding of Antarctica and its past, present and future roles on the planet. Education and Outreach Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1276 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-integrated-sm.jpg The new Antarctic Integrated System Sciences program brings together multiple disciplines such as oceanography, glaciology, geophysics and perhaps even astrophysics. Photo by: Henry Kaiser, Sarah Anderson, Steven Profazier, Bill Meurer and Glenn Grant A mountain range the size of the European Alps, but buried below hundreds of meters of ice and snow, has puzzled and enticed Antarctic scientists since its discovery 50 years ago. Now a international team of researchers will venture into the Antarctic Gamburstev Province to learn about the origins of the subglacial mountain range. Earth Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1278 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-agap-sm.jpg Researchers for the AGAP project in 2007-08 can expect conditions like those experienced during the TAMSEIS project (2001-03). Photo by: Doug Wiens A science team surveying benthic communities in McMurdo Sound believes skinny is better when trying to reach remote areas below the sea ice without a lot of fuss. That's why the team developed SCINI - a Submersible Capable of under Ice Navigation and Imaging. The Biological World Thu, 8 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1270 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-SCINI-sm.jpg At left, Marcus Kolb, Nick Huerta and Bryan Newbold assemble SCINI before a deployment. Photo by: Mindy Bell The International Polar Year is about creating long-standing legacies of international research collaborations; capturing the world's imagination in science and exploration; and inspiring future generations of scientists and engineers. Education and Outreach Thu, 8 Nov 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1272 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-lakebonney-sm.jpg Two members of John Priscu's research team in 2004 carry water samples from Lake Bonney. Photo by: Joe Mastroianni One of the premiere projects of the International Polar Year (IPY), ANDRILL is a $30 million geological time machine. Using a specialized rig adapted for drilling in the Antarctic, ANDRILL will bore deep into the marine basin to extract a kilometer-long sediment core that will tell scientists about Antarctica's geological past and its future role in climate change. Earth Thu, 1 Nov 2007 15:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1265 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-andrill-sm.jpg The ANDRILL drill site team prepares to extrude a sediment core. Photo Credit: Marco Taviani Even after 50 years of continuous research across Antarctica by scientists from countries around the world, there are still parts of the icy continent that remain relatively unexplored. A team of Norwegian and American researchers will take a long trek into one of those unknown areas. Ice and Snow Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1239 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-ipytraverse-sm.jpg Tracked vehicles, similar to this one, will carry the traverse scientists. Photo by: Norwegian-U.S. IPY Traverse Microbiologists from the University of Minnesota are still learning just how hardy several recently discovered species of molds are as part of an effort to preserve historic structures around the continent. The Biological World Sun, 4 Feb 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=1243 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-microbesampling-sm.jpg Brett Arenz and Joel Jurgens retrieve soil samples. Photo by: Robert Blanchette As a geologist who studies paleoclimate, Brenda Hall generally uses glaciers to help her reconstruct climate change through history. But the researcher and three members of her team spent the month of January searching the beaches between McMurdo Sound and Terra Nova Bay looking for the remains of long-dead southern elephant seals. The Biological World Sun, 4 Feb 2007 11:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1244 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-mummyseal-sm.jpg Researcher Paul Koch examines a mummified elephant seal. Photo by: Brenda Hall John Carlstrom has taken some pleasure from stirring up things around the South Pole this summer during construction of the South Pole Telescope. "This thing's sitting out there and it's erupting; it's growing," he said in December. "It's going to be the largest thing out there. Everyone is [excited about it]." Space and Atmospheric Physics Sun, 21 Jan 2007 09:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1236 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-eyepast-sm.jpg The South Pole Telescope dominates the station skyline. Photo Credit: Jerry Marty When cosmologists - astronomers who study the origin and structure of the entire universe - must try to explain their work to laymen, they sometimes struggle to put the topic into words and images others can relate to. Space and Atmospheric Physics Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1230 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-SPT-sm.jpg A pair of cranes are used to lift the 10-meter dish into place during construction in the summer of 2006-07. Photo Credit: Jerry Marty Searching for a minute change in microwave radiation that has traveled across space for some 14 billion years requires not only state-of-the-art equipment, such as the South Pole Telescope, but it needs to occur in special locations. Space and Atmospheric Physics Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:30:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1233 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-astronomy-sm.jpg The 24-hour darkness is one ingredient in making the Pole an ideal site for astronomers. Photo Credit: Chris Danals Imagine a universe that exploded into existence and expanded exponentially, faster than the speed of light. Cosmologists operating a new telescope at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station hope to put that crucial moment and the millennia that followed after the big bang into focus. Space and Atmospheric Physics Sun, 21 Jan 2007 07:30:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1237 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-BICEP-sm.jpg The BICEP telescope made its first observations of the cosmic microwave background this past winter. Photo Credit: Steve Martaindale Mount Erebus is famous for its persistent but low-level activity as the world's southernmost active volcano. But last year it threw one of its biggest recorded tantrums during its last 165 years. Earth Sun, 14 Jan 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1232 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-erebussawyer-sm.jpg Georgina Sawyer uses an infrared spectrometer. Photo Credit: Clive Oppenheimer Antarctic science requires many different methods in the pursuit of knowledge about the seventh continent and its place in the global ecosystem. The deeply browned face and ruddy cheeks of Paul Mayewski tell a story of scientists who understand the value of spending extended time in the environment they study. Ice and Snow Sun, 28 Jan 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1227 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-itase-sm.jpg Brian Welch operates the ITASE deep radar system. Photo by: Dan Dixon On the frozen Antarctic continent, subglacial lakes are a hot spot of scientific interest, but the information they contain remains untapped. "The ice sheet in Antarctica can be as much as 5 kilometers thick, and at the bottom point, it can be quite warm, as warm as the melting point of ice," said Sridhar Anandakrishnan. Ice and Snow Sun, 4 Feb 2007 10:30:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1246 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-lakesled-sm.jpg Two researchers run the hot water drill used to obtain a seismic profile. Photo by: Sridhar Anandakrishnan Once a week at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) South Pole research site, Station Chief Jason Seifert or technician Glen Kinoshita walk into an area called the Clean Air Sector with a suitcase of glass bottles. Extending a black rod into the sky, they fish for the cleanest air in the world. Oceans and Atmosphere Sun, 4 Jan 2004 10:30:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1234 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-cleanair-sm.jpg NOAA Station Chief Jason Seifert fills a glass container on the roof of the Atmospheric Research Observatory. Photo by: Kris Kuenning Scientists creating a network to triangulate and pinpoint lightning strikes around the world are using a very narrow band of radio waves to detect the phenomena over long distances. The small network of very low frequency (VLF) receivers includes stations in the Antarctic, including at Palmer Station. VLF generally refers to radio frequencies in the range of 3 to 30 kilohertz. Space and Atmospheric Physics Sun, 28 Jan 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1228 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-lightning-sm.jpg Ryan Said kneels by an array antenna near Palmer Station in 2004. Photo Credit: Ryan Said The web site of veteran Antarctic researcher Sam Bowser sums it up well: "Science is useless unless it's shared, and most kids are born scientists." Education and Outreach Sun, 14 Jan 2007 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contentHandler.cfm?id=1249 Read the Story http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/images/rss-exploratorium-sm.jpg High school docents at the Exploratorium in San Francisco sit in on a Webcast. Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Exploratorium