http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/ Science news items and articles displayed on the Antarctic Sun web site. Fri, 5 Mar 2010 2010 10:00:00 GMT http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/contentHandler.cfm?id=1192 en-us webmaster@usap.gov Public Domain; Courtesy of the United States Antarctic Program 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, 17 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, 17 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 Adelie 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, 22 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, 22 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, 15 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, 15 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, 15 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, 9 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 Adelie 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, 13 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, 9 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 Adelie 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, 31 Jul 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 Adelie 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 Adelie 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 Adelie 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 9:00:00 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 8:00:00 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 8:30:00 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 7:30:00 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