Oct
28
2011
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Shifting Through the Pieces
The devastating earthquakes that struck New Zealand and Japan earlier this year demonstrated that scientists still have much to learn about these catastrophic events. The NSF responded to the need of collecting data that could be applied to better disaster response in the future by funding 42 RAPID grants for a total of more than $2.5 million.
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Oct
26
2011
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Cracked
A large crack has been spotted in the Pine Island Glacier Ice Shelf in West Antarctica, threatening to break loose in what scientists believe is part of the natural cycle of calving in a region of Antarctica undergoing profound changes. The ice shelf could calve around the time an expedition expects to be in the area conducting research just 15 kilometers away.
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Oct
21
2011
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Full Bloom
Collecting flowers to determine what bugs might be present would seem to be a pretty straightforward research project. But sampling frost flowers during the spring bloom in Antarctica to study the bacteria that inhabit the delicate ice structures is an altogether different job. Scientists believe the frost flowers are capable of traveling vast distances, spreading microbes from the continent's edge to the glacial interior.
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Oct
21
2011
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New Arrivals
Two Basler BT-67 aircraft landed at the South Pole Station on Oct. 17, ending about eight months of winter isolation for 49 scientists and support personnel at the U.S. Antarctic Program's southernmost research base.
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Oct
21
2011
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Icy Conditions
Preparing McMurdo Station for the summer field season in Antarctica is never an easy task. But this year has been a real battle with the elements by support personnel, especially those who drive the big vehicles that are used to build runways, roads and piers made of ice.
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Oct
14
2011
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Recovery and Regression
Researchers at NOAA recently announced that the ozone hole that appears over Antarctica every spring in the Southern Hemisphere may start showing signs of recovery in the next decade. Meanwhile, NASA scientists have reported the Arctic experienced its worst ozone-depletion event ever in 2011.
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Oct
14
2011
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Meeting of the Minds
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative focuses on questions about how that part of the continent fits into planetary processes. At the group's 18th annual meeting, it was apparent those questions are still at the forefront, but new technologies and techniques are bringing scientists ever closer to understanding Antarctica's complex ice dynamics and its role in the global climate system.
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Oct
14
2011
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Windy Days
The popular imagination usually conjures up a picture of the South Pole as a white, desolate place with bone-chillingly cold and gale-force winds that could knock over a building. The reality is that the geographic South Pole on the high polar plateau is not particularly windy. But storm conditions converged the last week in September to bring record-breaking winds.
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Oct
07
2011
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Eye on the Future
Remote observatories generating gigabytes of data on the weather from Antarctica's vast ice sheets. An array of buoys and gliders bobbing and cruising through the Southern Ocean. Satellites using ever more powerful sensors to peer through disintegrating ice shelves. It's a possible vision of the future offered by a committee of scientists and experts tasked with identifying and summarizing priorities in the Antarctic.
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Oct
04
2011
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'Tis the Season
The long winter for those hunkered down at McMurdo Station is finally over. The first flight of the 2011-12 summer field season landed Oct. 4 (local time) at a runway constructed on the nearby sea ice in McMurdo Sound, a day later than scheduled due to earlier blizzard conditions in that part of Antarctica.
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Sep
30
2011
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On a Long Leash
Engineers and scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are about to embark on developing an underwater vehicle that will be specially designed and equipped to explore one of Earth's true last frontiers: the polar regions.
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Sep
23
2011
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Heinz Awards
Richard Alley, Evan Pugh professor of Geosciences at Penn State, is a recipient of a $100,000 Heinz Award for being a leader in climate and polar ice studies.
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Sep
23
2011
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Hitting the Ground
The thawing of frozen soil in the Arctic is becoming a familiar story. The picture in the Antarctic is less clear, largely due to the scarcity of monitoring sites until recently. An international effort involving U.S. researchers is now under way to learn more about the characteristics of Antarctic permafrost and its sensitivity to climate change.
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On Thin Ice
Early Bird Gets the Worm
