By Lutz Schirrmeister, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. Text in German below 1 Two joint Russian-German land expeditions to the Dimitrii Laptev Strait (Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island, Oyogos Yar coast) and to the lower Kolyma River (Duvanny Yar site) were carried out as part of the IPY project "Past Permafrost records in Arctic Siberia" (ID 15) with 10 and 6 participants during the summers of 2007 and 2008, respectively. Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI, Potsdam), the Russian Centre of Arctic and Antarctic Research (AARI,...

The Arctic has always been a difficult place to do any extensive monitoring and data collection. Until recently, there have only been a limited number of projects that have taken any significant, long-term, and coordinated observations of the Arctic Ocean and adjacent bodies of water. This is due in part to the extensive sea ice cover that persists over Arctic waters for a good part of the year, which makes it difficult to conduct ship surveys or deploy weather buoys and moorings to measure deep water currents. Arctic ROOS (Regional Ocean...

SciencePoles recently interviewed Dr Cynan Ellis Evans of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on the subject of Antarctic sub-glacial lakes: Large bodies of water that have accumulated beneath the vast ice sheet of Antarctica. In his interview, Dr Ellis Evans answers questions about how these lakes formed, how they are being studies, and what their significance is for Polar researchers including glaciologists, geologists, biologists, and paleo-climatologists. In addition, he sheds light on the nature of the international effort to research these lakes, and addresses more contentio...

It is August 20 in Siberia and we are in Yakutsk, Russia en route to Tiksi, Russia. "We" are a group of scientists, program managers and infrastucture development specialists from both the United States and Russia. Tiksi is a small outpost town at the mouth of the Lena River delta, and the location of a Russian Weather Service (Roshydromet) station that will now also become the location of a new meteorological and hydrological observatory. This trip is an exciting step in a program that has been developing over the last 3 years to establish Tiksi as a flagship observatory in the network being coordinated by the International Arctic Systems for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA). It is summer in Yakutsk and yesterday our local Roshydromet hosts took us on a boat trip on the ...

Warm. This is the first word that comes to mind when attending the International Conference on Permafrost held in Salekhard in June 2007. Warmed by the legendary Russian hospitality, warmed through heated discussions among leading permafrost researchers and warmed by the burning topic of the day: the worryingly warm state of permafrost. During five days, over 200 permafrost researchers and engineers from all over the world met to discuss the most recent developments in permafrost science and engineering in topics as varied as slope stability, coastal erosion, methane and carbon fluxes from permafrost soils or thermokarst development. ...

While carrying out oceanographic work in the Laptev Sea (above Siberia) in 1937, the Soviet icebreaking steamers Sedov, Sadko, and Malygin were trapped in the ice for the winter. In August 1938, the icebreaker Yermak got through to the ships (at that point drifting at latitude 83°N) and helped the Sadko and Malygin out of the ice to open sea. Unfortunately, the Sedov's steering mechanism was seriously damaged, with her rudder broken in two, as well as the sternpost supporting it. It was decided that she would be converted into a drifting research platform and a crew of 1...

On March 1 2007, students at schools around the world marked the advent of International Polar year by conducting an ice experiment. They then told the IPY community and the world by pinning a virtual balloon onto a web-based map showing exactly where they were. It proved to be quite a success, with hundreds of schools contributing so far. IPY enthusiasts also joined in, turning the map into a riot of red balloons. See the whole map here. For technical reasons, browsers don't like it if you show too many balloons at one time, so only the most recent 200 balloons are shown. However, you can see all contributed posts directly by browsing the directory from ...

The International Polar Year has begun. What a week! With US and UK launches on the Monday stirring up media attention, followed by an event in Portugal on the Wednesday and over 20 more national events on the day itself, March 1st 2007, we definitely hit the news! While traveling to Paris with Nicola, to prepare for the international launch, the phone didn't stop ringing, both sides of the Channel Tunnel and even on the Paris subway system! I was contacted by journalists as diverse as New Zealand Radio, an In-flight magazine, BBC World Service, Vatican Radio, Al Jazeera English, an Italian science magazine, Chinese TV networks, and Scientific American to name a few. During the International Ceremony itself, my phone kept shaking, and afterwards, on a tour of Paris, I saw ...

If you're a lover of the novels of Magnus Mills, then you may have read his Explorers of the New Century, in which two rival expeditions traverse distinctly polar terrain. The expeditions are vying to be the first to arrive at the "Agreed Furthest Point" (AFP), the point furthest from civilization. Imagine my surprise to find out that there actually is such a point in real life, called the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility — it's the point on the Anta...

While many nations have awarded medals for Arctic and Antarctic exploration and scientific research over the last 200 years, Russia has also awarded special breast badges for these services. The tradition of breast badges dates back to the middle of the 19th century, when they were presented by military academies. Toward the end of the 1800s, all manner of badges were being produced, including those with maritime connections. Some honored the launching of ships, goodwill naval visits to foreign seaports, awards for winners of boat races — and to commemorate ocean voyages. After the Soviet Union came into existence in 1922, the tradition of awarding special badges was continued by Soviet civil and military institutions. Here is an illustrated review of some badges awarded for p...