Tuesday, August 8th, 2017
NASA and the Norwegian Mapping Authority are partnering to develop a satellite laser-ranging station 650 miles from the North Pole that will produce high-precision locations of orbiting satellites, help track changes in ice sheets, and improve the efficiency of marine transportation and agriculture. The Arctic station will be the latest addition to a global network
Monday, July 25th, 2016
The Arctic SDI Board, which includes mapping executives from Canada, Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, recently met in Anchorage, Alaska to further development of a robust Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure. The Arctic SDI is a cooperation based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the eight National Mapping
Friday, July 1st, 2016
How do ice sheets melt in places where surface conditions are too cold for melting? Glaciers in the McMurdo Dry Valley rarely are observed to be actively melting, yet runoff from these glaciers feeds streams, lakes, and associated ecosystems in the valleys, which are among the coldest and driest ecosystems on Earth. The processes generating
Tuesday, June 14th, 2016
Carbon dioxide emissions from dry and oxygen-rich environments will likely strengthen the climate forcing impact of thawing permafrost on top of methane release from oxygen-poor wetlands in the Arctic, according to a study in Nature Climate Change led by Northern Arizona University assistant research professor Christina Schädel. Schädel’s meta-analysis of 25 Arctic soil incubation studies
Tuesday, May 17th, 2016
Climate change creates more shrub vegetation in barren, arctic ecosystems. A study at Lund University in Sweden shows that organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are triggered to break down particularly nutritious dead parts of shrubbery. Meanwhile, the total amount of decomposition is reducing. This could have an inhibiting effect on global warming. A large
Wednesday, March 16th, 2016
LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 15, 2016—A new study of permafrost has found that the ice wedges forming the prevalent honeycomb pattern across the tundra appear to be melting rapidly across the Arctic, changing the hydrology of the region and accelerating the release of greenhouse gases with major implications for global warming. While the gradual warming
Saturday, December 27th, 2014
There’s no doubt that Arctic sea ice is melting. However, new research finds little evidence supporting the idea that Arctic sea ice loss is a major factor behind weather extremes at lower latitudes. Research published in the Journal of Climate finds that sea ice loss accounts for only a small percentage of the warming in the Arctic atmosphere that
Thursday, September 11th, 2014
University of Calgary researchers are launching a new online platform to connect millions of pieces of information about the North. By collecting satellite reports and scientific analysis, accounts from local residents and even photographs and artwork in one location, ArcticConnect is designed to make it easier for scientists to manage and access information about the
Sunday, August 10th, 2014
Canada has sent two icebreakers to the High Arctic to gather scientific data in support of its plan to bid for control of the sea floor under and beyond the North Pole. The coast guard vessels Terry Fox and Louis St. Laurent set out Friday on a six-week journey that will take them to the
Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
Monitoring wildlife in the Arctic is difficult. Study areas are cold, barren and often inaccessible. For decades scientists have struggled to study animals, like polar bears, which live in these remote areas. Now researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey have begun testing a new, yet counterintuitive solution – rather then get close to the animals,
