polar research

ISSN1024-0802

Special issueMay 2005

PolarResearch

Understandingour planet

better

2 RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

NoticeNeither the European Commission, nor any person acting on its behalf,may be held responsible for the use to which information contained inthis publication may be put, or for any errors which, despite carefulpreparation and checking, may appear.© European Communities, 2005Non-commercial reproduction authorised, subject to acknowledgementof source.

A magazine providing information on European research, RTD info ispublished in English, French and German by the Information andCommunication Unit of the European Commission’s Research DG.Editor in chief: Michel ClaessensTel. : +32 2 295 9971Fax: +32 2 295 8220E-mail : [email protected]

84 000 copies of this issue were published.All issues of RTD info can be consulted on-line at the Research DG’s website:europa.eu.int/comm/research

WHAT'S SO CRUCIALABOUT POLAR RESEARCH?

5 The Antarctic Treaty

6 Arctic and Antarctic research: what makes them different?

POLES: ARCHIVES OF OUR CLIMATE

7 The poles: archives of the world’s climate

8 Ice coring: a special selection

10 Thermophilic bacteria in Lake Vostok

10 The greenhouse phenomenon and climatic feedback

THE POLES AND CLIMATE CHANGE

11 The polar regions: sentinels of major climate change

12 Polar flora and fauna facing up to major climate warming

13 The peoples of the Arctic, the first victims of global warming

14 And what would happen if the Gulf Stream stopped?

15 Ozone Story

17 Satellites at the service of polar research

18 Permanent monitoring of the atmosphere from the Svalbard

A EUROPEAN VISION FOR POLAR RESEARCH

19 More of Europe at high latitudes

21 The European Polar Board

21 The European Polar Consortium

INSERT:

THE HISTORY OF RESEARCH IN POLAR REGIONS: FROM SAILING SHIPS TO SATELLITES

23 Poles of excellence: Europe's leading institutes and organisations

25 High latitude real-estate: European polar stations

27 Polar armada: Europe’s polar research vessels

29 European technologies for and from polar research

30 Cold comfort:living and working in Antarctica

31 European research priorities in polar regions

32 New European initiatives

34 A compendium of European research on land and under the sea

35 In from the cold: new Member States and polar research

EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONALCOOPERATION

36 European nations at the forefront of international collaboration

37 ACEX: The Arctic coring expedition

38 Polar research outside Europe

39 SCAR and IASC: getting nations together

40 IceCube:Antarctica’s crystal ball

41 The human dimension: coming out of the shadows

THE POLAR SCIENCES AND COMMUNICATION

42 “Communication is an investment”

44 An Internet journeythrough polar science

Set up in Brussels in 2002 with the aim of informing society on

the growing importance of scientific research in the polar regions

and its contribution to the understanding of climate change,

the IPF conducts numerous information, education and demon-

stration activities, forming a bridge between science and society.

The IPF receives wide-ranging support

and encouragement from the inter-

national polar scientific community,

and works closely with polar institutes

and bodies in the European Research

Area. These include the European Polar

Board, the Scientific Committee on

Antarctic Research, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the British

Antarctic Survey, the Norsk Polarinstitutt, the Laboratoire de

Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, and the Scott

Polar Research Institute.

At the beginning of 2007, the IPF will open the Polaris Climate

Change Observatory in Brussels. This exhibition centre is dedicated

to explaining how scientific research in the polar regions has con-

tributed to a better understanding of climate change. This centre

will be a focus for activities related to the International Polar Year

2007-2008.

This special issue of RTD info was produced in collaboration with

the IPF.

Contact:www.polarfoundation.org

Tel: +32 2 543 06 98

E-mail: [email protected]

The International Polar Foundation (IPF)

For most of us, the North and South Poles are evocativeof another world. But the riches hidden under their thick

ice are simply too abundant to cram into the meagrepages of this special issue! Some of these are scientific riches,the fruit of major research projects which have revealeda universe of astounding contrasts. Both distant and near,neglected yet essential, the polar regions include both desertand populated habitats. Although they may appearimmutable, these highly dynamic environments play afundamental role in the health and metabolism of ourplanet. For example, Antarctica – a continent threetimes the size of Europe – accounts for 90% of theworld's ice, a formidable climatic buffer which protectsus from excessively rapid warming.

A voyage to the polar regions of the world is also a tripthrough time and history. With respect to the past,they constitute an archive of world climatic variations;polar ice makes it possible for scientists to write the historyof recent climate changes and to validate the simulationmodels they are now developing. As for the present,these regions are already seeing major change, due to

Another world

the effects of global warming. And we should not hesi-tate to follow the path of time forwards, as these regionshold the key to our future climate and thus the futureof humanity. The disappearance of summer pack ice inthe Arctic between now and the end of this century (asadly probable and even realistic scenario) is just one ofthe symptoms of the major changes which are alreadyprofoundly affecting the outline and life of our planet.

In this high-altitude overview, RTD info has tried toconsider a broad range of scientific disciplines: glaciology,climatology, astronomy, geomorphology, etc., whilenot forgetting the life sciences. Although working in theextreme environment of the polar regions raises problemsbecause of the ‘inhuman’ conditions, we can learnfrom the survival skills of native populations such as theInuits and Saami in the Arctic, not forgetting that theytoo have to learn to accommodate the “innovations”imposed upon them by warming, such as the appearanceof swarms of wasps.

Last but not least, European participation in polarresearch is highly developed and has left its mark on allof the major stages of exploration. This exemplarycooperation is reflected by this special issue which wasprepared at the initiative of and in conjunction with theInternational Polar Foundation.

3RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

4 W H AT’S SO C R U C I A L A BO UT P O LA R R E S E A RC H?RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Although very remote, the polar regions are an integral and highlysignificant component of the Earth’s climate system. Indeed, as a resultof the differences in energy input between the equator and the poles, boththe Arctic and the Antarctic inject huge masses of cold air and water intothe global wind and ocean circulation, affecting climate not just in thehigh latitudes, but across the entire planet. Furthermore, the massive con-tinental ice caps (together the East and West Antarctic ice sheets accountfor some 90% of the world’s ice, and 80% of its fresh water) possess aninherent inertia that, at least until now, has protected us from rapidglobal warming, whether as a result of natural or human CO2 emis-sions.

Reflecting solar radiation

The climatic buffer provided by the polar regions, however, alsodepends on the horizontal extent of sea ice. Until quite recently, the com-bined sea ice cover of the Arctic and Southern Oceans had never droppedbelow 16 million km2. These large white surfaces reflect solar radiationback out into space and thus contribute significantly to the natural cooling of our planet. This reflective capacity is known as the albedo.

A Carbon sink

Additionally, what is referred to as the thermohaline circulation (heatand salt transit) is driven by the polar oceans. North Atlantic Deep Water(NADW) formation drives the cold current that flows out from the ArcticOcean through the Fram straight into the Atlantic. Similarly, cold waterfrom the Weddell Sea flows into the Southern Ocean. These bottom cur-rents have a direct impact on the carbon cycle and make the Southern Oceanthe Earth’s principle oceanic carbon sink by providing the conditionsfor the growth of CO2 absorbing phytoplankton.

A privileged and irreplaceableresearch zone

Apart from the research being carried out on these urgent issues, the polar regions attract scientific investigations into a whole range ofdisciplines. Glaciology is probably the most talked about in the climatechange context, particularly due to the mass of information already pro-duced about past climates.

Indeed the poles themselves have also proven to be key regions forresearch and observation. For example:

• Studying the interactions between the high atmosphere and ionisedparticles coming from the sun, which cause both the Aurora Bore-alis and the Aurora Australis. These interactions also affect radio emis-sions from satellites;

• Using Antarctica as an observatory for the upper atmosphericlayers, including the study of stratospheric ozone and theseasonal polar “ozone holes”;

• Taking advantage of the clarity and purity of the air on top of theGreenland and Antarctic icecaps for astrophysical work;

Although almost opposites in terms of geography andtopography, the common characteristics of the Arctic andthe Antarctic are of course their coldness, remoteness andthe harshness of their environments. This means thatpolar researchers must often rely on specially adaptedmethods and technologies to carry out their work, makingpolar science a complex and extremely expensive activity.But why all this effort, and why would somethinghappening so far away from our daily lives be so crucial?

Sea ice (here in the Arctic) occupies about 7% ofthe surface area of the world’s oceans, and isimportant climatically because of the largepercentage of light it reflects (albedo)compared to the average for the Earth's surface.

This upside-down piece of Antarctic sea iceshows the mixture of microscopic ice algaeresponsible for the bulk of the SouthernOcean’s ability to absorb CO2 throughphotosynthesis.

Gorgonians, brittle stars, feather stars, seacucumbers, sea anemones and sponges –amongst others – constitute this rich bottomfauna community in the Eastern Weddell Sea,Antarctica.

© IPF © IPF © J. Gutt/AWI

What's so crucialabout polar research?

5W H AT’S SO C R U C I A L A BO UT P O LA R R E S E A RC H? RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

• Using the Antarctic ice sheet as a natural substrate in which to studycosmic phenomena and sub-particles such as neutrinos(see p. 40);

• Studying the unspoiled terrestrial ecosystems found in Antarcticaand in some regions of the Arctic, and monitoring the invasion ofsimple communities by alien species;

• Describing and untangling undisturbed and complex sea floor com-munities, constituting a huge marine biodiversity;

• Using the quasi-lunar environment of the polar regions as experi-mental grounds for rovers and other space technologies;

• Studying indigenous flora and fauna and their response to envir-onmental change, past and present human exploitation, andtourism;

• Studying bird migration;• Collecting meteorites from the surface of ice caps and other ice for-

mations where only rocks of extraterrestrial origin can be found.• Studying the psycho-biology and psycho-sociology of wintering

scientists as a model of isolated human communities.

But probably the most challenging issue for scientists is theprobable fate of polar ice given the threat of global warming: according to the warning given by the Arctic Climate Impact Assess-ment Report, warming leading to loss of sea ice and melting of theice caps will have a huge global effect. No one knows the exactthreshold beyond which the melting of sea ice and ice caps willbecome impossible to reverse. But each of us, whether polar scien-tists or not, probably understands that it is not just a question of aplanet devoid of its polar bears or emperor penguins, as icons of apristine icy world, but the consequent rise in sea levels which will robmillions of their homes, if not their lives.

An international effort

Due to the high cost of logistics and support activities, polar researchoften relies on international collaboration, especially for larger projects.International cooperation came to the fore after the last InternationalGeophysical Year in 1957, and has, underpinned by the Antarctic Treatyprovisions, played a decisive role in shaping polar research and inmaintaining the necessary network of research vessels and stations. �

The Antarctic TreatyA closely protected continent

The environment, fauna, flora and mineral resources of the Antarc-tic continent, sub-Antarctic islands and, more generally, everything southof latitude 60°, benefits from almost complete international protection.This is thanks to the Antarctic Treaty which was signed in Washington onDecember 1st 1959 by twelve countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium,Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, the UnitedKingdom and the United States.

The Antarctic Treaty laidthe foundations for the inter-national and peaceful statusof the Antarctic continent.The 45 countries (see list onwww.antarctica.ac.uk/About_antarctica/Treaty/)which today adhere to the“Antarctic Treaty System”(which includes the Treaty,its Annexes and supplemen-tary international laws) havepledged not to pursue any

territorial claims in the region and to ensure the protection and preser-vation of its fauna and flora. These nations have also agreed to carry outonly peaceful activities and to promote scientific research and cooper-ation in the region.

However, because the original Treaty needed to be more explicit withrespect to protecting the Antarctic environment, in 1991 a supple-mentary protocol, called the Madrid Protocol, was appended to the Treaty.It reaffirms the imperative need to preserve the Antarctic environmentand all its ecosystems, and above all designates the region as a “Natural

Reserve devoted to peaceand science”. Under theprotocol, all activitiesrelated to the exploitationof mineral resources areprohibited (Article 7). Inaddition, the multiplecomponents of this naturalreserve (aesthetic, climatic,meteorological, biologicaland even historical) nowbenefit from total protec-tion. �

The 1959 Treaty preserves the pristine landscape of Antarctica for research and peacefulactivities.

© IPF

To find out more:http://www.scar.org/treaty/

http://sedac.ciesin.org/entri/texts/acrc/at.txt.html

http://www.ifremer.fr/ifrtp/pages/texteslois/traite.html

6 W H AT’S SO C R U C I A L A BO UT P O LA R R E S E A RC H?RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Arctic and Antarctic research:what makes them different?

In the South, the Antarctic’s massive ice cap and isolation fromthe rest of the planet by the Southern Ocean prevented any per-manent human settlement prior to the establishment of scientific sta-tions in the early 20th century. Man’s historical semi-absence, by def-inition, limits the scope of Antarctic research to the classic range ofhard sciences, from geophysics to biology, glaciology, oceano-graphy, meteorology and astronomy, to name a few. However,modern transportation has, in part, overcome access difficulties, espe-cially during the Austral summer, when the sea ice shrinks from 15 to1 million km2.

Human presence in the Arctic

On the other side of the planet, however, the continents sur-rounding the Arctic Ocean have been temperate enough to harbourindigenous populations for millennia, and more recently the frozenArctic Ocean was divided between its coastal nations (Iceland, Scan-dinavia & Greenland, Russia, USA, and Canada). Whilst it doesremain remote with permanent sea ice stretching across about 7 mil-lion km2, the Arctic Ocean has become an intensively monitoredregion since the Cold War.

As Olav Orheim, Director of the Norwegian Polar Institute inTromsø, explains, “this continuous human presence has broughta historical, economical and sociological context to the Arctic, whichin turn has made Arctic science not only much broader through

its human dimension,but has also led to amuch bigger volumeof purely scientificactivities”. Indeed,military research, oiland mineral prospect-ing, environmentalimpact studies, terres-trial biology and fishstock evaluations areexamples of fields ofresearch that are muchmore developed in theArctic than in theAntarctic.

More recent research in the Antarctic

Paradoxically, the relatively more recent and more limited realmof Antarctic science has rapidly evolved to become increasinglyinternational and collaborative. This dimension became fully devel-oped following the International Polar Year of 1957-58 and theensuing Antarctic Treaty of 1961 and the creation of SCAR (theScientific Committee for Antarctic Research – see p. 39).

In the Arctic, on the other hand, the end of the Cold War, andthe push towards a global understanding of the Earth’s climate inthe context of global warming can be cited as amongst the decisivefactors leading to the birth in the early nineties of the Arctic Coun-cil and IASC (the International Arctic Science Committee – see p. 39),as well as the increasingly international integration of scientific pro-grammes.

In the future, the Arctic Council will probably evolve towardsexerting more political influence, but will never produce some-thing quite resembling the Antarctic Treaty System. Indeed, becauseof the undisputed sovereignty of the Arctic rim and ocean, there isno necessity to create a new international body. �

Apart from a few obvious similarities, including their remoteness and the coldness of their environment, theArctic and Antarctic possess striking differences which have impacted on the type and importance of thescientific activities being carried out in these regions.

Cemetery of Iqaluit the capital city of Nunavut, 6000 inhabitants. Thisterritory is the newest in Canada, created in 1999 after many years ofnegotiations between the Government of Canada and the Inuit of theNunavut area.

Numbers are each country’s total Arcticpopulation (in the early 1990s) and orangeindicates the proportion of indigenouspeople.

© P. Visart/Expo-colloque ULB, March 2005

©2004, ACIA/Map Clifford Grabhorn

7P O L E S : A R C H I V E S O F O U R C L I M A T E RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

At the highest latitudes, vast quantities of information can be foundimprinted in ice. Continental ice such as can be found in Greenland orthe Antarctic is often very thick and results from an accumulation of pre-cipitations going back anything up to a million years. Indeed, through-out their formation, these ice caps have trapped gases, molecules anddust which provide clues to historic and prehistoric environmental con-ditions.

A similar phenomenon also attracts researchers to the floors of ouroceans, where our climate and its history can also be studied. There, thestratification of sediments which have slowly accumulated over mil-lions of years reads like a book to those who know how to decipher it.

These data can be further refined by analysing the pollen found inother locations, such as polar tundra, at the bottom of lakes, in the soilor even underground. In temperate regions such as Europe, natural caveswhich have formed in limestone landmasses also bear the scars of ancientclimatic fluctuations and thus supplement the findings from polar regions.

A gigantic history book

Reaching thicknesses of almost 3000 metres in Greenland and5,000 metres in Antarctica, the gigantic polar ice sheets constitute someof the most precious tools used by paleoclimatologists.

Throughout their formation, these sheets have accumulated count-less seasons of snowfall. Each year, during its passage through theatmosphere, this snow has trapped ambient gases, different types of dustor even pollen, and these are compressed every time new layers of

snow cover the old ones.Over the centuries, the icesheet has thus taken theform of a layer cake. Itcan also be considered asa gigantic book, the pagesof which are thin layers inthe ice cores extractedduring major drilling cam-paigns. For example, it ispossible to detect majorvolcanic eruptions, or eventraces of lead arising fromRoman industrial activity2,000 years ago.

The researchers look for different types of data. For example, analy-sis of ice core strata also reveals the extent of precipitation through dif-ferent seasons. The air bubbles trapped by snow and then found in theice provide clues to the composition of different atmospheric gases inthe past.

The isotopic composition of samples makes it possible to determinethe temperature at which a layer formed. Study of entrapped particles,their type and their size, provides information on the circulation of theatmosphere. Other physicochemical parameters of the ice, such as itselectrical conductivity, provide researchers with further indicators, andby cross-checking these parameters they can reliably reconstitute ancientclimatic conditions.

The relationship between the levels of atmospheric CO2 trapped inthe form of bubbles and the temperature at which the ice formed can

also demonstrate the extent of the greenhouse effect. Over the past 200years, this greenhouse effect, exaggerated by the worldwide demographicboom and coupled with growing industrialisation and the developmentof the combustion engine, has been recorded in polar ice. Also recordedare the different nuclear tests performed during the 1950s and, of course,major natural cataclysms which have affected the atmosphere. �

The poles,archives of the

world’s climate

Studying the past climate of our planet islike detective work. The smallest clue is ofimportance, the slightest irregularity in thecomposition of ice, submarine sedimentsor the soil can provide crucial informationwhich highlights ancient jolts to the Earth'sclimate. But it is still necessary to knowwhere to look, and how to decipher thisinformation. This is what battalions ofscientists have been doing for many yearsin the polar regions.

Ice cores, and the tiny bubbles of air they contain, have enabled scientiststo read the past like a book.

Polarised light projected through a slice from anice core reveals samples of air from the past as wellas aerosol particles deposited by snowfalls – someof which could be from volcanoes which eruptedfar from the Antarctic

© CNRS/LGGE

© CNRS/LGGE

In the Arctic

The Greenland ice cap is the principalsite in the northern hemisphere for ice-cor-ing campaigns. Since 1989, Europeanresearchers have been working at the sum-mit of the ice sheet where it is the thickestand most stable with respect to its flowtowards the coast.

The first international extraction site

was set up in 1989, and over several drillingseasons the European project GRIP (GReen-land Ice core Project) made it possible toextract cores reaching right down into thebottom layers of the ice cap at 3,027 metresdeep.

At the same time, a second drilling site,American this time, was started 28 kilo-metres to the west of the Summit stationused by the GRIP.

The American project, baptised GISP2(Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two) alsocollected a long ice core, which reached3,053 metres down to the bottom of the icecap and 1.55 metres beneath it into therocky substrate on which it sits.

However, the quality of the deepest,and thus themost ancient

samples, was not as good as had beenhoped for by researchers. The GRIP andGISP2 drilling operations were reliableenough to enable climate studies goingback as far as 105,000 years, but the icesamples collected from periods before thatwere of less scientific interest.

Thus, following on from these cam-paigns, a new European campaign, coord-inated by Denmark and bringing togetherteams from the USA and Japan, was set upand named the NGRIP (North GReenlandIce core Project). The drilling site, 300kilometres further north than the GRIP andGISP2 stations, started in 1996, and rockwas reached in July 2003. The station wasclosed in the summer of 2004.

The early scientific results of this latestcampaign have just been published by theresearchers1. Apart from being the deepestice core ever collected in Greenland, thedata covers approximately 125,000 yearsand reveals that before the last Ice Age,which started 115,000 years ago, theGreenland climate was hot (interglacialperiod) and stable, without any abrupt vari-ations, thus confirming that the fluctua-tions observed for this period in the GRIPcore arose from the ice having thawedrather than from the climatic changes them-selves.

In the Antarctic

Several countries have set up ice drillingstations in the Antarctic, including the UnitedStates, Russia and Japan. However, it is theEuropeans who have brought to the surfacethe most ancient ice cores ever extractedfrom the ice sheet, in the context of an ambi-tious project called EPICA (European Projectfor Ice Coring in Antarctica).

Set up in 1995, the EPICA project com-prises two drilling sites in the eastern Antarc-

tic. The Concordia station (or Dome C) is situ-ated at 123° East, 75°06’ South, while theKohnen station, in the territories of Dron-ning Maud Land, is sited at 00°04’ East and75°00’ South. EPICA is a research projectcommon to the European Commission andthe European Science Foundation, andinvolves scientific teams from some ten coun-tries.

The ambitious aim of this programmewas to go back as far as possible in the cli-matic history of our planet. In 2004, aftereight years of efforts, this target was achieved.With more than 3 kilometres of ice coresextracted at Dome C, researchers now havesamples available to them which are some900,000 years old. This is the most ancientclimatic reconstitution ever achieved fromice cores, being twice as old as the findingsof the Vostok drilling station (400,000 yearsin 1999) and Dome Fuji (350,000 years in2003).

Latest results

The most recent results of EPICA werepublished in Nature on June 10 2004, andthe cover of the journal was devoted tothis event. The authors highlighted threemajor findings2:

8 P O L E S : A R C H I V E S O F O U R C L I M A T ERTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Ice coring:a special selection

© IPF

To find out more: www.gisp2.sr.unh.edu

www.glaciology.gfy.ku.dk/ngrip/index_eng.htm

© IPF

9RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

• “Over the past 740,000 years, Earth has experienced 8 cli-mate cycles, alternating between glacial periods and warmer,so-called interglacial periods, with an abrupt change in therhythm of these cycles occurring 420,000 years ago. Thus thewarmer periods of the last 420,000 years were characterised bytemperatures similar to those we have today, while previousinterglacial periods were colder but lasted for longer. Thiscontrasts with what scientists previously thought to be thecase.

• The longest warm period during the past 740,000 years tookplace 420,000 years ago and lasted for about 28,000 years. Thisperiod could be considered as “analogous” with that which weare currently experiencing, particularly since the astronomic con-ditions, the orbit and axis of the Earth which influence expo-sure to the sun, are identical. These results suggest that thenext entry into a glacial period will not happen for severalthousand years, but the conclusions of detailed analyses are notyet available.

• An analysis of the air bubbles trapped in the ice confirms thatthe current levels of greenhouse gases are the highest everreached during the past 440,000 years.” �

1 North Greenland Ice core Project Members, High-resolution record of Northern Hemisphere

climate extending into the last interglacial period. Nature, 431, 147-151, 2004.2 Extract from CNRS press release of 9 june 2004 –

http://andromeda.insu.cnrs-dir.fr/article.php3?id_article=386

“Looking for young researchers to par-

ticipate in expeditions organised in

honour of the International Geophysics

Year”. When he answered this job

advertisement in 1955, Claude

Lorius, a young physicist at the

University of Besançon (in eastern

France) had no idea that his future

career would centre on the polar

regions of the world and the study of climate.

Nor did he know that some 22 research expeditions to the

Arctic and Antarctic would feature in his life, and that he would

become one of the fathers of what is now an essential tool for

paleo climatic study: ice coring!

In 1957, after his initiation in Greenland into the new science of

glaciology, he moved to the Charcot research station, a tiny

French base perched at an altitude of 2,400 metres on the Antarctic

ice sheet.

After several summer campaigns, in 1965 Claude Lorius led the

over-wintering team at the Adélie Land coastal base and started

to collect ice cores, while at the same time becoming inter-

ested in the air bubbles trapped in the ice: “It was when I saw the

bubbles bursting when an ice cube melted in a glass of whisky that

I had the feeling they could be reliable and unique indicators of the

composition of air, something we subsequently proved was correct”,

he remembers.

To find out more: EPICA Project Members, Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core.

Nature, 429, 623-628, 2004.

www.awi-bremerhaven.de/GPH/EPICA/

http://www.esf.org/esf_article.php?activity=1&article=85&domain=3

http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/News_and_Information/Press_Releases/story.php?id=99

Claude Lorius (left) in theearliest days of glaciology atCamp Charcot.

© CNRS/LGGE

Ice coring: “In whisky veritas”

P O L E S : A R C H I V E S O F O U R C L I M A T E

The Dome C station is an important part of the EPICA project which brings ancientice to the surface for study.

North-south comparisons reveal the functioning of the world climatemachine

Comparisons of ice sample drilling results from the northern

hemisphere with those from the southern hemisphere suggest

that, for the same years, the local ‘climates’ were not always iden-

tical, indicating phase shifts of thousands of years.

These intervals between a climatic event in the north and the

corresponding reaction recorded in southern ice can be explained

by planetary mechanisms for climatic communication, in par-

ticular the reaction time of major ocean currents (see the article

on the Gulf Stream on page p. 14). This phenomenon is now well

understood with respect to the links between the Atlantic and

Antarctic Oceans. Future drilling campaigns should help deter-

mine more clearly the role played in this vast heat exchange

mechanism by the Pacific Ocean, the other great ocean linking

the planet’s two hemispheres.

Ice coring at the Vostok research station hasshown that over the past 420,000 years,the levels of CO2 and CH4 in the atmos-phere have constantly been changing.During glaciations, these levels fell in linewith the temperature, while during periodsof interglacial warming, they rose. But which phenomenon triggered theother? Was it a rise in temperature whichcaused an increase in gas levels, or viceversa?Today, the phenomenon is well under-stood by scientists. The cyclical climatevariations read in ice cores are initiatedby astronomic events, such as changes tothe distance between the Sun and theEarth, or to the inclination of the Earth'saxis. But once they have been triggered,higher concentrations of atmospheric

gases have an amplifying “feedback”effect.For example, methane is produced bythe fermentation of bacteria found inperiglacial marshland regions (NorthernCanada, Siberia, etc.). Imprisoned in thepermafrost, these encased bacteria comealive during interglacial periods and startproducing large quantities of methane,which amplify the greenhouse effect andraise the temperature even further. Con-versely, when a new glacial episode starts,the first periods of cold numb these bac-teria, which quickly become blocked,causing a rapid reduction in the atmos-pheric methane concentration.The same logic applies to the oceans andCO2, where such changes are the work ofphytoplankton.

Just one other thing. Although the mecha-nism outlined above can seem simpleand almost instantaneous on paper, infact, these amplifying and acceleratingeffects of climate trends last for… severalthousand years.

Glaciers sometimes hide a lakeunder their thick layers of ice.And some of these lakesfascinate researchers, particularlybecause they may contain as yetunknown life forms. In theAntarctic, beneath the Vostokresearch station, such a lake, ofgigantic proportions (surfacearea 14,000 km2), is whetting theappetite of researchers.

Researchers have already made some sur-prising discoveries even though they havenot yet been able to collect samples of liquidwater, as drilling has not yet entered the lastfew metres of ice, in order to preserve thisextraordinary lake from accidental externalcontamination (for example by bacteria orby chemicals used to prevent closure of thedrill holes). Most recently, in the autumn of 2004, aninternational research team from Russia,

France and the USA studied the compositionof the last 85 metres of a deep ice core(made up of refrozen ice containing waterfrom the lake), sampled at a level of 130 mabove the liquid interface with the lake.Analysis suggests that the biological contentof Lake Vostok is very limited, and that itswaters are virtually sterilised by dissolvedoxygen (at a pressure equivalent to that ofa fizzy drink can) which accumulated afterthe ice thawed. In addition, traces of DNAdiscovered in the refrozen ice would appearto be the genetic signature of thermophilicbacteria. Such bacteria are better adaptedto very hot environments, like those near hotundersea springs or volcanic chimneys,rather than to cold environments. Yetanother mystery to be solved….

Thermophilic bacteria in Lake Vostok

The diagram shows the possible dynamics ofLake Vostok’s formation.

To find out more: www.cosis.net/abstracts/EAE03/04250/EAE03-J-04250.pdf

www.asoc.org/what_other1.htm

gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/scotia/vserm/vserm070904.htm

10 P O L E S : A R C H I V E S O F O U R C L I M A T ERTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

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-8

© IPF

In the last two centuries, due to the industrialrevolution, CO2 levels have gone outside the‘envelope’ of the regular cyclical CO2/temperature variation of the last 400,000 years(ppmv = parts per million by volume).

The composition of the atmosphere imprisoned in polar ice informsresearchers about the glacial and interglacial episodes which our planethas experienced, including how greenhouse gases, such as CO2 and CH4,are involved in these processes as part of a feedback loop.

The greenhouse phenomenon and climatic feedback

© Redrawn from Lamont-DohertyEarth Observatory

11T H E P O L E S A N D C L I M AT E C H A N G E RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

The polar regions are not only thekeepers of the Earth's climatearchives. They also act as sentinels;a kind of early warning system ofwhat can be expected by the planetas a whole…

Philippe Huybrechts is a glaciologist at VUB,the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. In twoof his recent articles (published in the journalsNature and Geophysical Research Letters), heclearly demonstrated the current impact ofglobal warming on Greenland. These two stud-ies testifiy to the rapid thaw of the ice cap thatcovers this vast landmass between the Atlanticand Arctic Oceans.

“The polar regions are the first to sufferfrom global warming. But they also suffer moreacutely than other parts of the world, both interms of rapidity and intensity,” he explains.“It is a question of albedo and temperature. Insummer, when the Arctic sea ice melts, the sur-face of the water is darker and accumulatesmore solar radiation, thus accelerating the warm-ing phenomenon. The same applies to emergedlandmasses such as Greenland, northern Canadaand southern Siberia, which have suddenly seentheir snow cover disappear. On average, climatewarming in these regions is two or three timesmore marked than elsewhere on the planet,”

explains the scientist. “The Antarctic, with theexception of its peninsula, currently appears tobe protected from this kind of rapid disturbancethanks to its better thermal ‘insulation’, pro-vided by the Antarctic Ocean.”

Greenland is melting

The ‘disaster’ scenario in the Arctic is nolonger science fiction. What was initially onlya question of modelling has since been widelyconfirmed by field observations, one examplebeing changes to the Greenland ice sheet.

“Between 1950 and 1990, we saw a dropin Greenland's temperature of about 1.5°C,”explains Philippe Huybrechts. “But since 1990,the temperature has been rising, and this hasbeen exacerbated by a negative balancebetween precipitations in the region and melt-ing of its ice sheet.”

The result is that in a little more than tenyears, the ice sheet has shrunk. Indeed, this phe-nomenon has amplified even further in thepast five years. Huybrechts thinks that the situ-ation is nearing a critical point.

“Each year, Greenland is losing about 80cubic kilometres of ice (total ice sheet volumeestimated at three million cubic kilometres).If the ice sheet loses 20% of its volume, theprocess will become irreversible,” he suggests.

Sea levels are rising

The impact of this meltdown on the planetas a whole has resulted in rising sea levels. Eachyear, shrinkage ofthe Greenlandice mass causes aglobal rise of 0.2millimetres. Overthe past fifteenyears, the rise hasthus totalled 3 millimetres. If the phenomenoncontinues, i.e. if the temperature of the planetgoes on rising, the entire Greenland ice sheet willmelt. Huybrechts reckons that the point of noreturn will be reached when the Earth's tem-perature has risen by 3 degrees. And if this risereaches 10 degrees, Greenland will truly merit itsname in a thousand years' time – a phenomenonwhich will also bring about a 7.5 metre rise in thelevel of the oceans. �

The polar regions:sentinels of major climate change

Elephant Foot Glacier, at around 81° N along the east coast of Greenland. The grey zone at lowelevation is the ablation zone incised by meltwater channels, clearly separated from the white surfaceaccumulation zone higher up.

Satellite images, available since 1979, have shownan increasing trend in seasonal surface meltextension of the Greenland Ice Sheet at theheight of summer.

© P. Huybrechts/VUB

©2004, ACIA/MapClifford Grabhorn

To find out more: Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 31, L24402;

Greenland Ice sheet: increased coastal thinning.

Nature, vol. 428, p. 616.

12 T H E P O L E S A N D C L I M AT E C H A N G ERTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

In agreement with the different climatemodels developed by researchers andconfirmed by the IPCC (the Inter-governmental Panel on ClimateChange), the poles are those regions ofthe world where climate change is andwill be the most rapid.This development is not without impacton the organisms living in these regions,some of which are the subject ofincreasing concern amongst biologists.

It's getting warm at the poles!

The trend towards Arctic warming is generalised,and in some regions the temperature has risen bymore than 3°C over the past 50 years. This is morethan ten times faster than the rest of the planet,where the average increase was only 0.6°C over thepast century.

At the other end of the world, and althoughwarming at present only affects the Antarctic penin-sula, the phenomenon, despite recently slowing, is justas marked: 4-5°C in the past 50 years…

Early trends in the south…

Because of the effect of temperature on the dis-tribution of living organisms in these extreme envir-onments, such changes are not without consequences.

“On the Antarctic peninsula, only two floweringplants were seen on exceptional occasions in thepast,” points out Pete Convey, from the BAS (BritishAntarctic Survey). “But over the past thirty years,antartic grass and pearlwort have been developing inthe south, as are several species of moss. All arebenefiting from a lengthening in the periods of thaw.”

Other effects are seen in the marine environment,following a regional trend towards a halt to the spreadof pack ice. This ice is necessary to ensure the winterdevelopment of juvenile krill (a small crustacean whichlooks like a shrimp and upon which an impressiverange of predators are dependent) and there hasbeen a reduction in the frequency of successful breed-ing years. Their predators are also suffering: Wayne Trivelpiece from the NOAA (the US National Oceanic

and Atmospheric Administration) has thus seen the dis-appearance of the chinstrap penguin from the multi-species colony he has been studying for nearly 30 yearsnear to the Polish Arctowski research station: “It is prob-ably the reduction in krill fecundity which is the rea-son for the decline of Adélie and chinstrap penguinson the Antarctic peninsula.” The same effects havebeen seen in South Georgia, where Keith Reid & JohnCroxall from the BAS have shown that the growingcompetition for krill between sea lions and Macaronipenguins has led to a marked decline in the latter.

… and much disquiet in the north

As made clear a few months ago by the ACIA(Arctic Climate Impact Assessment) report in Reykjavik,the effects of global warming on fauna and flora areeven more pronounced in the Arctic. Terry Callaghan,from the Abisko Scientific Research Centre in Sweden,explains: “On land, amongst other phenomena,warming has caused a gradual melting of the permafrost(permanently frozen ground), with the disappearanceof hundreds of pools and lakes (because they havedrained into the thawed soil) and the flora and faunawhich inhabit them. We have also seen a gradualspread of forest coverage to the north, to the detrimentof the tundra, where millions of migrating birds havetheir breeding grounds.”

“Because the forests are darker, the albedo (per-centage of reflected solar radiation) of these areas hasfallen and thus created a positive retroaction whichenhances warming,” adds Glenn Patrick Juday, from theUniversity of Alaska. “At the same time we are seeingan increase in the number of fires and massive swarmsof insect pests in several regions around the Arcticlandmass.”

The situation is no better in the Arctic Ocean: theaverage surface area of pack ice (measured at the endof each summer) has shrunk in 30 years by practicallya million square kilometres (around 15 to 20%). Thisgradual shrinkage is causing increasing problems forspecies associated with sea ice, whether these are single-cell algae, the copepod crustaceans which grazeon them, the fish which hide in them and so on, upthe chain to that most emblematic animal of the NorthPole, the polar bear.

Polar flora and faunafacing up to major climate warming

A global increase in temperature inAntarctica would be expected to affect

primarily the largest species within eachgroup, such as this “Red Knight”-

crustacean like amphipod.

Sea-ice, under threat from climate change,is important for walruses during feeding as

it provides resting places between dives.This enables them to fish over a wider area.

Rising temperatures are having complexeffects on penguin populations with

growth occurring in some locations whileothers see declines. Some chinstrap

penguin populations have been hard hit asthe local supply of krill, their food, has

fallen away.

© Thomas Schickan

© IPF

© IPF


Polar bears facing majorproblems

According to Andrew Deroche, from theUniversity of Alberta in Canada, and his col-leagues, shrinkage of the pack ice has causeda reduction in the numbers of ringed seals aswell as in their accessibility for polar bears, forwhom they are the principal prey. This is of cru-cial importance for the female bears when itcomes to building up fat reserves before fast-ing for several months in winter and givingbirth to their young. Indeed, researchers haveshown that in Hudson Bay, each week thespring thaw advances represents a 10 kg loss ofweight for female bears by the time they enterthe snow den where their young will be born.In addition, warming also increases the fre-quency of winter rains and the collapse of thesedens.

Sadly, there are few prospects for animprovement in the Arctic pack ice, because cli-mate models agree on a continuous rise in theaverage temperature over the 100 years tocome: up to 7°C for the ocean and up to 10°Cin winter. The ACIA report even suggests thepossible disappearance of summer pack icebetween now and 2100…

Dying of heat in theAntarctic

On the other hand, at the other end ofthe globe, the formidable mass of the Antarc-tic ice sheet may protect the Antarctic Oceanfrom global warming. But at a local level,and once again in the context of rising tem-peratures in the peninsula, a series of jointstudies, headed in particular by Lloyd Peck

from the BAS and Hans-Otto Pörtner fromthe Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany,recently put forward new reasons for con-cern. Their research on several marine inver-tebrate species has shown that the oxygensupply necessary for several vital functions,such as reproduction, is easily disturbed bya rise in water temperature. In fact, a 4°C risewould be sufficient to condemn severalpopulations, or even some species with alimited distribution, to extinction. �

We forget perhaps too easily thatthe Dolgans, Inuits, Saami, and allthe other native peoples of theArctic are the first victims ofclimate change.

The ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assess-ment) report has now spoken on their behalf.Their testimony is slowly being integrated withinthe context of polar research. At the sametime, through the stories told by these directwitnesses, the rest of the planet is becomingaware of the true impact that climate changecan have on people’s ways of life.

For the peoples of the North, there is aclear impact on their economic and food-producing activities. For example, huntingand fishing are no longer as productive as theyonce were.

Ice which appears increasingly late andwhich disappears much earlier considerablyshortens the hunting season. In the north ofGreenland, this has already forced hunters to killtheir sledge dogs because they are unable tofeed them when unstable ice prevents themfrom hunting seals, bears or walrus. It is not dif-ficult to imagine what that could mean in suchregions. Reindeer farmers in the north of Europealso face problems. The Saami can only standand watch as their animals, which normally

graze on lichens by digging inthe snow, struggle to breakthrough the layers of ice thatform after rain has fallen duringwarmer periods.

What’s more, these climatechanges are occurring in a contextof a loss of identity as a result ofthe growing influence of westernlifestyles.

Unexpectedly, and furtheraggravating the situation, is thefact that words do not always

exist to describe these changes, making it dif-ficult for these people to communicate whatthey are seeing or experiencing. Previouslyunknown events now occur, such as lightningand thunder. Species which were previouslyrestricted to temperate regions are now takingup residence in the North. The people of theArctic have been stunned by the arrival of …wasps! What can they call these insects, whenthey have never seen them before? These aresome of the other, unusual aspects of globalwarming.

Native communities in the Arctic total

some four million people. They live on

the eight million square kilometres of

the habitable Arctic landmass, i.e. in

Greenland, North America, Europe,

Siberia and various archipelagos

(see p. 6).

The peoples of the Arctic, the first victims of global warming

To find out more: ‘key-finding 8’ for the ACIA overview report, available

on http://amap.no/acia/

http://nsidc.org/data/docs/arcss/arcss122/index.htmlKangiqliniq-Rankin Inlet, Hudson Bay, at the end of spring. Inuit menprepare their sledge for a hunting journey.

© P. Visart/Expo-colloque ULB, March 2005


Canadian, American and British researchers, whose work waspartly funded by the European Union's 5th Framework ResearchProgramme, reckon that over the past ten years, the global warm-ing of our planet has modified the salinity of its oceans, which in turnmay disturb the circulation of marine currents (known as thermohalinecirculation).

A question of salinity

It is the increased evaporation of surfacewater in temperate regions, generating a sig-nificant surplus of water vapour in the atmos-phere and more precipitation of fresh water athigher latitudes, that could be bringing aboutsuch a change in the salinity of the NorthAtlantic.

Water with a lower salt concentration doesnot drop easily to the ocean depths, which iswhat usually happens to the Gulf Stream to thenorth of Iceland. It is here that this famous cur-rent plunges to the ocean floor before return-ing to the tropics and then, further south,towards the Antarctic Ocean. In other words,this deep ocean current is the “return” of thesurface Gulf Stream.

After more intense rainfall, however, theadditional fresh water in the mix inhibits theGulf Stream’s drop towards the ocean floor,and jams up this vast, worldwide climaticmechanism. This in turn interferes with, oreven blocks off, the Gulf Stream on the surface.

If the Gulf Stream malfunctions, then Europe, deprived of its effects,will in turn lurch towards a new era of lower temperatures. In otherwords, winters in Lisbon may become as rigorous as those in New York.

Fact or fiction? The climatic history of our planet shows that such a devel-opment in the past – a considerable influx of fresh water in the North Atlanticresulting from a massive offloading of ice from the American ice sheet – hasalready seen the Gulf Stream mechanism put “out of order”. �

And what would happen if the Gulf Streamstopped?

For most people, slowing or even stopping theGulf Stream could only be a sci-fi story. Thisvast oceanic current on the surface of theAtlantic, which runs from the intertropicalzone towards the shores of Europe (thusensuring our mild winters and temperatesummers) cannot simply ‘break down’.However, a reduction in its intensity, or evenits coming to a complete halt, is notimpossible. The climatic history of our planetshows this. The Gulf Stream has already seensome major disturbances to its ‘flow’.

The complexity of the Gulf Stream in northern latitudes is evident from this detailed representation.

© Ola M. Johannessen/NERSC

The Gulf Stream is part of the global thermohaline circulation.


“What is astonishing about this discovery is that the first measure-ments indicating a seasonal depletion in the Antarctic resulted from workon the ground,” comments Dominique Fonteyn, from the Belgian Insti-tute for Space Aeronomy (BISA), “even though the Americans had a satel-lite in orbit which was devoted to studying ozone.”

Interpreting the data…

Why did the Americans ‘miss’ this discovery? In fact, the TOMS hadindeed measured very low concentrations of ozone above the Antarc-tic region. But the values were so low that the American researchersdecided initially that they should not be taken into account. In their opin-ion, the data did not reflect the actual situation, butmerely indicated a technical problem affecting theorbiting instrument.

In 1987, various hypotheses were put forward asto how this hole had formed in the ozone layer (of thelower stratosphere). Two schools of thought emerged:on the one hand, those who considered that deple-tion of the ozone levels originated from dynamiceffects (winds, etc.) in the upper atmosphere, whileothers preferred the idea of unsuspected or lesserknown effects in the atmospheric chemistry.

CFC: guilty!

The next year, this phenomenon was investigated by NASA, the Ameri-can Space Agency. A report drawn up with the help of some hundredor so experts from all over the world suggested that stratospheric ozoneconcentrations had fallen on average by 1.7 to 3% in the northernhemisphere between 1969 and 1986, despite major annual variations.

However, by the end of the 1980s, the scientific community hadreached agreement about the cause of this depletion in both the Antarc-tic and Arctic regions: halogenated hydrocarbons, and particularly thenotorious CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons). Further observational

The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985 by British Antarctic Surveyscientists, from left: Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jon Shanklin.

© BAS

What is ozone?Ozone is an unstable molecule made up of three oxygen atoms

(O3). It is found at two levels in the atmosphere. Near the

ground (tropospheric ozone), it is toxic, notably for the respiratory

tract and mucosa. This ozone is generated by pollution, mainly

from motor vehicles. Ozone is also found at high altitude in the

stratosphere. Here, there is a “layer” some 20 to 25 km above

the Earth, which is formed through equilibrium between its

formation and destruction under the effect of solar radiation,

from temperature changes and

from the presence of other chem-

ical substances. This layer pro-

tects us from some of the harm-

ful rays of the sun, such as

ultraviolet radiation. When we

talk about the hole in the ozone

layer it is in this stratospheric

ozone.

The Arctic ozone hole is less pronounced due to less severe conditions at the stratosphericlevel than in Antarctica. This image shows a low-ozone event over the northern hemisphereon 31 January 2002. The central white area was not covered by the satellite observations.Processed by DLR – Data provision by ESA.

© ESA

The discovery of a hole in the ozone layer goesback to the 1980s. It was in the Antarctic that the

first ground measurements of ozone levelsproduced some surprising results. As early as

1985, Joseph Farman, from the British AntarcticSurvey (BAS), published the results of his

observations in Nature. A “hole”, or a drop inconcentration, albeit temporary but very marked,appeared each spring in the stratospheric ozone

layer above the Antarctic. This phenomenonmainly occurred in the lower stratosphere. What

is the situation today?

Ozone story


The Montreal Protocol is an international convention which reg-

ulates the production and use of substances which harm the

ozone layer, such as CFCs, chlorine and bromine, which mainly

result from the halogenated hydrocarbons generated by human

activities.

Ozone depletion in the upper stratosphere was recognised as early

as the 1970s. It concerned the ozone throughout the world, and

not specifically at the poles. Studies carried out after 1970

already incriminated CFCs and halogens as the cause of this

depletion. This explains why, in 1987, the Montreal Protocol

recommended reducing emissions of these chemical substances

which affect both the upper and lower stratospheres.

Since it came into force in 1989, the Protocol has been ratified

by more than 180 countries, and amended four times. It has

prohibited the use of these substances (particularly in

refrigeration) since 1996 in developed countries, and envisages

their prohibition in developing countries between now

and 2010.

In the long term (because of the momentum of this phenom-

enon) it should reduce the quantities of chlorinated compounds

in the stratosphere and allow the ozone to return to normal levels

sometime between now and the end of this century.

and laboratory studies showed that the ozone’s seasonal disappear-ance was indeed linked to chemical reactions in the upper atmospherewhich were being triggered by the very low temperatures existingabove the Antarctic in winter.

“The 1990s saw the gaps in our knowledge about the mechanismsinvolved filled in,” explains Dominique Fonteyn, “thanks in particular tothe eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines in 1992, whichinjected large quantities of particles into the upper atmosphere. Studyof these particles helped us to better understand some of the chemical

phenomena occurring in the stratosphere, andparticularly the catalysing effect they played inthe release of different chemical compoundswhich then attacked the ozone. Parallels couldthen be drawn with the depletion of the ozonelayer outside these major volcanic events, fol-lowing the emission of different pollutants,including CFCs, into our atmosphere.”

The Arctic is less vulnerable

In the Arctic, depletion of the ozone layer has also been observed, butit is less marked. This can be explained by the fact that the temperatures inthe lower stratosphere above the Arctic usually remain higher than thoserecorded in the Antarctic. The northern hemisphere has greater land massand more continents, which play a role in its climatic instability. Even whenit is very cold in the region around the North Pole, this does not last very long.So a “hole” does exist in the stratospheric ozone layer. Though still a causefor concern, it is neither as extensive nor as severe as in the Antarctic.

Perpetually evolving depletion

The size of the hole in the ozone layer above the Antarctic oscillateswildly. An absolute record was attained in 2000, when the hole coveredan area of 29.2 million km2. In 2001 and 2002, the trend seemed tobe downwards, but this respite was of short duration. By the autumnof 2003, the hole had reached more than 28 million km2, beforeshrinking again last year. On September 22, 2004, at the peak of thephenomenon, a hole of 24.2 million km2 was recorded above theAntarctic.

Ultraviolet alert

Because of the enormous proportions the Antarctic hole in theozone layer has reached in recent years, its first direct effects on humanpopulations in Latin America are now starting to be felt. Higher levelsof ultraviolet rays emitted by the sun, which are filtered less by the stratospheric ozone, reach the ground, increasing the risks of skin cancer and cataract.

Thus, in Punta Arenas, in southern Chile, the authorities are nowrecommending a sort of curfew in the middle of the day. When the sunis at its highest height, between 11.00 and 15.00, the ultraviolet rays areat their most powerful. And in this region, which suffers from depletionof the Antarctic ozone layer, going outdoors without good protectioncauses sunburn within minutes. �

The Montreal Protocol has reduced CFC emissions greatly but it willbe some decades before existing CFCs in the stratosphere havedecayed and present no further harm to the ozone layer.

The Montreal Protocol

To find out more:http://www.unep.org/ozone

http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/

http://www.theozonehole.com/


Miniature ARGOS tracking devices

It was necessary to wait for the miniaturisation of ARGOS tracking devicesbefore the astonishing movements of several species of whale, seal, penguinand albatross, could be tracked. During the 1990s, these systems revealedthat the elephant seals in the Antarctic Ocean were champion divers, frequentlyplunging to depths of 800 metres during the 10 months they spent at sea.The team led by Mette Mauritzen, at the Norwegian Polar Institute inTromsø, has by this means been studying the adaptation of polar bears tochanges in the pack ice aroundSpitzberg.

Ice monitoring

“Satellites have revolutionizedthe monitoring of polar ice,”explains Frédérique Remy, from the Laboratory of Geophysics and SpatialOceanography (LEGOS, CNRS) in Toulouse, France, “by allowing us to moni-tor regularly, and from a distance, areas which are difficult or even impossi-ble to reach because of the winds and very low temperatures. Not to men-tion total darkness for several months each year!” ERS (European RemoteSensing) satellites have, for example, made it possible to quantify changesin the volume of the Antarctic ice cap: “The Antarctic ice sheet appears tobe stable, apart from a sector in the west where the ice is losing its thickness.”

Shrinkage of pack ice

The observations are identical with respect to Arctic pack ice, even thoughan average reduction of 37,000 km2 per year (compared with an averagesummer pack ice area of 7 million km2) has been measured over the past30 years. However, we still have insufficient hindsight given that the firstobservations only go back to 1978. Thanks to its ability to measure the thicknessof pack ice (to half a metre), the altimeter on board Cryosat, the new satellitewhich was launched by the ESA in March this year, should confirm whether ornot this is in fact a trend.

Envisat's radar vision pierces Antarctic clouds to give researchers aringside seat for the journey of the vast, drifting B-15A iceberg.

© ESA

Satellitesat the service ofpolar research

The European Space Agency’s powerful ENVISAT satellitetracks ice and vegetation trends in the polar regions withextreme accuracy.

© ESA

Satellites have become essential tools for polar research. For example, they track the movements of many birds andmammals at the poles. But they have proved particularly decisive when observing climate change: spatial teledetectionhas enabled the study of changes to the extent of pack ice, the volume of ice caps, the productivity of oceanic waters,levels of stratospheric ozone and many other phenomena. Europe is one of the leaders in this field, thanks to theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) which can boast the successful launch of several satellites: ERS 1 and 2, Envisat and, mostrecently, Cryosat.

To find out more:http://www.oikos.ekol.lu.se/Oikos.100.1.abstracts/

12056Mauritzen.htmhttp://www.esa.int/export/esaLP/cryosat.html


It is in the mass of air close to the ground (the troposphere) wheremajor meteorological phenomena occur, and also where different fam-ilies of gases circulate and mix together with particles and pollutants ofall types.

At Ny-Alesund, the science settlement in the archipelago of Svalbard,the Zeppelin Station (78°54 N, 11°53 E) contains one of the majorpolar laboratories monitoring the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere.

“It is managed by the NILU, the Norwegian Institute for Air Research,in collaboration with the Norwegian Polar Institute,” explains Geir Aas-bostal, who has for many years overseen daily monitoring of sensorsplaced on the roof of the building at the top of this ‘mountain’(474 metres altitude), and has ensured the quality of the data collected.

“We permanently measure levels in the air of differenttypes of gases, such asmethane, carbon monoxide,chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)and hydrofluorocarbons(HFC). The same applies toparticles suspended in the air,

(which we study in terms of their size and distribution) and a range ofinorganic pollutants, such as mercury. Finally, when it rains or snows,we collect samples which are also analysed.”

A poor record concerning the greenhouse gas HFC

These regular measurements inform researchers about changes tothe atmosphere and also the sources, transport, dispersion and possibletransformation of pollutants and their impact on the environment. Onething is clear: since 1999, the levels of HFC, a greenhouse gas, measuredat Ny-Alesund, have been steadily rising. In 2003, a terrible record wasbroken, when levels rose by 25%. These data, and others, are essentialwhen contributing and validating the mathematical models used tosimulate climate change on a planetary scale. �

Permanent monitoring of the atmosphere from the SvalbardGreenhouse gases, organic and inorganic pollutants,aerosols… In order to study climate change, accountmust be taken of a great many parameters, one of themost important being the rapid evolution in thequality of our atmosphere.

The Zeppelin Station for Air Monitoring and Research is owned andoperated by the Norwegian Polar Institute. The Norwegian Institute for AirResearch (NILU) is responsible for the scientific programmes at the station.

© NILU

To find out more:Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) www.nilu.no and the

site for the Ny-Alesund science settlement: www.kingsbay.no

Head in the clouds but feetfirmly on the ground

Despite the rapid development of polarteledetection, work on the ground remains ne-cessary. Firstly because some measurementsare still difficult to obtain from space. “That isthe case for atmospheric pressure,” explainsAlan Rodger, from the British Antarctic Survey,“and also the Earth's magnetic field, because12 hours elapse between each measurement,while on the ground we can follow this param-eter continuously.” Field work is also essentialto calibrate and validate satellite observations.This is true for the stratospheric ozone, whichtoday is being measured by another ESA cre-ation, Envisat, the largest and most elaborateearth observation satellite ever constructed.

Finally, as explained by Bruno Delille, fromthe University of Liege in Belgium, “the increas-ing integration of ground and space measure-ments opens new fields of research: for severalyears now, we have been studying the role of theAntarctic Ocean and pack ice in exchanges ofcarbon dioxide between the ocean and theatmosphere. This has been made possiblethrough oceanographic measurements collectedin situ supplemented by satellite observations ofimportant parameters such as the chlorophyllbiomass, surface temperature, winds and thedistribution of ice.” �

The impressive diving performances of elephantseals, so named for their massive size and for thetrunk-like noses of the males, are followed bysatellite tracking.

© G. Juin/IPEV© G. Juin/IPEV

What role does Europe have to play inresearch in polar regions?

We have research programmes, logisticresources, and considerable expertise in thisfield. One of the aims of the EPB is to increasethe European countries’ awareness of the piv-otal role that Europe can play in terms of polarresearch. All the intellectual, logistic and tech-nical resources of the different Member Statesdevoted to polar research endow Europe witha predominant position in this field. The Euro-pean network of bases in these regions of theworld is testimony to this. That said, I prefer notto refer to ‘polar research’ but to the manyareas of scientific excellence being developedin polar regions.

We also benefit from federal approaches,such as the Europolar programme. This pro-vides coordination for national research pro-grammes in the context of the European UnionERA-NET system (European Research Area) andaims to better organise and optimise researchefforts in polar regions.

Finally, we should not forget Europe's know-how in these extraordinary environments. Forexample, we have now mastered methods fornavigation in sea ice, icebreaking technologyand the logistics required for polar travel onland. These are undeniably important skills.

What are the major scientific researchchallenges in these regions?

The EPICA programme for drilling in theAntarctic ice cap, which during the last summerseason almost arrived at the rock underlying theDome C coring site, is one of the best examples

(see p. 8 and 32). This major European project,with which we were associated from the start,responds to one of the key global challenges,namely climate change. It is a remarkablereminder that the polar regions constitute excellentwitnesses of the changes which have affectedour planet.

The polar regions, i.e. lying south or northof 60 degrees latitude, are of extraordinaryinterest in terms of their specific fauna andflora. We must retain or even enhance ourpresence in these environments, through thedevelopment of new observatories, particularlyto study the atmosphere. We need to devotefurther study to the characteristics of differentatmospheric layers at these high latitudes,including interactions between the atmosphere,the local biosphere and the oceans, but also thecryosphere, particularly in the Antarctic.

We also need to better understand theAntarctic Ocean, the circulation of floating icemasses and, more generally, the oceanic andthermohaline circulations.

19A E U RO P E A N VI S I O N F O R P O LA R R E S E A RC H RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

More of Europeat high latitudes

Europe is not lagging behind in terms ofpolar research. It has a prestigious past,and its current expertise is acknowledgedworldwide. As we come to theInternational Polar Year in 2007-2008,Gérard Jugie, Chairman of the EuropeanPolar Board (EPB) and Director of theFrench Paul Emile Victor Polar Institute(IPEV), updates us on the challenges weface today. An interview.

Gérard Jugie, Chairman of the European PolarBoard (EPB) and Director of the French PaulEmile Victor Polar Institute (IPEV)

© IPEV

In Svalbard, several European countries are actively working together on scientific research in the Arctic.

© Christian Du Brulle

Are there any emerging fields of research?

Absolutely. In astronomy, for example. The Antarctic, and most par-ticularly its plateau, is now of considerable interest to astronomers, withspecial emphasis being placed on infrared observations. This interest isdue to the low levels of humidity and precipitation on the plateau (a max-imum of 3.5 cm of water a year), its altitude, the light winds which donot markedly disturb observations, and the lack of light interference. Inother words, it is a particularly attractive region and a site here wouldsupplement the major astronomic observatories elsewhere in the world.

Another emerging area, which is of increasing interest to spaceagencies, is studying isolation of research teams in a very hostile envir-onment. Their psychological and sociological monitoring is the sourceof much valuable information.

Is research in the Arctic less well developed than that in the southern hemisphere?

Certainly not. First of all, the Scandinavian countries are particularlyactive in this area. Secondly, we must not forget the international cam-paigns that have been ongoing in Greenland for many years. And finallythere is Svalbard, with the Ny-Alesund scientific settlement which groupsnot only Norwegian research stations but also teams from France, the UK,Italy, Korea and Poland. France has another base in that area, which strivesto be a model for future research stations. More globally, we must not losesight of Russian research efforts in the Arctic. No, you cannot say that theArctic regions have lost their attractiveness for research.

Will the International Polar Year in 2007-2008 revolutioniseEuropean research in these extreme regions of our planet?

Not intrinsically, but it will serve to highlight our activities in polarregions. This will allow us to raise the awareness of decision-makers atall levels, from politicians to the man in the street. The last Polar Year(in fact, more precisely an International Geophysics Year), took place fiftyyears ago, and made it possible to launch a multitude of new researchprojects in polar regions. This new Polar Year will regenerate interest inthese regions and emphasise the importance to society as a whole of thework carried out there, and should trigger projects for future generations.It is certainly an event which will leave a legacy, particularly in terms ofcoordination, cooperation and infrastructure.

Will it provide impetus for a shift towards the greater integration of national efforts within the EU?

At present, some countries in Europe are more dynamic than others. I think that the new International Polar Year may act as a cata-lyst towards greater integration. But in fact, this integration is inevitable,because Europe is now a living entity. I do not know if we shall have aEuropean Polar Agency in 2007, but I am sure that one day, this goalwill become a reality. �

20 A E U RO P E A N VI S I O N F O R P O LA R R E S E A RC HRTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Huge rookeries of rockhopper penguins are found on islands around the edgesof the Antarctic region.

Understanding how icebergs and currents interact in the Southern Ocean is a priority for European research in the Antarctic.

© IPF

Concerned with major strategic priorities in the Arctic andAntarctic, the EPB is funded by its members to act as astrategic voice and facilitator of cooperation between nationalpolar institutes, research organisations and funding agencies.

Major initiativesSince its creation, the EPB has been very dynamic in devel-oping and supporting a whole series of strategic initiativessuch as the proposal for a state-of-the-art, pan-Europeanicebreaker, Aurora Borealis (see p. 22), and the proposal fora strategic framework for coordination of European polarresearch, to be taken forward by a European PolarConsortium.

Endorsements and co-operationOther initiatives by the EPB include its role in the Europeanendorsement of the 2007-2008 International Polar Year, aswell as efforts to coordinate EU projects and proposals in boththe natural and the social sciences.

The EPB is also actively in dialogue with the US NationalScience Foundation (NSF) on a series of joint initiatives,and it is hoped that a position paper on the subject ofUS/European collaboration in polar regions will be developedduring the next year.

Future directionsAccording to Paul Egerton, EPB Executive Secretary, theBoard will, in 2005, give strong support to the European PolarConsortium’s activities, including through coordinating theviews of EPB members’ national polar research bodies.


The EPC is composed of 25 ministries,funding agencies and national polaragencies from 19 member countries,including Russia, and was launched inMarch 2004.

The EPC’s brief is to develop a four-year strategic plan and timetable,under the auspices of the EU, whichwould see European nations, includ-ing new EU members, increasinglycollaborate in their activities in thepolar regions. The resulting commonaccess to infrastructure and trans-

national programme development wouldfurther strengthen European researchand Europe’s voice in international polarforums. The EPC is supported by ERA-NET (the EU scheme promoting coor-dinated European research) under the EUSixth Framework Programme forresearch and technological development(FP6).

Through mapping Europe’s strengthsand breaking down legal and adminis-trative barriers to cooperation betweenresearch agencies, the Consortiumexpects to promote valuable synergies inthe major areas of European scientificexpertise, including climatology, ice coring science and new frontier researchareas such as astronomy, astrophysicsand life in extreme environments.

The European Polar ConsortiumThe European Polar Consortium (EPC) is thebrainchild of the European Polar Board andrepresents the next step towards thedevelopment of a ‘European polar entity’ thatwill enable Europe to maximise and direct itscritical mass at a global level.

The European Polar BoardEstablished in 1995, the European Polar

Board (EPB) is the European ScienceFoundation’s strategic advisorycommittee on science policy in the polarregions. It comprises 19 European Union

and pre-accession countries, as well asexternal members such as the Russian

Federation.

The long collaboration between France and Russia at Vostok station oninvaluable ice-coring work has deepened the scientific links betweenRussia and Europe.

Norway, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and France have all established their own research stations in Ny-Ålesund

© CNRS/LGGE


Large and extra-LargeThe best-funded polar research pro-

grammes in Europe are without doubt thoserun by Germany and the UK. Centralisedaround the German Alfred Wegener Institute(AWI) which has an annual operating budgetof 60 million euro and over 450 employees,and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) which hasit own annual budget of 43 million euro andjust over 400 full-time staff, both national pro-grammes also comprise universities and otherseparately funded polar organisations such asthe Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) inCambridge.

Slightly smaller in size, the French andItalian polar research programmes also havetheir own central polar research institutionssuch as the Institut Paul Emile Victor (IPEV), butgenerally operate in a more open structurewith greater financial participation from uni-versities and other organisations. The annualbudget of the French IPEV is approximately20 million euro, whilst about 27 million eurois spent by the Italian polar researchprogramme as a whole.

Medium and smallMedium-sized European polar research

programmes include Norway, Denmark, Swe-den and Spain, with the Norwegian PolarInstitute operating a staff of around 120 people, most of them dedicated to the Arctic.

Among the smaller countries for whichfigures are available, the Netherlands andBelgium each spend between one and twomillion euro annually on both national andinternational projects. They do not currentlyoperate stations (Belgium is planning one), butinstead have arrangements with other nationalprogrammes whom they pay for logisticalsupport on specific projects.

Following the recent success of the Arctic Coring Expedition(ACEX – see p. 37) which required an ice-strengthened drilling ves-sel and two powerful icebreakers to extract a 400 metre core fromthe Arctic Ocean floor, the European Polar Board (EPB) has beenputting together an ambitious proposal for a new, dedicatedEuropean research icebreaker. Such a vessel would be capable ofoperating throughout the year as an autonomous drilling platformin the highest latitudes of the Arctic.

Originally proposed by Jörn Thiede, Director of the Alfred WegenerInstitute (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the Aurora Borealis would beequipped with a new twin hull design comprising steeply-slopedside walls capable of breaking ice laterally so as to maintain theship’s exact position during drilling. At 132 metres long for 23,000tonnes, it would contain berths for 200 crew and scientists.

Participating countries to share the both costand scientists’ time on board

With an estimated price-tag of 300 million euro, the idea is for the AuroraBorealis to be majority funded by a consortium of participating Europeannations, with other possible non-EU contributors such as the U.S.A.,Canada, Japan and China.

Expected to operate up to 300 days a year and to provide some 15,000scientific working days, the Aurora Borealis would be managed on a sharebasis, with time being allocated according to individual countries’financial contributions. In addition to drilling activities, the vesselwould also provide logistical support for research in the fields of meteo-rology, oceanography, geophysics, biology and the study of sea ice,and would be equipped with novel technologies such as ROV (RemoteOperated Vehicle) and AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) sys-tems.

With a final decision on its construction expected in the second half of2005, it is anticipated that the Aurora Borealis could be operational as earlyas 2008-2009.


The Aurora Borealis: proposal for an advanced European icebreakerSediment deposits, lying deep beneath the ArcticOcean floor, hold the key to understanding theregion’s climate history, and its effect on the globalenvironment over many millions of years. Drilling forthis information while operating in pack ice, however,is a very delicate and costly operation that requiresstate-of-the-art vessels and technology.

Unfrozen assets: budgets and staff of European polar research organisationsAlthough European polar research is very well funded, there exist big discrepancies between individual nations. What ismore, whilst some polar research programmes are very centralised, operating under large, integrated organisations andbudgets, others only operate as logistical providers or have separate structures for different scientific disciplines and/orregions.

Cross-section of the proposed European researchicebreaker, Aurora Borealis

Built on a rich tradition of polar explorationgoing back to the 18th century and the oftenheroic expeditions of the early pioneers, leadingEuropean organisations draw on an illustrious pastto strive to identify and address today’s mostpressing polar issues and questions: questionsrelating to the role of the polar regions in theEarth system, to the environmental history of thepolar regions, and to the present and future effectsof global climate change.

Because of their remoteness and the harshnessof their environment, however, the Arctic andAntarctic are some of the most expensive regionsof the world in which to carry out scientificresearch. Indeed, depending on the exact locationand nature of the project, some research exped-itions and programmes must spend as much as80% of their budgets on logistics alone. This levelof expenditure means that deep pockets are neces-sary to finance polar research activities and thatsuch research inevitably tends to be the preroga-tive of larger nations and of Nordic countries with territories and dependencies north of theArctic Circle.

Polar Institutes

GermanyCertainly one of the leading polar institutes in

Europe today is Germany’s Alfred Wegener Insti-tute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Foundedin 1980, 90% financed by the German FederalMinistry of Education and Research, and withheadquarters in Bremerhaven, the institute wasnamed after the German scientist Alfred Wegener,one of the pioneers of the theory of continentaldrift, who was a geophysicist, meteorologist andclimatologist and carried out the majority of hisresearch work in Greenland, where he died in 1930.

In its short history, the Alfred Wegener Institutehas risen to prominence through its integrated

programme of research in four main areas:geosystems, climate systems, pelagic ecosystemsand benthic ecosystems. It is also a well-equippedpolar research institute, with a network of polarresearch stations, ships and aircraft adapted forpolar operations. Its flagship, Polarstern, currentlyone of the most sophisticated polar research ice-breakers in the world, has enabled the institute tocarry out many important studies relating to,amongst other things, the ocean-ice-atmospheresystem and its importance for the world climate.Furthermore, the AWI is also active in polar logis-tics cooperation, as can be seen with its Dall-mann Laboratory housed at the Argentine JubanyStation on King George Island in the South Shet-land Islands and the merging of the Institut PolaireFrançais and the Alfred Wegener Institute stationsat Ny-Alesund in Svalbard.

United KingdomAlmost as well funded, and operating a greater

network of aircraft and stations than the AWI, theBritish Antarctic Survey (BAS) grew out of a wartime expedition “Operation Tabarin” in 1943.It was then established in 1945 as the FalklandIslands Dependencies Survey (FIDS); an organ-

isation which ran as many as 13 stations during theInternational Geophysical Year of 1957-58.Renamed British Antarctic Survey in 1962 when theUK became one of the original 12 signatories tothe Antarctic Treaty and put aside its Antarctic ter-ritory claims, the BAS is perhaps most famous asthe organisation which discovered the ozone holein 1985.

Financed by the UK’s Natural EnvironmentResearch Council (NERC) and with headquartersin Cambridge, the BAS is currently launching a newsuite of science programmes for 2005 to 2010 en-titled ‘Global Science in the Antarctic Context’. Thisprogramme will involve a whole range of research:global and regional signs of climate change; bio-diversity and evolution in the Antarctic ecosystem;Southern Ocean science and Earth system inte-gration. One of the most topical aspects of the newprogramme deals with glacial retreat in Antarcticaand the deglaciation of the Earth system. Thisincludes research on the stability of the WestAntarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), a vast reserve of freshwater which would increase global sea levels byup to 6 metres if it were to collapse as a result ofclimate change.


Poles of excellence: Europe's leading institutes and organisations With its 25 EU nations and 20 non-members, Europe is as rich in leading polar organisationsas it is in polar history. Ranging from dedicated polar research institutes to universities andspecialised libraries, today’s European polar organisations form an intricate and fertilenetwork active in large areas of the polar regions and in most disciplines of polar research.This network encourages excellence through healthy doses of both cooperation andcompetition between European nations.

Since 1994, the German Dallmann lab has beenhosted by the Argentinian station Jubany tocarry out research in marine and terrestrialbiology at King George Island near the Antarcticcontinent.

© AWI

Rothera Station is the British Antarctic Surveylogistics centre for the Antarctic Peninsula andhome to well-equipped biological laboratoriesand facilities for a wide range of research.

© BAS


FranceThe French Polar Institut Paul Emile Victor

(IPEV) is a public body composed of nine publicorganisations, amongst which the most importantare the French Ministry of Research, which providesmost of the funding to the IPEV, and the FrenchCentre National de la Recherche Scientifique(CNRS) which provides two-thirds of the 50 per-manent staff at the IPEV headquarters in Brest, Brittany. Previously the Institut Français pour laRecherche et la Technologie Polaires (IFRTP), theIPEV was created in 1992 by the merging of thescientific mission of the Terres Australes et Antarc-tiques Françaises (TAAF), which managed theFrench sub-Antarctic islands of Kerguelen, Crozetand Amsterdam, and the Expéditions PolairesFrancaises. It is named after Paul Emile Victor, theleading figure of modern French bi-polar researchand exploration who died in 1995.

Recently extended to 2014, the IPEV willmake use of its three research vessels as well as itsstations in the Arctic, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic

to continue its programme of research in fieldsranging from oceanography to biology, climatol-ogy, atmospherics and glaciology. In 2005, in col-laboration with the Italian Antarctic Program, theIPEV also operates its first winter campaign at thenewly opened, second-generation, Concordiastation at Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau. DomeC was originally erected as a summer camp tosupport the highly successful European Projectof Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA – see page 32).Amongst many other projects, the institute nowhopes to take advantage of the exceptionalatmospheric conditions at Dome C to launch aninternational astronomy programme for whichinitial site testing is currently taking place.

ItalyItaly’s polar research activities are divided into

the National Programme of Antarctic Research(PNRA) and the Arctic Project.

The PNRA was first established in 1985. In2002 a consortium of four agencies was put incharge of its implementation: the NationalResearch Council (CNR), the Agency for new Tech-nologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA),the National Institute for Geophysics and Vol-canology (INGV), and the National Institute ofOceanography and Experimental Geophysics(OGS). The programme is promoted by the Min-istry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)and opened its high-tech Mario Zucchelli-TerraNova Bay summer station in the Ross Sea regionin 1986.

The PNRA’s research activities include its col-laboration with the IPEV on the construction andmanagement of the newly constructed ConcordiaStation on the Antarctic Plateau, as well as a par-ticularly active programme of cooperation on

international projects such as EPICA, the Inter-national TransAntarctic Scientific Expedition(ITASE), the Balloon Observation of MillimetricExtragalactic Radiation and Geophysics(BOOMERANG), and the Antarctic GeologicalDrilling Consortium (ANDRILL).

The Italian Arctic Project started in 1996 whenthe CNR opened the Dirigibile Italia research sta-tion at Ny-Alesund in Svalbard. This was followedby the establishment of the Arctic Strategic Pro-ject in June 1997 and its launch of a multidisci-plinary programme of research which includesClimatology, the NICE (Nitrogen Cycle and Effects)project, biological adaptation, biomedecine,hydrology, radionuclides, permafrost and humanscience. The Arctic Strategic Project is managed bythe recently created CNR/POLARNET which coord-inates polar research activities in both the Arcticand the Antarctic.

Nordic CountriesWithin Europe, Denmark, Finland, Sweden

and Norway all stand out as countries with terri-tories and dependencies north of the Arctic Circle,and as some of the oldest and most prolific con-tributors to European polar research in both thenatural and the social sciences. Together these fourNordic countries study everything from the effectof global warming on the Greenland Ice Cap andArctic Ocean, to the cultural, historical and socialprocesses that shape the sustainability of circum-polar indigenous peoples – especially the Saami ofNorthern Scandinavia and the Inuits of Green-land.

The Danish Polar Centre supports and syn-chronises a vast network of stations and observa-tion posts throughout Greenland and, through its,logistics network, actively supports United Statesand other international research in the region.The Finnish Institute of Marine Research, the Nor-wegian Polar Institute and the Swedish PolarResearch Secretariat together operate a small fleet

of research vessels, as well as a whole panoply ofstations and observation posts from NorthernScandinavia to Svalbard, and to Antarctica, whereNorway is currently upgrading its Troll station foryear-round occupancy.

Universities and OtherOrganisations

Although it would be almost impossible toidentify all the European universities carrying outresearch in the polar regions, it is neverthelesspossible to mention a few that stand out for theirexcellence and dedication to these regions.

Notable amongst these is Cambridge Uni-versity, which maintains a close relationship withthe British Antarctic Survey and is home to theScott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) founded in1920 as a memorial to Captain Scott and his four

Italy’s Zucchelli base on the Ross Sea coast,Antarctica, is a summer-only station accom-modating up to 90 people.

The French Antarctic station Dumont d’Urville on theAdelie coast was built on an island, part of the PointeGéologie archipelago. It has good access to theplateau, Cape Prud'homme, less than 5 km away.

© IPEV © PNRA

Norway opened its summer Troll station in 1990. Itwas upgraded to a full-year facility during the lastAustral summer.

© NILU

European nations operate a total of twelveyear-round and ten summer-only Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations, as well as about ten dedicatedscientific stations in the Arctic. Above and beyondthese, Russia still manages the Soviet Union’s legacyof eight research stations in Antarctica alone.

The Arctic

While Antarctic stations are easy to add up andclassify according to nationality and seasonal usage,the complex geographic, human and politicaldimension of the Arctic (an ocean surrounded by

sovereign, inhabited coastlines), can make it diffi-cult to distinguish dedicated scientific researchstations from meteorological and other observationposts. These posts are maintained by local inhab-itants, the military or other non-scientific agencies.

Certainly the greatest concentration of dedi-cated European scientific research stations in theArctic is in Ny-Alesund, on the Svalbard archipel-ago. There, France and Germany have just mergedtheir stations into a single polar research platform,whilst Norway, Sweden, Italy, Poland and the UKalso maintain stations with the support of a logis-tical network managed and operated by Norway’sKings Bay AS.


companions who died on their return journeyfrom the South Pole. The Institute is the oldestinternational centre for polar research within auniversity and since the war has been involved ina whole variety of research relating to polar history,the natural sciences and the social sciences.

Housing its own polar museum, as well as theworld’s most comprehensive polar library andarchives, with books, publications, diaries, unpub-lished material, artefacts and images relating to allaspects of polar research and history, the SPRIserves as an invaluable source of information forinternational scholars and scientists alike. Fur-thermore, the SPRI offers a sought-after Mastersand PhD programme covering subjects relating toboth the natural and the social sciences, and ishome to various external organisations such as theScientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR)and the International Glaciology Society (IGS).

Another important university for polar researchis the uniquely located University Centre in Sval-bard (UNIS) where every year up to 250 inter-national post-graduate students come to study andcarry out research in Arctic sciences, includingbiology, geology, geophysics and technology.Intended to contribute to the development of

Svalbard as an international research platform,UNIS programmes rely heavily on the naturalproperties of Svalbard as a high-latitude researchlaboratory and on the extensive research infra-structure in and around Ny-Alesund. In the future,the UNIS will form the core of the Svalbard ScienceCentre (SSC), an international Arctic centre ofexpertise in research and education, which will alsoincorporate other professional and scientific insti-tutions on the islands.

Among other European universities and otherorganisations which contribute significantly topolar research, one should also mention: the Uni-versity of Grenoble, whose glaciology laboratoryis actively involved in the study of ice cores; theUniversity of Groningen, home to the Dutch Arc-tic Centre; the University of Lapland, home tothe Finnish Arctic Centre; the Norwegian Instituteof Technology, home to the SINTEF Polar Tech-nology unit; the University of Copenhagen, hometo specialist glaciology and geophysical groups;the Belgian Science Policy and its Antarctic pro-gramme; the University of Tromsø; the Universityof Siena; the University of Dresden; and the Uni-versity of Stockholm.

Working Together

Whilst all funded and working independentlyto uphold their own programmes and reputa-tions, together theabove-mentionedinstitutes and univer-sities display thevibrancy of the Euro-pean polar researchcommunity, as wellas its common desireto better understandhow the polarregions function andevolve both internallyand as part of theEarth system as awhole. Indeed, thisshared enthusiasm and sense of urgency in the faceof global warming is leading to an increasingnumber of European collaborative programmesand to a more coordinated approach to European polar research as a whole. �

To find out more:AWI: www.awi-bremerhaven.de

BAS: www.antarctica.ac.uk

AARI: www.aari.nw.ru/

IPEV: www.ipev.fr

CNR-POLARNET:

www.polarnet.cnr.it/polar

NPI: npweb.npolar.no

SPRI: www.spri.cam.ac.uk

UNIS: www.unis.no

High latitude real-estate: European polar stationsThe jewels in a polar programme’s crown, research stations act as invaluable operational platforms fromwhich to support local and deep-field research expeditions, as well as all types of atmospheric, astronomical,meteorological, biological and medical observations. Rightly or wrongly, stations are also often regarded asthe best indication of a nation’s commitment and dedication to polar research.

© IPF


Indeed, with Norway’s support, Ny-Alesund has become a thrivingpolar research community and one of the leading climate and envi-ronmental monitoring posts in the entire Arctic region. It is a logisticalhub where, amongst many other things, the depreciating thickness ofArctic sea ice and its effect on salinity and ocean currents is being closelymonitored. What is more, Ny-Alusund is also home to the UniversityCentre in Svalbard (UNIS) where every year up to 250 international post-graduate students come to carry out research in Arctic biology, geology, geophysics and technology.

Away from Svalbard, other notable European research stationsinclude the Sodankyla Geophysical Observatory and the University ofLapland in northern Finland, as well as the Swedish Abisko ScientificResearch Station about 200 kilometres north of the Arctic circle. TheDanish Polar Centre and other Danish scientific organisations alsooperate a whole network of observation posts and stations in continentaland coastal Greenland. These outposts are examining closely the his-tory, stability and thinning of the Greenland ice cap, as well as its effecton global sea level rise.

The Antarctic

Of all the European polar research programmes, the British AntarcticSurvey (BAS) and the Institut Polaire Français (IPEV) operate the greatestnetwork of Antarctic and sub-Antarctic stations. In the case of the BAS, theserange from the relatively accessible King Edward Point on the island of SouthGeorgia, to the remote Halley V on the Brunt Ice Shelf in the Weddell Searegion. Lying within the auroral zone, Halley is ideally situated for geospaceresearch and is where the ozone hole was first discovered in 1985.

By far the most isolated Europeanresearch station inAntarctica is the new,ultra-modern French-Italian Concordia sta-tion at Dome C, highup on the AntarcticPlateau. With a sum-mer population ofaround 55 and winterpopulation of 15, Con-cordia is supported andre-supplied by a mix-ture of land-traverse viaFrance’s Dumont D’Urville and air link via Italy’s Zucchelli station on theAntarctic coastline. Originally set up as part of the European Project for IceCoring in Antarctica (EPICA), it was recently rebuilt as a permanent struc-ture to support a whole range of current and future research in glaciology,astronomy, and atmospherics.

Another important European polar research station is Germany’s Neu-mayer in Dronning Maud Land. Buried under eleven metres of ice and snowaccumulation, Neumayer is located on a moving ice shelf and, like the BritishHalley V, is slowly progressing towards the edge of the shelf where it willeventually carve off as part of an iceberg. For this reason, both Neumayerand Halley have been abandoned and rebuilt upstream on several occa-sions in the past – usually at ten to twenty year intervals. Indeed, plans arecurrently being drawn up to replace both existing stations within thenext three to five years.

Summer stations

Although smaller in size, summer stations, such as Norway’s Troll Station(currently being upgraded for year-round occupation), Sweden’s Wasa Sta-tion, Spain’s Gabriel de Castilla Station and Ukraine’s Vernadsky (formally theBritish Faraday) station, also play an important role. They provide logistic andother support for the majority of scientists who carry out Antarctic researchduring the months when 24-hour daylight is the norm and conditions are attheir most favourable. �

Ny-Alesund in Svalbard, a thriving Arctic research community.The British Antarctic Survey station Halley V, built on the Brunt Ice Shelf,Coats Land, Antarctica. Lying at the edge of the southern auroral zone, it isideally situated for geospace research.

© IPEV

© BAS

© IPF

Of the 20 or so European polar research vessels, three are ice-breakersand the remainder are classified as ice-strengthened. Aside from hullstrength and a ship’s ability to sail through various depths of pack ice, per-haps the single most important quality required from a polar research ves-sel is the flexibility to support a whole range of scientific disciplines andto operate in capacities ranging from research platform to supply ship, topassenger carrier. Indeed, from this perspective, the unique strength ofthe European ‘armada’ rests not only on the flexibility of specific researchvessels, but also on the flexibility of the fleet as a whole.

Icebreakers

With her 118 metres in length, a displacement of 17 300 tons, hertwo helicopters and a double hull that enables her to withstand temper-atures of –50˚C and to over-winter in the sea ice of the polar seas,Polarstern is the most important tool in Germany’s polar research pro-gramme. Operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and operationalnearly 320 days a year, since its launch in 1982, the Polarstern has com-pleted 32 expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic, carrying up to 55scientists at a time and supporting a whole panoply of campaigns in fieldsranging from biology to geology, geophysics, glaciology, chemistry,oceanography and meteorology.

Aside from the Polarstern, the other two European polar researchvessels classified as icebreakers are: the 118 metre, 9 500 tonne, Oden, oper-ated by the Swedish Maritime Administration and leased by the SwedishPolar Research Secretariat; and the 141 metre, 16 500 tonne, AkademicFederov operated by the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Institute (AARI).Whilst the Oden is sometimes leased for commercial icebreaking opera-

tions, both vessels serve as polyvalent research and logistical platforms,with Federov regularly re-supplying AARI stations in Antarctica.

Ice-strengthened vessels

Among the largest European ice-strengthened vessels operating in thepolar regions is the French 120 metre, 10 000 tonne Marion Dufresne. Itserves as an oceanographic research platform and also provides logisticalsupport and passenger transport for the French sub-Antarctic islands ofKerguelen, Crozet and Amsterdam. Slightly longer, at 130 metres for 5 000 tonnes, the Italian Italica also serves for marine science, but mostlyas a tanker and logistics vessel for the support of the Italian Antarctic Zuc-chelli station at Terra Nova Bay. Two European polar research ice


Polar armada: Europe’s polarresearch vessels

Polar research vessels owned or operated byEuropean countries range from Germany’sicebreaker, Polarstern, currently the mostsophisticated polar research vessel in the world, tothe Polish Academy of Science’s three-mast, ice-strengthened S/Y Oceania. Together these vesselsform a veritable ‘polar armada’ capable ofproviding tailored platforms for all kinds ofresearch and logistical operations, from the mostambitious oceanographic research to the mostspecific and localised coastal operations.

The Polarstern (Germany) has completed 32 expeditions to the Arctic andthe Antarctic since 1982.

At 10 000 tons the Marion Dufresne (France) is one of the largest European ice-strengthened vessels operating in the polar regions.

© AWI

© IPEV

Established in 1920, the Russian Arctic andAntarctic Research Institute (AARI) still man-ages a vast infrastructure inherited from thetime of the Soviet Union. Today, the institute ispart of the Russian Federal Service on Hydro-meteorology and Environmental Monitoringand, at its headquarters in St Petersburg, houses17 scientific departments, an Arctic and Antarc-tic museum, a centre for Ice and Hydromete-orological studies, and the Russian AntarcticExpedition (RAE), which manages all the insti-

tute’s Antarctic stations and activities. What’smore, the AARI is the keeper of a vast data col-lection spanning back to its origin and touch-ing on everything from ice to ocean and atmos-pheric, geophysical and other processes.

Thanks to its ships and many research sta-tions, the institute continues to perform com-plex investigations in fields ranging fromoceanography to ice dynamics, meteorology,ocean/air interaction, geophysics, hydro-chemistry, ecology and polar engineering. More

recently, and regrettably often overshadowingits other activities, the AARI has received a lotof publicity for its ice core drilling project at itsVostok Station on the Antarctic Plateau (theworld’s most remote research station) and itsdiscovery of a lake that has been buried beneaththe ice sheet for some 2 million years.


strengthened vessels are the British RRS James Clark Ross, 90 metres for 5 700 tonnes, serving for marine science, oceanography, logistics andpassenger transport and the 80 metre, 5 400 tonne, RRS Ernest Shackleton,

both operated by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS).Finally, there is the Russian Akademik Karpinskii at105 metres for 5 750 tonnes, which is mostly usedfor marine science.

Medium-sized, polyvalent ice-strengthened Euro-pean polar research vessels include: the Spanish, 82

metre, R/V Hesperides used for bi-polar research and the re-supply of theAntarctic Gabriel de Castilla and Juan Carlos I stations; the French, 65 metreAstrolabe used for marine science and to re-supply the French Dumontd’Urville Antarctic station; the Norwegian, 60 metre, R/V Lance usedmainly for Arctic research and to re-supply Norwegian stations on Sval-bard; the Finnish, 60 metre, R/V Aranda used for research in both polar

regions; and the Danish 58 metre Paamiut operated by the GreenlandInstitute of Natural Resources and used as a logistics and marine researchplatform in and around Greenland.

Smaller vessels

Smaller in size, but equally useful in supporting shallow coastal workand other very localised polar research is the beautiful three-mast, 49 metre,Polish S/Y Oceania, as well as a whole fleet of 15 to 50 metre vesselsoperated by the above-mentioned nations and polar programmes. �

To find out more:COMNAP: www.comnap.aq

FARO: www.faro-arctic.org

The Hesperides (Spain) carries out research in warm, temperate and polar watersand re-supplies Spanish stations in the Antarctic.

The ice-strengthened RRS James Clark Ross (UK) is designed with an extremelylow-noise signature to allow sensitive underwater acoustic equipment tooperate effectively.

© BAS

© UTM/CSIC

Russia: a promising partner for the EUA member of the European Polar Board, Russia brings a full range of ships, stations and skills to its EU partners.


Automated magnetometry

Mervyn Freeman, Mike Rose and colleagues from the BritishAntarctic Survey (BAS) have developed a new technology that allowsmagnetometers to use very little power and to survive the winter onsolar power stored during the summer months. This allows the magnet-ometers to operate unmanned throughout the year and works by hav-ing them switch on for only the minimum amount of time neededto take a measurement (around 150 milliseconds anywhere from oncea second to once a minute). A network of 11 such Low Power Mag-netometers has been deployed across the Antarctic continent inorder to measure and understand ‘magnetic weather’ (useful, forexample, for telecommunications and the aerospace industries to bet-ter protect spacecraft).

Ice buildings

Heinz Ahammer from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany,has produced a system for the production of vaulted rooves constructedsolely from snow. Snow is compacted over an inflatable and reusabledevice which is then deflated and removed to give way to a hollow,vaulted space. Similarly, removable air cushions have been developed toprotect buildings from the accumulation of drifting snow: the cushionscreate hollow spaces which decrease the weight of the snow layer cov-ering buildings.

Weather aboveand under the sea ice

For more then 20 years,drifting buoys (or ‘drifters’) havebeen used for the study of thesea ice interface in both polarregions. These Buoys areequipped with an automaticweather station, a GPS pos-itioning system, an Argos trans-mitter, and sometimes, an ice-

thickness gauge. More recently, increasingly efficient autonomous under-water vehicles, or AUVs (already used worldwide to record water currentsand temperatures), have been fitted to work under the ice. Some are usedby the team of Michael Klages (AWI) deep under the Arctic sea ice andothers by Keith Nicholls(BAS) and his colleaguesfrom the SouthamptonOceanography Centre, UK,under the Ronne-Filchnerice shelf in Antarctica.

However, a joint teamof scientists from the Nor-wegian Polar Institute and the University of St Andrews, Scotland, hasprobably found the cheapest deployment platform for oceanographicmeasurements, with their CTD (conductivity, temperature & depth)loggers, fitted on seals and white whales living in the wild. This innovativeapplication allows measures to be taken under the Arctic ice at depthsof up to 250 m. Similar programmes are also in the process of beinglaunched in Antarctica, this time using crab-eater and elephant seals whichcan dive down to depths of up to 1 km! �

European technologiesfor and from polar researchThe progress of science in polar regions, as in others, relies heavily on continuous improvements in technology. Overrecent decades, European polar researchers have developed a number of high-tech methods and equipment. Althoughsome of these are specific to extreme latitudes, such as certain building technologies, others are applicable to otherenvironments, with a few examples given below. Indeed, a particularly noteworthy synergy exists between polar andnon-polar marine biologists and oceanographers.

Low Power Magnetometers run all year onsolar energy stored during the summer.

Autonomous underwater vehicles, such as this one operated by the AlfredWegener Institut, are now able to work under ice.

© BAS

© AWI

To find out more:http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/BAS_Science/programmes2000-

2005/MRS/LPM/index.html

http://www.antcrc.utas.edu.au/antcrc/buoys/buoys.html

http://www.smru.st-and.ac.uk/research/individuals/Martin/SEaOS.htm


Infrastructure

Some Antarctic stations are little more thaninterconnected shipping containers or pre-assembled huts providing the most basic pro-tection and comfort for short summer visits.Others are the height of modern conveniencewith everything from gyms to ice creammachines – not to mention private bedrooms,hot running water, sewage plants and 24-hourcommunication links.

Location

Antarctic stations also vary greatly depend-ing on whether they are coastal or continental.Coastal stations are usually located in protectedbays accessible to ships, making them much eas-ier to re-supply with food, fuel, equipment andother essentials. Their proximity to the sea alsomeans that they can benefit from unlimitedwater supplies through reverse osmosis.

Inland stations on the other hand, aredependent on air links or tracked vehicle tra-verses for re-supplies, making them moredependent on weather conditions and far moreexpensive to run. They also depend on thelabour-intensive melting of snow for water andare often built directly on the ice, meaningthat they must be specially designed (often onstilts or under the surface) to compensate forsinking and snow accumulation.

Seasons

According to Frank Swinton, base doctor atthe British Antarctic Survey Halley station, how-ever, nothing influences life in Antarctica asmuch as the seasons. Whilst the vast majorityof scientists only travel to Antarctica duringthe summer months so as to benefit from opti-mal light and weather conditions, 10 to 20%of Antarctica’s summer population stays behindduring the winter months to man all-year sta-tions and experiments. For these people, cop-ing with the 24-hour darkness, the psycho-logical effects of living in small, isolatedcommunities and the possibility of develop-ing serious medical problems that might not betreatable in situ requires an altogether greaterlevel of adaptability and resilience. �

Cold comfort: living andworking in Antarctica

Life on an Antarctic station varies immensely depending on season, location, infrastructure,a country’s resources and the availability of supplies.

To find out more:British Antarctic Survey:

www.antarctica.ac.uk/Living_and_Working/index.html

Don’t forget a warm hat and scarf …

Belgian science team in charge of locating the best site in the Sør Rondane mountains for the Belgo-Japanese summer station.

© IPF

Is there a clear European strategy for polar research?

We cannot really talk about a “polar strategy”. Within the Euro-pean scientific community, many researchers are carrying out work inthis kind of field. But this community is highly diverse and does notconstitute a single entity. Some researchers are interested in how iceevolves, while others are looking at sediments, greenhouse gases or bio-diversity. Joint and cross-disciplinary meetings are organised. Andresearch programmes are involving increasing numbers of partners fromoutside the EU, for example from Russia. These efforts naturally receivepolitical backing. But at the level of the European Commission, thereis no research theme that could be qualified as ‘polar’.

Should we then be talking about priority themes which arerelevant to the polar regions?

That is closer to the reality. For example, one of our priorities is thestudy of climate development. This type of research is indeed carriedout in polar regions and requires the involvement of different disciplines.Research programmes targeting geographical regions tend to be rarer,although there have been some exceptions, notably concerning theMediterranean basin.

What are the main European programmes being carried outin this type of environment?

In the first instance, the Commission provided support for ice cor-ing projects, such as the GRIP project in Greenland, which was carriedout in partnership with the European Science Foundation (ESF). Thesuccess of this project certainly contributed to the subsequent decisionto launch the EPICA programme, this time in the Antarctic. EPICA hasnow shown that it can compete on equal terms with identical projectscommissioned by other countries, such as the United States or Russia.We should remember that in this last winter, drilling by EPICA broke allrecords with respect to the age of the ice extracted from a polar ice cap,at 900,000 years.

In other areas, still linked to recent programmes on world climatechange, we should also mention the Arctic Ice Cover Simulation Experi-ment (AICSEX) project, which has focused on the Arctic ice cap, its evo-lution and modelling. Other programmes concern thermohaline cir-culation. In this area, new data are now available to help us refine themodels and will open up new perspectives for the measurement ofmarine currents, temperatures, carbon uptake, atmospheric circulationand pollution, etc.

Do you think there is a certain preference for projects in onehemisphere rather than the other?

It is clear that programmes in the Arctic polar regions are more attract-ive than research carried out in the southern hemisphere. Particularlybecause the former have a direct impact on the European Union andits citizens, and also because the region is more accessible. In the con-text of polar research, where a high proportion of the budget is allo-cated to logistics, this factor is of considerable importance.

What role will polar research have to play in the nextFramework Programme?

Climate change remains a crucial theme within the EuropeanUnion. But it is too soon to say how much priority will be given to itin the next Framework Programme, and which disciplines will beinvolved. There may be a resurgence of interest in the problem ofaerosols, for example, which have an effect on radiation, its absorptionand the physics of clouds. The content of the 7th FrameworkProgramme has not yet been decided.

Might the European Union consider a new major infrastruc-ture for polar research?

Not as such. We will not be building a Joint Research Centre, suchas ISPRA, in polar or subpolar regions. This type of very costly initiativecould be organised in the context of a partnership with Member States.If relevant, we could then provide support for national initiatives. Thisis clearly a topic for discussion in relation to development of the EuropeanResearch Area, which we are pursuing while facilitating the coordinationof national efforts. �


At the European Commission, Ib Troensupervises various joint researchprogrammes being carried out in polarregions. An interview.

Ib Troen visiting the North Greenland ice core projectin 1997. © Ib Troen

European researchEuropean researchpriorities in polar regions

Epica-MIS

The European Project for Ice Coring in theAntarctic (EPICA) has been a huge success. Atthe Dome Concordia (Dome C) drilling site,researchers have extracted ice cores whosedeepest samples go back 900,000 years. Therecently launched new phase of the Epica pro-gramme is being coordinated by DominiqueRaynaud (LGGE-Grenoble) and will consist ofdrilling at another site (the Kohnen station inDronning Maud Land, or DML) and also study-ing the ice cores already extracted from the twodrilling sites (Dome C and DML).

“We need to complete the two drillingprogrammes,” explains Dominique Raynaud,“because they are complementary. At DomeConcordia, the ice is older than at Kohnen,but comparison of the data from samples col-lected at both sites will ultimately provide uswith a clearer picture. The new phase willtherefore allow us to interpret our results ingreater detail.”

Oceans alsounderscrutiny

But this newphase also includesa section onoceanography, asindicated by thesuffix ‘MIS’ (MarineIsotopic Stages).“With the help ofoceanographers, we

will be comparing data from our ice cores withthose obtained from cores drilled in the sedi-mentary layers of the ocean floor. This com-parison of data from oceanographic climatearchives with our atmospheric ice archives willbe extremely informative. Our aim is to deter-mine whether the link between greenhousegases and temperature was equally as strongmore than 400,000 years ago, as has beenestablished by ice cores from the Vostokresearch station. We want to find out howstable the Antarctic has been over the past halfa million years, and to better assess the impactof orbital forcing (the evolution of insolation fol-lowing changes to astronomic conditions) onclimate change.”

This desire for cross-disciplinary work is inline with European Commission plans for thenew phase of the Epica programme. “We feelit is indeed essential to combine the informa-tion obtained using these two research tech-niques so as to achieve major advances in ourpaleoclimatic knowledge” confirms Hans Brelen,the Scientific Manager at the European Com-mission. “It was with this in mind that thenew phase of EPICA was approved.”

IPY-Care

The next International Polar Year in 2007-2008 (IPY) is already the focus of much atten-tion. This is also the case for the Arctic and therapid changes that are taking place there as aresult of global warming, as recently demon-strated by the ‘Arctic Climate Impact Assess-ment’ (ACIA). It was for this purpose that theIPY-Care (International Polar Year – Climate ofthe Arctic and its Role for Europe) project waslaunched with the support of the EuropeanUnion.

“The aim is to coordinate, integrate andstrengthen European research programmes onthe Arctic climate and its evolution,” explainsOla M. Johannessen, from the NorwegianNansen Environmental and Remote SensingCentre (NERSC), which is coordinating theproject.

Over the past thirty years, warming of ourplanet has affected the Arctic more than otherregions. Its ice cover has markedly shrunk,and it is estimated that between now and theend of this century, this vast polar ocean willbecome wholly navigable during the summer.Of course, this has certain economic advan-tages. But itwill also triggera series of dele-terious effectson the environ-ment and onpopulations in both northern regions and inEurope, which will reverberate southwards tothe Mediterranean basin.


To find out more: www.nersc.no

New European initiatives The European Union, via the Commission and its

Research Directorate-General, has just approvedfunding for two new scientific research projects in the

polar regions, one in the Antarctic and the other in theArctic. This is the most recent phase in the EPICA

programme, “Epica-MIS” in the Antarctic, and a newcoordination programme in the Arctic, being carried

out in close collaboration with the next InternationalPolar Year, the “IPY-Care” project.

Researchers at the Dome Concordia drilling site carefully remove an ice core.

© BAS

Six main research themes

So as to better assess the importance of these changes,the IPY-Care programme is drawing up a coordinated planfor polar research, which will be based on six clearly defined themes: study of the processes which determine cli-mate variability in the Arctic; the evolution of marine bio-logical processes as a reaction to these changes; linksbetween sea water, ice and the atmosphere; study of thevariability of paleoclimates; teledetection and the use of newtechnologies for climate data collection; and finally, eval-uation of the impact of these changes on the European cli-mate and the socio-economic consequences.

The consortium of 19 scientific institutions from 13countries (including Russia), which are partners in this pro-gramme, will be organising conferences and meetings toprepare and coordinate the research projects (subsequentmeetings and symposia will, in the long term, aim to dis-seminate the new knowledge thus acquired), and supervisethe ‘operational’ phases which will take place during theInternational Polar Year (mobilisation of European polarresearch ships, associated Russian stations, planes, etc.,with a view to joint actions with other partners such asCanada, Japan and the United States). �

33

In Europe, 2005 will also be marked bya series of new proposals for polarresearch.

“A lot of projects are in gestation, orrather I should say are the subject ofintense cogitation and discussion on allsides,” says Dominique Raynaud, (LGGE-Grenoble). “For example, it has been sug-gested that the Concordia station, whichis one of the two drill ing sites for theEpica project, could be developed into amultidisciplinary research station, with amore European or even international remit(until now, Dome C has been run jointlyby France and Italy). It would then bepossible to carry out research on surfaceice, perform radiosonde observations, oreven conduct new drilling to study thecomposition of sub-glacial lakes, of whichthere are several in the region aroundConcordia. They are less extensive thanthe famous Vostok Lake, but are nonethe-less of considerable interest.

Finally, it may also be possible to initiate a new deep drilling project to dis-cover even more ancient ice, which wouldprovide information on the history of ourplanet more than a million years ago. Thiswould require preliminary internationalprospecting campaigns at several sites onthe Antarctic continent.

Apart from Dome C,another research theme mayfocus on a series of ice sam-ples at higher levels, aroundthe edges of the Antarcticcontinent. These cores,going back in time between1000 and 10,000 years,would help us understandnatural climatic changes, andto clarify the atmospheric circulation around the Antarc-tic since the end of the lastIce Age.

Finally, studies on the past and presentstability of the ice cap would provide valu-able data with which to model its future.This is of course of major interest tomankind as a whole.”

A new start for Dome C?

France and Italy are working together to construct a new researchstation: the Concordia.

© IPEV

One IPY-Care priority is to study further how climate change affects marine vegetation such asthis massive phytoplankton concentration off the north-west coast of Iceland. Picture fromEnvisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS).

© ESA

RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005A E U RO P E A N VI S I O N F O R P O LA R R E S E A RC H


AICSEX: Arctic Ice Cover Simulation ExperimentThis project, coordinated by Ola M. Johannessen, from the Nansen

Centre for the Environment and Teledetection in Bergen (Norway),focuses on pack ice and its development through the study of param-eters such as surface temperature, the thickness and surface area of seaice, snow cover and the flow rate of rivers at their mouths. For thisresearch, field observations have been combined with modelling, andin both cases researchers have reached similar conclusions, namely thatthe surface area of pack ice is regularly shrinking as each summer passes,and that between now and the end of the century, the Arctic Ocean maybe totally free of ice, with major consequences for economic and otheractivities.http://www.nersc.no/AICSEX/

ASOF-N: Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Flux Arrayfor European Climate – North

Calorie exchanges and water mass transfers between the ArcticOcean and northern seas are the areas targeted by the scientists coord-inated by Ebelhard Farbach from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) inBremerhaven (Germany). Models and field observations have beenused to improve knowledge in this area. It should be noted that an ASOF-W programme (for ‘West’) has also been set up. Field measurements aretaken off the south-eastern shores of Greenland, using immersed sound-ing instruments which pick up data on the currents and salinity of watermasses flowing from the northern seas into the North Atlantic. http://www.awi-bremerhaven.de/Research/IntCoop/Oce/ASOF/

GreenICE: Greenland arctic shelf Ice and ClimateExperiment

Here again, sea ice is the focus of scientific studies being led by PeterWadhams from the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban(United Kingdom). The aim of this programme is to measure changesto the structure and dynamics of shelf and drifting ice following Arcticoscillations. Additional work is also being carried out using data collectedfrom marine sediments to compare current findings with the past witha view to learning lessons about long-term developments in these areas. http://www.greenice.org/index.htm

CANDIDOZ: Chemical and dynamical influenceson decadal ozone changes

This project aims to establish the scientific bases for an advanced sys-tem for detecting improvements in stratospheric ozone levels followingimplementation of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments. Thisinvolves long-term studies of data from both polar regions and those atmedium latitudes.http://fmiarc.fmi.fi/candidoz/

GLIMPSE: Global implications of arctic climate processesand feedbacks

Klaus Dethloff, from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam (Ger-many) is coordinating this programme to identify, compare and modelchanges to the climate of the Arctic and other regions. http://www.awi-potsdam.de/www-pot/atmo/glimpse/

EUPLEX: European Polar Stratospheric Cloudand Lee Wave Experiment

This programme aims to test the different hypotheses relating to thedepletion of stratospheric ozone concentrations at the North Pole, andin particular the mechanisms underlying the formation of stratosphericpolar clouds, their activation and ozone loss.http://www.nilu.no/euplex/

QUOBI: Quantitative Understanding of Ozone lossesby Bipolar Investigations

Balloon-derived precise measurement of reductions in ozone con-centrations in the Arctic and Antarctic. The results will then be comparedwith three-dimensional atmospheric models. http://www.nilu.no/quobi/

QUILT: Quantification and Interpretation of LongTerm UV-Visible Observations of the Stratosphere

Analysis of ozone losses over the past ten years and during theperiod 2000-2003. This will be achieved by improved analytical methods, consolidating the available data series and integrating them withreal-time atmospheric models. http://nadir.nilu.no/quilt/

Polar-Ocean-PolarMarine sediment cores provide an enormous quantity of data on the

history of the Earth's climate, as do ice cores essentially with respect tothe composition of the atmosphere. The POP project, backed by the 5thEuropean Community Framework Research Programme and led byNicolas Shackleton (from Cambridge University in the UK) concerns thedevelopment of methods which will enable a common timescale for thetwo types of cores, so as to improve the accuracy of climate models.http://www-pop.esc.cam.ac.uk/

Although in recent years the different phases of the Epica icecoring programme seem to have focused efforts mostly inAntarctica, European research in polar regions involves boththe northern and southern hemispheres.

Temperatures measured within the ASOF-N programme by mooredinstruments in the eastern and central part of the Fram Strait were 2°Cwarmer in 2004 than in 2003, as well as up to 1.8 °C warmer than theclimatological mean for August.

© AWI

A compendium of European research on land and under the sea


Of the ten new European Union MemberStates, Poland has the longest-standing polarresearch tradition. With year-round researchstations in Antarctica and Svalbard in the Arc-tic, as well as an Arctic research vessel, the Pol-ish Academy of Science has a long history of sci-entific investigation in fields ranging from Polaroceanography to climatology. Its Henryk Arc-towsky Station on King George Island, Antarc-tic Peninsula, was inaugurated in 1977, enablingPoland to join the 12 original consultative

members of the Antarctic Treaty. With a max-imum summer population of 70 and a wintercrew of around 20, research is carried out inassociation with a wide range of internationalscientific programmes and organisations suchas the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research(SCAR) and the European Polar Board (EPB).

New stations

As a consultative member to the Antarctictreaty, the Czech Republic is another new Euro-pean Union Member State with a long anddistinguished history of polar research, especially

in the Antarctic. Thanks to active cooperation with scientists

from across the international polar researchcommunity and regular visits by Czech scien-tists to Russian and U.S. stations, the CzechRepublic has been able to acquire the necessaryexpertise to operate its first Antarctic station onJames Clark Ross Island on the north-eastern sideof the Antarctic Peninsula. With construction dueto have been completed over the Austral sum-mer of 2004-05, the new high-tech station willaccommodate up to fifteen logistical staff andscientists who will implement a multidisciplinaryprogramme of research including geology,hydrology, geomorphology, ecology and physi-ology.

Among the Baltic States, Estonia standsout for its long history of bi-polar research dur-ing the Soviet era and as one of the smaller non-consultative members to the Antarctic treaty. Itis also the first Baltic nation to be developing itsown polar research programme with theplanned construction of a small Antarctic sta-tion at Edmonson Point South in the Ross Searegion of Antarctica. Although this project hasbeen met with some reservations by certainAntarctic Treaty nations who would prefer tolimit the number of new stations on the conti-nent, for Estonian scientists it represents anopportunity to study the rich biology of this rareice-free Antarctic oasis.

Pre-accession countries andexternal members

Among the present candidates to the Euro-pean Union and other external members, Bul-garia and Ukraine should be mentioned fortheir active polar research programmes andstations in the Antarctic and their membershipof the EPB. Following an arrangement with theUnited Kingdom in 1995, Ukraine has takenover the jurisdiction of Faraday, the BritishAntarctic Survey’s oldest operational station in

Antarctica, and renamed it Vernadsky. Situatedon Galindes Island on the Antarctic Peninsula,Vernadsky has continued the climate recordstarted by the British in 1947.

With its summer station, St Kliment Ohrid-ski, on Livingstone Island, the Bulgarian Antarc-tic Institute has also been carrying out a sus-tained programme of polar research for overtwenty years, gathering and interpreting meteo-rological, geological and biological data in theSouth Shetlands.

Small is beautiful

Whether large or small, the polar pro-grammes of new Member States display boththe vibrancy and dedication already demon-strated by polarresearch across theEuropean Union.They also bring tolight the importanceof smaller polar pro-grammes in acquiring, interpreting and pub-lishing data from parts of the polar regionsthat might otherwise be overlooked – thus pro-viding scientists across the globe with a muchbroader picture of the Arctic and Antarctic envi-ronments. �

In from the cold: new Member Statesand polar research In May 2004, an additional ten nations joined the European Union, bringing the total to 25. Although only a handful ofthese new Member States are currently maintaining or developing polar research programmes, together theycontribute to raising awareness of the polar regions within Europe, whilst demonstrating the value and relevance ofmore targeted and localised data collection and research.


FARO: www.faro-arctic.org/

The Polish station of Hornsund, in the Arcticarchipelago of Svalbard, has operated since 1957 andcan accommodate up to 30 people during summerand 12 during winter.

Ukraine’s Vernadsky station, formerly the British stationFaraday, is continuing an Antarctic climate recordbegun in 1947.


© BAS

36 E U RO P E A N A N D I NTE R N ATI O N A L CO O P E R ATI O N RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

In this context,European nations havenot only beenamongst the mostactive members ofcoordinating organ-isations such as the Sci-entific Committee forAntarctic Research(SCAR) and the Inter-national Arctic ScienceCommittee (IASC), buthave also been avidsupporters and initia-tors of internationalpolar research initi-atives across all fields,whether individuallyor through the Euro-pean Polar Board(EPB).

Europe and the International Polar Year

European national polar programmes and pan-Europeanorganisations such as the EPB have been at the forefront of the

2007-08 International Polar Year (IPY), inits development, through membership,and in submitting research proposals.Europe’s involvement continues to bestrong. For example, the IPY’s InternationalProgramme Office (IPO) is housed at theBritish Antarctic Survey (BAS) headquar-ters in Cambridge, and the Director of theBAS, Professor Chris Rapley, plus severalleading European scientists, are membersof the joint IPY ICSU-WMO1 committee.

Increasing US cooperation

Recent years have also seen the European Polar Board forging a closeliaison with the United States National Science Foundation Office of PolarPrograms (NSF/OPP) in an effort to instigate joint initiatives and encour-age close dialogue between the directors of polar agencies in Europe andthe US.

Participating in a new research plan in the Antarctic

Through their full membership of SCAR, 13 European nations areactively involved in its new, recently approved science plan, entitled:‘Antarctic Science Changes Direction’. According to Colin Summerhayes,SCAR’s Executive Director, this plan aims to refocus member nations’work on a few select themes that will be relevant for the next decadeor more.

Three of these themes, Antarctica and the Global Climate System(AGCS), Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE), and Evolution and Bio-diversity in the Antarctic (EBA), relate directly to climate change,whilst ICESTAR relates to the interactions of the solar wind with theEarth’s outer atmosphere, and Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments(SALE) relates to the 145 or so lakes buried deep beneath the Antarcticice sheet.

Involvement in Arctic projects

With a couple of exceptions, those European countries that are fullmembers of SCAR are also members of IASC and have been involved ina whole series of IASC projects ranging from the study of Arctic coastaldynamics to nutrition and health among northern indigenous peoples.Many have also contributed to the far-reaching and alarming Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA) report presented by Robert Corell,Chair of the ACIA, to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Scienceand Transportation in November 2004.

With the growth of scientific networks and the considerablebenefits reaped from past International Polar Years,contemporary polar research represents a vast collaborativeeffort with the shared goal of better understanding thedynamics of the polar regions and the role which they play in theEarth System as a whole.

As part of the Arctic Coring Expedition Russia’sSovetskiy Soyuz breaks large ice floes, Sweden’sOden crushes mid-sized ice floes and Norway’sVidar Viking holds station over the drill site.

At least 145 lakes have been discovered lying beneaththe Antarctic ice sheet.

© M. Jakobsson/IODP

To find out more:IPY: www.ipy.org

EPB: www.esf.org/epb

SCAR: www.scar.org

IASC: www.iasc.no

ACIA: www.acia.uaf.edu/

IPICS: nicl-smo.unh.edu/IPICS/IPICS.html

AICI: http://www.igac.noaa.gov/AICI.php

© IPF

European nationsat the forefront ofinternational collaboration

37E U RO P E A N A N D I NTE R N ATI O N A L CO O P E R ATI O N RTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Funded by 16 European countries andsupported by the European Union(through a ERA-NET), the United Statesand Japan, the international IntegratedOcean Drilling Program (IODP) instigatedthe 9.5 million Arctic Coring Expedition(ACEX) with the aim of better understandingboth the climate history of the Arctic

region and the role which the Arctic hasplayed and continues to play in the Earth’songoing climatic variations.

Located 1 200 metres below the sur-face and roughly 230 kilometres from theNorth Pole along the deep LomonosovRidge, the Arctic’s first scientific boreholewas cored by a fleet of three powerful

icebreakers: the Norwe-gian Vidar Viking fordrilling, the Swedish Odenand the Russian SovetskyiSoyuz for protecting thecoring platform from theharsh Arctic environmentand drifting sea ice. TheLomonosov Ridge wasselected as the best pos-sible drilling site due toits eroded aspect and theabsence of more recent,less interesting sedimentdeposit such as would befound on oceanic valleyfloors.

According to the expedition’s co-chiefinvestigator, Jan Backman of the Universityof Stockholm, initial analysis of the micro-fossils found in the core show evidence ofmassive fluctuations in the water tempera-ture and general environmental condi-tions of the Arctic over the past 55 millionyears. Indeed, the Lomonosov core is thefirst to show evidence of ice-free, sub-tropical, shallow seas with water tempera-tures of 20˚C compared to today’s averagetemperatures of –1.5˚C. Such a truly mas-sive cooling of the Arctic Ocean, which isthought to be responsible for the massextinction of sea-bottom-living organisms,suggests that worldwide environmentalconditions are much more variable thanpreviously anticipated. �

In August 2004, an international group of scientists retrieved a 370-metrecore from the seafloor beneath the Arctic ocean, providing them with 55 million years of Arctic climate data.

ACEX: The Arctic coring expedition

Sediment samples from beneath the Arctic seabed reveal 55 million yearsof climate history, including evidence of massive fluctuations in watertemperature and general Arctic environmental conditions.

The ACEX coring site on the Lomonosov Ridgecrest, at 1124 metres down, is an optimumdrilling site as erosion has exposed very oldsediments.

© Courtesy of IBCAO/IODP

© A. Krylov/IODP

More international projects…

Other international polar research projects in which European nationsare involved include:

• The International Partnership in Ice Coring Science (IPICS) whichis endorsing a programme of coring coastal sites around bothGreenland and Antarctica to complement the information beinggathered from continental ice caps by projects such as EPICA.

• The European Partnership in Ice Coring Science (EPICS) which willenable enhanced structuring, coordination and strategic issuesbetween ministries and funding agencies in ice coring at the Euro-pean level, thus connecting with IPICS activities.

• The Arctic Coring Expedition (ACEX). See article below.

• The Aurora Borealis Arctic research icebreaker, providing a platformfor deep drilling and investigations of climate change of the mostinaccessible parts of the planet.

• Histories from the North – environments, movements and narra-tives (BOREAS). See article on the Social Sciences on p. 22.

• Southern Ocean – Climate Interactions, Resources and Carbon Linkswithin the Earth System (SO-CIRCLE). An EPB-sponsored initiativewhich aims to address climate variability, biogeochemical cyclingand ecosystem dynamics in the Southern Ocean.

• Air-Ice Chemical Interactions (AICI) documenting the full range ofprocesses that arise at the air-ice interface, and how they dependon environmental conditions. �

1 International Council for Science – World Meteorological Organization

North America

By far the largest polar research pro-gramme in the world, the United StatesNational Science Foundation Office of PolarPrograms (NSF-OPP), maintains three researchstations in the Antarctic: McMurdo in theRoss Sea region, Amundsen-Scott South Polestation, and Palmer station on the AntarcticPeninsula. The NSF-OPP also leases and oper-ates a fleet of two state-of-the-art research ves-sels, two logistical icebreakers, and a taskforce of helicopters, Hercules and Twin Otteraircraft for all types of Arctic and Antarcticlogistical support.

With an annual budget of 300 milliondollars for Antarctic research and 62 milliondollars for Arctic research, the NSF-OPP takesover 800 scientists and their support teams tothe polar regions every year, facilitating sci-ence projects in everything from the demog-raphy of penguins, to sub-particles and astro-physics.

Although much smaller in scale andmostly focused on the Arctic, Canada’s polarresearch programme is divided between sev-eral organisations: the Aurora Research Insti-tute conducts research and promotes tech-nological development in the western

Canadian Arctic and northern Yukon; theCanadian Polar Commission serves as thenational advisory body on Antarctic matters;and the Polar Continental Shelf Project pro-vides Arctic logistical support to scientificgroups from more than 40 Canadian andinternational scientific organisations everyyear.

South America

Because of the distance that separatesthem from the Arctic, South American polarresearch programmes tend to be almostentirely focused on Antarctica. With overtwenty bases between them, Chile andArgentina’s logistical infrastructure is amongstthe most prominent on the entire continent.Ranging from small summer huts to year-round bases with resident families, schools andchapels, these stations facilitate oceano-graphic, biological, glaciological, meteoro-logical and geological research whilst alsoenabling these two, often rival, nations tomaintain a strategic territorial presence on thecontinent.

Much smaller in scale, but neverthelessconducting an important programme of Earth

and atmospheric sciences, the Brazilian polarresearch programme maintains an all-yearresearch station, Ferraz, situated on KingGeorge Island, at the most accessible north-ern end of the Antarctic Peninsula, not farfrom the Uruguayan station, Artigas, and thePeruvian summer station, Machu Picchu.

Asia

With China, Japan, and Korea operatingresearch stations both in the Antarctic and atNy-Alesund on the islands of Svalbard in theArctic, Asian nations are among the mostactive in international polar research.

Indeed, whilst China is in the process ofrebuilding its two Antarctic stations – Zong-shan station in Eastern Antarctica, and GreatWall station on King George Island, close toKorea’s King Sejong station – Japan’s NationalInstitute of Polar Research (NIPR) spends over39 million dollars annually supporting a net-work of stations that includes Dome Fuji – oneof only a handful of research facilities on theAntarctic Plateau.

Much smaller in scale, India’s NationalCentre for Antarctic and Ocean Research(NCAOR) operates a single Antarctic station,

© IPF© IPF

The Chilean Frei Base and its air strip on King George Island, Antarctica, sitscheek-by-jowl with Russia’s Bellingshausen.

The Chinese Great Wall station in the South Shetland Islands can accommodateup to 15 during winter.


Polar research outside EuropeEven more so than within Europe, polar research outside of the European context can be characterised by the great rangein size of the different polar programmes, as well as by the large diversity of science that is conducted through theseprogrammes. Indeed, a rapid glance through the various North American, Asian, Australasian and African polarprogrammes reveals a veritable kaleidoscope of where and how research is carried out on the world stage.

SCAR and IASC: getting nations together


Maitri, from where it conducts an inter-disciplinary programme of research into sub-jects ranging from meteorology to humanphysiology, geology and biology.

Australasia

With their close proximity to Antarctica,Australia and New Zealand focus almost all oftheir polar research efforts on the southern polarregions. Serving as gateways from which manyother national polar programmes operate their

logistical operations to the Antarctic,Australia and New Zealand are alsovery pro-active in their own right andplay a significant role in pure research,whether through national or interna-tional projects. With its station, ScottBase, only a few miles from the USMcMurdo station, Antarctic NewZealand (ANZ) enjoys a particularlyclose relationship with the NSF-OPPwith which it shares logistics and has,among other things, collaborated onthe highly successful ANDRILL deep-seadrilling project in the neighbouringMcMurdo sound. Although more isol-ated geographically, the three Aus-tralian stations (Casey, Davis and Maw-son) are used by the Australian AntarcticDivision to support a whole range ofresearch, with a strong emphasis on cli-mate, marine and environmental issues.

Africa

As another southern hemispherenation and the only African country witha polar research programme, South Africaalso concentrates a lmost ent i re ly onAntarctica and is involved in a number ofimportant international Antarctic pro-jects such as the Southern HemisphereAuroral Radar Experiment (SHARE). Whatis more, i ts South Afr ican Nat ionalAntarctic Programme(SANAP) operatesone summer and oneal l -year stat ion inQueen Maud Land, aswell as two stationson the Marion andGough sub-Antarctic islands, facilitatingresearch in the physical, oceanographic,earth and biological sciences. �


FARO: www.faro-arctic.org/

© J. Davis/AAD

Australia’s Mawson station can meet more than half itsenergy needs through wind turbines.

SCAR

First established in 1957 as the then ICSU Special Committee on

Antarctic Research in charge of coordinating the work of twelve

nations involved in the International Geophysical Year of

1957-8, SCAR remains the only international, non-governmental

organisation that can draw on the experience and expertise of

scientists from all nations and across all disciplines to initiate and

co-ordinate scientific research in Antarctica. In this capacity,

SCAR is also an obvious source of advice on a wide range of

scientific questions relating to Antarctica, and has provided such

advice to the Antarctic Treaty System for the past 30 years.

The SCAR international scientific community meets every two

years at the SCAR Delegates Meeting (most recently held in

October 2004 at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven,

Germany) and the SCAR Secretariat is housed at the Scott Polar

Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge.

IASC

First established in 1990, the IASC, like the SCAR, is a non-

governmental organisation whose aim is to encourage and facilitate

cooperation in all aspects of Arctic research, in all countries engaged

in Arctic research and in all areas of the Arctic region.

The 18 IASC member organisations are national

science organisations covering all fields of Arctic

research and the IASC acts as a consultative and

testing forum for research proposals, especially

encouraging those with a circum-Arctic or coop-

erative reach. According to Dr. Professor Patrick J. Webber, IASC

President , the next high priority is to establish an international sci-

ence programme planned and recommended by the IASC.

With a secretariat in Oslo, Norway, the IASC science community meets

annually at the IASC council meeting, the last of which was held in

Reykjavik, Iceland, on 22 April 2004.

The Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) operateas separate but parallel organisations working under or in association with the International Council for Science (ICSU)to facilitate international polar research initiatives across all disciplines. Both have the most active European polarresearch nations as full members.

To find out more:SCAR – www.scar.org

IASC – www.iasc.no


• NASA is using Lake Vostok (see p. 10), buried under four kilo-

metres of Antarctic ice, as a testing ground for developing a

‘cryobot/hydrobot’ tandem vehicle able to penetrate the liquid

realm hidden under the thick icy crust of Europa, one of

Jupiter’s satellites.

• The ESA has been supporting Frenchman Gilles Elkaim in his

12,000 km solo Arctic trek to benefit from his experience of

isolation for future manned missions to Mars.

• Stuart Egginton, from the University of Birmingham's Medical

School, studies the physiology of Antarctic cod to better

understand the problems faced by the human heart when

confronted with hypothermia.

• Cécile Thouzeau from the French Centre National de la

Recherche Scientifique investigates the bactericides produced

in King penguins’ stomachs for biomedical applications,

including long-term food storage.

• The European funded BIOTECH 2 programme is devoted to

studying cold enzymes found in Antarctic bacteria and used

extensively by industry in applications as diverse as preparing

food, formulating detergents and detecting pollutants using

biosensors.

• Christian Hamm from the Alfred Wegener Institute finds

inspiration in polar plankton bioceramic shell geometry to

improve the performance of stable lightweight constructions.

When polar science goes beyond the poles…Aside from pure information, such as the insight into the evolution of climate change provided to us by icecores, polar research often also produces direct and sometimes unexpected applications for humans. Theseapplications touch on everything from space and material sciences, to medicine and cold enzymes. See belowfor a quick – and non exhaustive! – tour.

Instigated by the University of Wisconsinin Madison, and financed to the tune of 295million dollars by the US National ScienceFoundation (NSF) in association with severalEuropean universities in Sweden, Belgium,Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, IceCube is by far the single most ambitious andexpensive research project currently takingplace in Antarctica.

Neutrinos

Neutrinos are extremely small, virtuallymassless subatomic particles born of nuclearreactions. Whilst the Sun and other nearbyphenomena produce low-energy neutrinos,high-energy neutrinos originate from such dis-tant and supremely violent cosmic events asblack holes, supernovas and the Big Bang.

Once born from such cosmic events, neu-trinos travel at the speed of light and do notstop. Because they have virtually no mass,they only very rarely interact with other par-ticles, allowing them to move in a straight lineto the edge of the Universe, passing straightthrough stars, planets, vast magnetic fieldsand entire galaxies as if they did not exist. Tril-lions of neutrinos reach the Earth everynanosecond and, for astrophysicists, everyone of these tiny particles is a potential mes-senger carrying information from its source oforigin.

The problem for scientists, however, isthat the very properties that allow neutrinos tocarry this information also make them notori-ously difficult to detect. Fortunately, on rareoccasions, a high energy neutrino does collidewith a molecule. The collision breaks thenucleus apart and the neutrino converts into

another particle called a muon. Once created,a muon continues along the same path as theneutrino and can be recognised from the coneof blue light that follows it. Known as Cerenkovradiation, the cone is similar to the air wavesbehind a bullet as it travels.

IceCube

However, in order to be able to detect sucha collision by seeing the Cerenkov radiationbehind the traveling muon scientists must beable to monitor a huge volume of a substancethat is both perfectly transparent and plungedinto darkness. The creation of such a detectorwas first attempted in the early 1980s off thecoast of Hawaii by lowering detectors

Buried deep within the East Antarctic ice sheet at the South Pole, a giant high-energy neutrino observatory due for completion in 2009 could providescientists, including from Europe, with an unprecedented window to theUniverse, as well as a means to answer some of the most fundamentalquestions of astrophysics and cosmology. Artist's rendering of a Cerenkov blue light cone in

the IceCube telescope. The optical sensor arrayallows IceCube to detect and reconstruct a muon’spath, and hence the path of the original neutrino.

IceCube: Antarctica’scrystal ball

© NSF


into the deep ocean. Unfortunately, however,the experiment was plagued by the unpre-dictability of the weather and the instability ofthe sea.

It was not until a few years later that icewas thought of as the ideal solution. An expan-sion of the first-generation Antarctic Muonand Neutrino Detector (AMANDA), when com-pleted IceCube will consist of 5 000 photo-multiplier detectors buried across 1 km3 ofthe Antarctic ice sheet, at a depth of 1 400 to2 400 meters beneath the South Pole: an envir-onment which is not only plunged in dark-ness, but where the pressure is so great that allair bubbles and other disruptive elements havebeen squeezed out of the ice, giving it theclarity of crystal.

Once in place, the photomultiplier detec-tors act as powerful sensors which capture thestreaks produced by a muon’s Cerenkov radi-ation, then amplify the faint signal by over ahundred million times and send it up to thesurface where it gets picked up by computers.From this information, the scientists calculatewhich direction the initial neutrino came fromand where in the sky they can find the cosmicevent that created it. Once they have pin-pointed the event, they can study it directly.

Window to the Universe

According to Francis Halzen, Professor atthe University of Wisconsin and Chief Inves-tigator on both the AMANDA and IceCubeprojects, the extraordinary thing about Ice-Cube, however, is not so much the answersthat it might provide toour existing questionsabout black holes, super-novas, the Big Bang,dark matter and thefuture of the Universe,but that in the past, every time astronomershave opened a new window to the cosmos,they have discovered things that they werenot even looking for. �

To find out more:icecube.wisc.edu/

Spearheaded by the International ArcticSocial Sciences Association (IASSA) and sup-ported by a host of European organisationssuch as the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)in Cambridge and the University of Tromsø inNorway, the Arctic social sciences encompassdisciplines ranging from psychology to anthro-pology, archaeology, linguistics, history, healthand education.

Early Warning System

Through this panoply of interconnectedsubjects, the Arctic social sciences have much totell us about a region which encompasses alarge proportion of Europe, Asia and NorthAmerica and which contains many indigenouspeoples such as the Saami and the Inuit, as wellas settlers of European origin. According to PiersVitebsky, Head of Anthropology and RussianNorthern Studies at the SPRI, the Arctic is indeeda region “in which some widespread phenom-ena and universal challenges can be studiedmore clearly than anywhere else; a social, culturaland environmental early warning system for

changing relations between society and theenvironment on a global scale”.

InternationalPolar Year

As a strong indicator of the rising profileof Arctic social sciences, the 2007-2008 Inter-national Polar Year Planning Group recentlyendorsed ‘The Human Dimension’ as one ofsix themes to be prioritised as part of the IPY,with the specific aim to “investigate the cul-tural, historical and social processes that shapethe sustainability of circumpolar human soci-eties, and to identify their unique contributionsto global cultural diversity and citizenship”. Aswell as introducing a new dimension to the IPY,the incorporation of this sixth theme isintended to encourage a greater level of co-operation between social and natural scientists.

BOREAS

Another initiative currently being launched,this time by the European Science FoundationEUROCORES programme for international collaborative research, is entitled ‘Histories fromthe North – environments, movements and narratives’, or BOREAS for short. Spearheadedby Piers Vitebsky and supported by 170 scholars andinstitutions, this initiative is intended to coincidewith the 2007-2008 IPY and to be both com-plementary and distinct from the natural sciences. Led by anthro-pology, it aims to promotethe value of indigenousknowledge in the context ofenvironmental change, toexplore the philosophicaland spiritual foundations ofthis knowledge, and tostudy the mechanics of eco-logical adaptation to a changing climate as alreadyinitiated by the ACIA (Arctic Climate ImpactAssessment) group. �

The human dimension: coming out of the shadowsAlthough Arctic social science research has flourished for many decades, it hasalso often struggled to make its voice heard in the wider, natural science-inclined,polar research community. However, with the advent of the 2007-2008International Polar Year (IPY) and the dramatic effect which global climatechange is starting to have on the Arctic and its people, this field of research iscoming out of the shadows with important contributions to our understanding ofthe far north and its rapidly changing face.

Fishing, the main food source for the Inuit, isbeing affected by climate change with speciesobserved that have not previously been seen athigh latitudes.

To find out more:IASSA: www.uaf.edu/anthro/iassa/

SPRI: www.spri.cam.ac.uk

© Rémy Marion/Pôles d’images

Why is there a need to communicate to awide audience about research in polarregions?

Because the challenges of polar research arecrucial to the future of humanity. The polarregions are the only ones in the world whichcan provide an accurate picture of the climatic history of our planet. Noancestors have left us sealed bottles containing historic samples of theatmosphere, but polar ice contains tiny air bubbles which can tell us when,how and why the Earth's environment has fluctuated over the cen-turies and millennia. We thus have access to an exceptional scientificheritage which we need to study and also to explain.

What are the highlights of communicating about research in a polar environment?

They are many. It is certainly the ideal subject, combining dreams,adventure, beauty and polar animals: everything about that world is fas-cinating, so people are immediately interested.

It is also a very topical subject: climate change is increasingly beingmentioned by the media and the latest findings are somewhat alarming.

The impressive research results obtained so far, such as being ableto go back nearly 850,000 years thanks to the information sealed in icecores, or even more than 55 million years in sediments, are quiteextraordinary!

Above all, it is a subject which affects us all. A clearer understand-ing of these phenomena and their causes may enable true awareness ofthe importance of research and, above all, the changes we need to maketo our behaviour in order to take up the challenge we face today withrespect to climate change.

Science is not always easy to explain clearly...

It is true that the subjects are sometimes complex and difficult toexplain. But they are usually fascinating, so that the potential for com-munication is considerable. And if scientists are not always inclined tocommunicate their findings it is mainly because they are concentratingon their research.

Communication is another job altogether, even though some scientists have an excellent gift for it. A few of the major research institutes have understood this, but they remain the exception.

Who are the most important targets when it comes to communicating about polar research?

I see three: young people, decision-makers and the general public.Young people, because they are aware of the threats to our planet,

and polar research has a special role to play in this respect. And it is theywho must be encouraged to become involved in scientific research. Inthat respect, polar research is an excellent catalyst because of its magi-cal, extreme and adventurous aspects.

Political decision-makers, because it is they who must today makethe environmental, and particularly climate change, pledges which arenow necessary, as polar research results have made clear. More prosaically,it is also they who provide the largest share of funding for this research,a point we must not forget.

And finally, the general public, as people can put pressure on polit-ical decision-markers and also act directly by changing their own behav-iour. They therefore need to be sufficiently well-informed to understandthe challenges we face and to take a stand. For example, is it widelyknown that there is now a general consensus on the link betweenglobal warming and human activities? Is it known that current levels ofCO2 are the highest they have been for at least 850,000 years? Hereagain, polar research can deliver its message and encourage citizens totake action.

Is it really possible to reach such a broad target group?

Although it is quite easy to imagine raising awareness amongst a fewthousand political decision-makers, the problem is quite different whenit comes to reaching hundreds of millions of people throughout the world,with their different languages and cultures.

We therefore require relay points, the most classic being the media:press, television, Internet, etc. But to work with them, we need a

42 T H E P O L A R S C I E N C E S A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O NRTD in fo Spec ia l i ssue Po lar Research May 2005

Alain Hubert is a civil engineer and polar explorer. A ceaseless wandererin the snow-covered regions of the world, and co-founder of the

International Polar Foundation (IPF), he is an excellent communicator.His principle aim is to increase awareness of polar research. An interview.

“Communicationis an investment”

Alain Hubert, Belgian polar explorer and Headof the International Polar Foundation.

© IPF


degree of know-how, to be able to showcase interesting examples andput forward attractive approaches. Journalists do not always have thetime for in-depth coverage, so they look for stories to tell, people tomeet or sites to visit. In my opinion, one of the keys to success is directcontact. The EU Research Directorate has recently taken several ini-tiatives in this respect that have brought scientists and journaliststogether. In 2004, a symposium enabled them to meet and exchangetheir different views. The meeting was a great success and will berepeated in November 2005. And inviting the press to visit thePolarstern research ship was an initiative which was both original andvery useful.

And beyond the media?

I see two other channels of communication we must target: teach-ers, because they have a crucial role to play as an interface with youngpeople, and the NGOs – international, national and also local – becausethey are in direct contact with citizens and are thus able to carry out essen-tial local work.

These organisations set up awareness programmes, create teachingtools, open museums and exhibitions and set up internet sites, etc., whichaim to reach people in their homes and everyday lives, in their villagesor local areas.

Representatives from innumerable small, local associations through-out Europe visit schools to talk about subjects such as energy problems,climate change and sustainable development. This type of initiative mustbe encouraged and increased. And research in polar regions offers a broadrange of topics which can be fully integrated in these efforts.

Reference is often made to information technologies as thebest means of making contact with young people.What is your opinion?

The principal advantage ofinformation technologies is theiraccess on-line. Being able tocollaborate with other pupils orstudents, ask questions of spe-cialists, consult scientific opin-ions, interact with teachers andcompare working hypothesesare essential tools when it comesto learning in our modern soci-ety.

The broad range of mediaavailable is another advantage ofinformation technology. Notonly texts and images, but alsointeractive programmes to sup-plement a film or radio report,simulation tools which can, for

example, explain the principles of modelling, or interactive questionnaires– there are endless opportunities.

But communicating is an expensive activity

It is for this reason – and increasingly – that a specific budget mustbe allocated as soon as a project is proposed. Communication must forman integral part of the project and not be considered a luxury or awaste of time and money to the detriment of research work. On the con-trary, communication is now key in ensuring and increasing the fundingof research. Science is a passion for those involved, but we also needto make this known and demonstrate the relevance of our researchefforts, which are too often considered as being of little practical use tosolving society's problems. If research is to attract more money, we needto talk about it, explain our results, demonstrate its usefulness, renderit more appealing and interesting, and make sure that everyone wantsto find out more. Spending funds on communication is not a waste: itis an investment for the future. �

Web animations are amongst the main ICT(information and communicationtechnologies) tools for getting the messageacross to the young – tomorrow’s decision-makers. See www.educapoles.org.

© IPF

In terms of communication, the polar world can count on some fantastic allies.Polar bears in the Arctic and Emperor penguins in the Antarctic fascinate youngpeople and children.

© T. Mangelsen/Wildlife Pictures

Begin your journey

Polar pointershttp://polarmet.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgi-bin/genpp.cgiAs the name suggests, this website is an enormous list of polar pointerssorted by topic or country. This is indeed a handy start page for your Inter-net journey to the polar regions!

Antarctic websites

Australian Antarctic Divisionhttp://www.aad.gov.au/Nicely designed, well organised and chock full with high-quality content,this website will give you a good insight into the Australian presence inthe Antarctic. General information, news and resources are also avail-able. The ‘cool science’ section is particularly interesting for its cutting-edgescientific articles.

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)http://www.awi-bremerhaven.de/index-e.htmlAlthough this website is a bit hard to use due to a complex content archi-tecture and navigation structures, it is certainly worth exploring. This is awebsite by scientists for scientists, giving detailed information regardingresearch programmes and their results. The ‘click and learn’ section isdedicated to the non-scientific visitor.

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)http://www.scar.org/The SCAR is the only international, interdisciplinary, non-governmentalorganisation co-ordinating scientific research in the Antarctic and actingas a consultancy body for the Antarctic Treaty system. Dependent on theInternational Council for Sciences, this website is a must-see for everyoneinterested in scientific research regarding the Antarctic. Information papersand reports are made available to the public.

British Antarctic Survey (BAS)http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/index.phpA pleasing design and well-organised navigation make this website veryusable. Good information available in a wide variety of topics. All articlesavailable on-line are quite short which can disappoint some visitors lookingfor in-depth information.

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC)http://www.asoc.org/index.htmThe ASOC is a coalition of environmental NGOs working together to preserve the Antarctic continent. The information section featurespapers, articles, resources and regularly updated news.

Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine LivingResources (CCAMLR)http://www.ccamlr.org/default.htmAs the name suggests, this website is dedicated to marine life in the Antarctic.A good part of the website deals with the Commission itself, how it works, whoparticipates, etc. Apart from that, publications and scientific articles are avail-able for the public (largely through PDF documents).

Council of Managers of National Antarctic Programmes (COMNAP)http://www.comnap.aq/comnap/comnap.nsfThe mission of this international body is to deal with the logistical side ofAntarctic science in the framework of the Antarctic Treaty. If you are look-ing for centralised information regarding scientific infrastructures in theAntarctic (bases, ships, weather stations,etc.) , this is where to look.

Arctic websites

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) – Arctic theme pagehttp://www.arctic.noaa.gov/Very interesting website on the Arctic regions featuring papers, articles andessays aimed at scientists and at the general public. Every one of them fea-tures links to resources concerning the topic they focus on, enabling vis-itors to broaden their knowledge.

Arctic research consortiumhttp://www.arctic.at/castaway/This website features a huge collection of links and resources concerningthe Arctic and Antarctic (bases, sites and live webcams, list of scientificresearch websites, explorers, tourism offices, books, etc.). It gives a verygood overview of available on-line resources concerning the polar regions.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP)http://www.amap.no/The role of the AMAP is to advise the governments of Arctic countries onthreats to the Arctic region from pollution and associated issues. Reports aimedat the general public are available to download, as are scientific ones.Videos, maps and graphics are also made accessible.


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An Internet journeythrough polar science

The websites listed hereunder havebeen chosen because they constitute

good entry points and can quickly helpyou build a wide array of web resourcescovering whatever portion of the polar

sciences you are interested in.

Documents

polar research