OCO-2 is only a little thing, about 6 ft long, 3 ft in diameter, and less than half a ton in weight (NASA/JPL-Caltech, artist’s conception). It will be harder to deny the existence of climate change now that NASA has successfully launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket from Vandenberg Air
Research has found that approximately 99% of our planet’s land-locked ice is held up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. The remainder, however, is out in the open, located primarily in the glaciers dotted throughout the appropriate latitudes across the planet. And according to new research, those glaciers contributed approximately the same amount of
Scientific understanding is continually shifting as time moves on. For decades now, scientists have assumed that ancient high tide lines referred to higher sea levels. These assumptions have led scientists to believe that if the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets were to completely melt, they would cause such a high sea level again. New research,
An Antarctic research team has accomplished what no other team has ever accomplished previously by drilling through 800 metres (2,600 feet) of Antarctic ice to reach an isolated subglacial lake and taking water and sediment samples. Isolated from our atmosphere for thousands of years, the samples taken from the subglacial lake may have evolved in
Scientists discover just why it is Antarctic sea-ice cover has been increasing while the Arctic sea-ice cover has been so dramatically decreasing.
Over the past half-decade the American population’s understanding of the facts about polar regions have increased, sadly, their concern or those same regions have stayed the same. These are the findings of the first comparative analysis conducted by Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, on science
Entire communities of species that were previously unknown to science have been discovered on the Antarctic seafloor clustering around the hydrothermal vents. The discoveries were made by teams led by the University of Oxford, University of Southampton, the National Oceanography Centre, and British Antarctic Survey, and include new species of yeti crab, starfish, barnacles, and
I’ve been meaning to write on the crack that has formed in Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier (PIG) for days now. Clearly, this is just another government scam trying to convince us that global warming is happening. I mean, when climate scientists from NASA, NOAA, and several other places claimed that 2010 was tied with 2005 for
Each spring the ozone hole which hovers over Antarctica reaches its maximum, and on September 12 it stretched some 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest stretch on record. More specifically, above the South Pole, levels of ozone dropped to the 10th lowest in its 26 year record.
Once again using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on board their Aqua satellite, NASA have provided this stunning image of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Akin to the ozone loss which has been much publicized over Antarctica, the Arctic saw massive ozone losses in 2011 thanks to unusually low temperatures which lingered for a longer than normal time in the stratosphere.
With the previous decades increase in ozone-depleting gases and now the more recent results of an increase in carbon dioxide, new research suggests that southern South America is likely to see more and more wildfires as climate conditions are negatively affected by human intervention.
“If West Antarctica collapsed, that means it’s more unstable than we expected, which is quite scary,” said a scientist who set out to determine whether Greenland or Antarctica will introduce more melting water to rising sea levels.
Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have discovered a slew of previously undiscovered underwater volcanoes in the ocean waters around the remote South Sandwich Islands, a series of islands grouped together with Britain’s claim in Antarctica.
By looking at fossilised pollen found below a hundred feet of dense rock off the coast of Northern Antarctica, researchers have been able to reconstruct a climate record for the southern continent, and determine that the last remnant of Antarctic vegetation existed on the continents northern peninsula some 12 million years ago in a tundra landscape similar to that of northern Canada.
The Brunt Ice Shelf is located on the coast of northern Coats Land in Antarctica, and is pictured below lying against the Weddel Sea.
Stereotype would have us convinced that Antarctica is a white mass of snow 365 days a year. But summer on the Antarctic Peninsula allows a little bit of green to sprout and add beautiful contrast to what we thought we knew of the region.
And climate change is aiding this progress, for one plant in particular.
Scientists based in the United Kingdom and the United States have combined to warn the world that Antarctic and the Southern Ocean are currently being stressed by multiple human-related activities.
Below is a statement by the Natiional Oceanography Centre from their website. Make sure to check out our earlier coverage of the NOC mission aboard the RRS James Cook in Antarctic waters. The National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, can confirm that there has been an incident involving the RRS James Cook in which the remotely
New research from Victoria University in Australia has revealed new findings pointing to why the Antarctic ice sheets have melted in the past, and how they might be most affected in the future, and how their current-day degradation might affect the ocean levels. In a paper published in the latest edition of the journal Nature
The Pine Island Glacier has been identified as a major contributor to Earth’s sea level rise. [social_buttons] New results from an investigation by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the National Oceanography Centre published in the journal Nature Geoscience show that West Antarctica is currently contributing nearly 10% of global sea
Scientists have pinpointed the location for the first ever exploration of a sub-glacial lake in Antarctica. The eventual drill that will delve deep into the Antarctic ice layer could bring about a massive revolution in climate change research and could lead to the discovery of never before seen life forms. Lake Ellsworth lies approximately 3.4
A controversial new proposal would allow nations (i.e. Japan, Norway and Iceland) to kill endangered whales. Quotas will be based on politics, not science. In 1986, commercial whaling was officially banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), an entity established to protect dramatically declining whale stocks. Despite this ban, certain nations, most notably Japan, Norway
[social_buttons] The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has agreed new rules which ban the transportation and use of heavy grade oils by ships in the Antarctic Ocean. The change was agreed during the 2009 meeting of the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee and is scheduled to come into force in 2011. In essence it will only
[social_buttons] Anti-whaling activists aboard the Sea Shepherd vessel ‘Steve Irwin’ have covered a whaling ship with a smelly cocktail of rotten butter, methyl cellulose and indelible dye. The unconventional sliming operation was carried out in a bid to intimidate the Japanese whaler, Kaiko Maru, into moving out of Australian Antarctic territorial waters. According to Peter
There’s nothing quite as nice as a really catchy title that perfectly sums up your story. If you want to leave it at that, then you’ve probably got the whole of the story. However if you want to know just a bit more about how climate change is affecting our planet’s poles, then keep reading.
