Polar Science Research Articles

Trial By Ice

This article explores the experiments, use, and advantages of a next-generation ocean robot that would be used to explore oceans. Nereid Under Ice has been designed specifically for exploring the underside of Arctic sea ice, an area so far off-limits to scientists. As Nereid also must withstand extreme Arctic temperatures, its materials had to be tested even before it was assembled. In one flight, Nereid travelled over the fairly unexplored Arctic Gakkel Ridge system and its hydrothermal vents – fissures in sea floor that shoot up hot water – allowing scientists to survey life over these unique environs. Researchers hope it can also bring back fluid samples from the hydrothermal vents to offer insights into their ecosystems that sometimes host unique bacteria and life forms. The ability to explore these previously unreachable places opens new frontiers for polar science.

Spatiotemporal data representation and its effect on the performance of spatial analysis in a cyberinfrastructure environment – A case study with raster zonal analysis

This paper conducts a systematic research to uncover the impact of spatiotemporal data representation on the performance of raster analysis in a cyberinfrastructure environment. Two broad categories of data organization based on file system and database system are presented and discussed. In particular, these include five specific approaches of storing time-series raster data involving tiling (partitioning the entire image file into non-overlapping pieces), stacking (compositing multiple single-band images into a large multi-band image) techniques, and a combination of tiling and stacking in files or database tables. Raster zonal statistics, which have been used to support a variety of GIS applications ranging from watershed analysis to summarizing forest products, is selected as an example raster analysis algorithm. A series of experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the five proposed approaches using different spatial and spatiotemporal queries. The results show that spatiotemporal data representation, though largely ignored in the design of a cyberinfrastructure system, does play an important role in system performance. Specifically, tiling techniques with the support of spatial database outperforms all other approaches, especially those adopting stacking techniques in the data organization. For illustration, the best raster analysis solution was implemented and integrated into an operational cyberinfrastructure in the context of providing spatial decision support in polar science. We expect this work to offer insights to develop efficient cyberinfrastructure modules to support spatial analysis through a thorough analysis of spatiotemporal data representation.

A precautionary approach to fisheries in the Central Arctic Ocean: Policy, science, and China

In recent years, up to 40% of the central Arctic Ocean has been ice-free in summer. This open water makes access possible for ordinary vessels, including fishing boats. The five Arctic Ocean coastal states (Canada, Denmark/Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States) have agreed to develop an international agreement to prohibit unregulated fishing in international waters of the central Arctic Ocean. Non-Arctic countries, including China, and regional organizations such as the European Union will be invited to join the ensuing negotiations. Participation would strengthen China's interest in Arctic affairs in a cooperative fashion, in contrast to a perception that China is interested solely in extracting Arctic resources and is thus a competitor with Arctic states. China's scientific capacity, including the icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon), provides it with an opportunity to practice marine and polar science diplomacy and to contribute further to Arctic cooperation and collaborative understanding. The precautionary approach of managing resources before extraction begins may make cooperative actions easier, as no one yet has a stake in the resource, and could provide a model for other regions that are developing international mechanisms for governance of international waters.

Polar science strategies for institute managers

ABSTRACTManaging polar research is a tremendous challenge. It covers work at sea on rough and intimidating oceans, and on land over crevassed terrain or rotten sea ice with the prospect of death or frostbite. These environments are extremely hostile and difficult to work in. Results are costly to obtain, and yet the work is of vital importance, as the polar regions are the world's freezers, critical components of the climate system, and repositories of amazing biodiversity. These regions are grossly undersampled, and relatively poorly monitored. National efforts are best carried out in an international framework, in which cooperation is essential for major breakthroughs, and the exchange and sharing of data and information and facilities is essential for ongoing monitoring of change. Under the circumstances the managers of polar research institutes must proceed with well-developed strategies. Given the growing interest of different countries in the polar regions, it would seem useful to bring together advice won through hard effort over the years in how best to develop strategies for polar scientific institute management. This discussion paper offers advice on how such strategies may best be developed.The author has compiled this based on many years of management experience in both the ocean and polar sciences with the following institutions: the UK Natural Environment Research Council's Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Deacon Laboratory, the UK's National Oceanography Centre, UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and the International Council for Science's Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research

The development of the Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFoPS)

The Asian Forum for Polar Sciences (AFoPS), an international forum of Asian polar research institutes, was established for the advancement of polar sciences among its members in 2004. The Forum has served as an important medium of Asian collective endeavors for polar affairs in human and information exchange, research collaboration, and logistics cooperation for the last decade. The historical development of the AFoPS in retrospect can be divided into four phases: inception and establishment (2003–2004), growth and expansion (2005–2007), review and restructuring (2008–2011), and achievements and further measures (2012–2014). The progress of the AFoPS has not been linear and this trend will continue into the next decades. The Forum, however, clearly made achievements in this period of time, realizing multilateral research and logistics cooperation that would have been previously unimaginable; by doing so, it has laid the foundation for the future. Responsible for a great portion of the world's polar activities, the AFoPS will rise to meet the expectations of the world by producing notable research output, initiating international cooperative programs, and supporting non-polar Asian countries with education and research collaboration. These are the tasks of the AFoPS for the next decade and they require strategy that promotes and facilitates collaboration in a practical way and draws attention of non-polar Asian countries to the polar sciences.

Scenario Changes of Atlantic Water in the Arctic Ocean

Abstract The authors explore possible temperature modifications of the Atlantic Water Layer (AWL) induced by climate change, performing simulations for 1970 to 2099 with a coupled ice–ocean Arctic model (CIOM). Surface fields to drive the CIOM were provided by the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM), driven by outputs from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) Coupled Global Climate Model, version 3 (CGCM3) following the A1B climate change scenario. In the present climate, represented as 1990–2009, the CIOM can reliably reproduce the AWL compared to Polar Science Center Hydrographic Climatology (PHC) data. For the future climate, assuming the A1B climate change scenario, there is a significant increase in water volume transport into the central Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait due to the weakened atmospheric high pressure system over the western Arctic and an intensified atmospheric low pressure system over the Nordic seas. The AWL temperature tends to decrease from 0.36°C in the 2010s to 0.26°C in the 2060s. In the vertical, the warm Atlantic water core slightly expands before the 2030s, significantly shrinks after the 2050s, and essentially disappears by 2070–99, in the southern Beaufort Sea. The temperature decrease after 2030 is mainly due to the reduced heat fluxes in the Kara and Barents Seas. In the northeastern Barents and Kara Seas, the loss of sea ice increases the heat loss from the Atlantic water and reduces the water temperature near the bottom, contributing to decreased heat fluxes into the central Arctic Ocean, as well as decreased AWL temperature at central Arctic Ocean intermediate layers. In addition, the vertically integrated heat loss also plays an important role in the AWL cooling process.

Education and Polar Research: Bringing Polar Science into the Classroom

The Polar Regions play an important role in the global processes of our planet, from climate change to sea level rise, protection from UV (ultraviolet) radiation to uptake of carbon dioxide. In addition, their scientific importance, extraordinary beauty and adventurous history provide perfect ingredients for both education and public outreach.Polar examples provide an excellent way to transmit basic concepts about a wide range of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. The IPY (International Polar Year) brought educators and scientists together and provided the incentive for the formation of the PEI (Polar Educators International), an organization encouraging the exchange of ideas between educators and researchers and enhancement of the profile of polar education on the international scene. Educators must be adequately informed about current scientific polar research and have the confidenceto teach it to students. Scientists have the knowledge and data to explain these complexities, but may lack the communication skills to make the subject accessible to non-technical audiences. The development of this new network between polar educators and scientists has the potential to break down walls that restrict international collaboration and understanding, provide educators with topical and reliable information and share best practices internationally in an effective way.

Furongian (late Cambrian) trilobites from the Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone of the Hwajeol Formation, Korea

Park, T.-Y.S. & Kihm, J.-H., 3.10.2014. Furongian (late Cambrian) trilobites from the Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone of the Hwajeol Formation, Korea. Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518The Hwajeol Formation of the Taebaek Group, Korea extends from the Jiangshanian Stage to Cambrian Stage 10. The lower part of the formation incorporates the Asioptychaspis Zone, which is closely correlated to the Asioptychaspis–Tsinania Zone of North China. This study documents silicified trilobites from the lower part of the Hwajeol Formation in the Sagundari section. Asioptychaspis subglobosa occurs throughout the interval; hence the biozone is renamed as the Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone in this study. The Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone of the Hwajeol Formation yields 14 polymerid species belonging to 14 genera. Of these, 11 species including three new species are documented for the first time in Korea. Among other taxa, the occurrence of Caznaia is stratigraphically significant because two biozones were established in Australia based on representatives of this genus: i.e., the Rhaptagnostus clarki patulus–Caznaia squamosa–Hapsidocare lilyensis and Rhaptagnostus clarki prolatus–Caznaia sectatrix zones in ascending order. Owing to the lack of cosmopolitan trilobites, the international correlation of these Iverian biozones has been equivocal. The occurrence of Caznaia from the Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone of Korea indicates that the Rhaptagnostus clarki patulus–Caznaia squamosa–Hapsidocare lilyensis and Rhaptagnostus clarki prolatus–Caznaia sectatrix zones of Australia are correlated with the Asioptychaspis subglobosa Zone of Korea and the Asioptychaspis–Tsinania Zone of North China.Tae-Yoon S. Park [typark@kopri.re.kr] and Ji-Hoon Kihm [jhkihm@kopri.re.kr] (corresponding author), Division of Polar Earth-System Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon 406-840, Korea.

Bedgap: where next for Antarctic subglacial mapping?

AbstractThe recently published Bedmap2 datasets mark the culmination of several decades of subice and subocean Antarctic topographic surveying by many nations, but maps of the topographic data distribution show that in the global context, the Antarctic bed remains very poorly sampled. Most of the remaining large unmapped areas on Earth lie under Antarctic ice and polar surveying continues to be difficult and expensive, thus it is important to identify where future efforts should be concentrated. A survey of 75 experts in various aspects of polar science shows that a lack of adequate topographic data is an important constraint in several themes, but the data gaps and the data needs do not tend to coincide. There is strong demand for higher resolution surveying in previously visited areas, particularly in the most dynamic and most rapidly changing regions as identified by glaciologists, oceanographers, hydrologists, biologists and geomorphologists, while geologists and ice core scientists focus on the most important areas for understanding Antarctica over deeper time. The data requirements identified here could be addressed for most areas given sufficient time and funding, but the technology needed to survey the interiors of the large ice shelf cavities has only just been developed.

Nansen i norsk polartradisjon

<p>Fridtjof Nansen’s expeditions introduced polar exploration in Norway. And his stories from the North formed our image of the Arctic. For later generations of Norwegian explorers Nansen surely has been a great inspiration. Also within polar science Nansen serves as a hero. The article asks to what extent Nansen shared the general political view on Norwegian polar imperialism in the interwar period. That reminds us simultaneously that not all of today's political polar ambitions necessarily are in accordance with Nansen's vision for Arctic research.</p>

Circumpolar science: Scandinavian approaches to the Arctic and the North Atlantic, ca. 1920 to 1960.

ArgumentThe Scandinavian countries share a solid reputation as longstanding contributors to top level Arctic research. This received view, however, veils some deep-seated contrasts in the ways that Sweden, Norway, and Denmark have conducted research in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. In this paper it is argued that instead of focusing on the geographical determinism of science – the fact that the Arctic is close to, indeed part of, Scandinavian territories – we should look more closely at the geopolitics of science to understand the differences and similarities between these three Nordic countries. Through case studies of, mainly, Swedish Arctic and North Atlantic glaciology in the 1920s through to the 1940s, and of Norwegian preparations in the 1950s for the International Geophysical Year 1957/58, the paper demonstrates how different styles of research – research agendas, methodological choices, collaborative patterns, international networks, availability of infrastructure, relations to politics and power – are conditioned on economic interests and strategic and geopolitical trajectories, either these are explicitly put in the forefront of scientific priorities as in the case of Norway in the 1950s, or when they are manifestly disregarded in the name of scientific internationalism, as in the case of Swedish glaciology. The case of Danish colonial science in Greenland is only cursorily drawn into this analysis but corroborates the overall thesis. The analysis of this wider science politics of Scandinavian circumpolar science is exercised against a brief introductory backdrop of Arctic science historiography. Its chief message is that the analysis of polar science applying modern theory and method of the social studies of science is comparatively recent and that the full potential of merging the literature of Arctic science and exploration with those of security, geopolitics, indigenous voices, and the politics of nationalism is yet to be realized.

Melting the glacial curtain: the politics of Scandinavian–Soviet networks in the geophysical field sciences between two polar years, 1932/33–1957/58

While providing a brief background of the development of Scandinavian–Russian relations in the polar sciences in the early 20th century, this paper focuses on the period from the 1930s when the Swedish geographer Hans Ahlmann and Norwegian oceanographer Harald Ulrik Sverdrup developed a curiosity of the Soviet Union as a field for the practice of Arctic science. Visit of the Arctic Research Institute in Leningrad in 1934 further enhanced Ahlmann's sympathy and in 1935 he co-founded the Society for the Promotion of Cultural and Scientific Relations between Sweden and the Soviet Union. After further wartime collaboration, Ahlmann returned to the Soviet Union in 1958 and 1960 as president of the International Union of Geographical Sciences. Using his longtime Soviet contacts to penetrate the Iron Curtain, Ahlmann became a key figure in maintaining the flow of scientific information between East and West. New materials from archives open perspectives for better understanding of the international connections and transfer of knowledge in geophysical and geographical science in its formative period. The key message from this paper is that while tensions did exist and presented scientists with differential loyalties, they still managed to find ways to undertake fruitful scientific collaborations even under political restraints and could sometimes play political roles.

ASPIRE: Teachers and researchers working together to enhance student learning

Abstract Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines have become key focus areas in the education community of the United States. Newly adopted across the nation, Next Generation Science Standards require that educators embrace innovative approaches to teaching. Transforming classrooms to actively engage students through a combination of knowledge and practice develops conceptual understanding and application skills. The partnerships between researchers and educators during the Amundsen Sea Polynya International Research Expedition (ASPIRE) offer an example of how academic research can enhance K-12 student learning. In this commentary, we illustrate how ASPIRE teacher–scientist partnerships helped engage students with actual and virtual authentic scientific investigations. Crosscutting concepts of research in polar marine science can serve as intellectual tools to connect important ideas about ocean and climate science for the public good.

Time and space variability of freshwater content, heat content and seasonal ice melt in the Arctic Ocean from 1991 to 2011

Abstract. Changes in the hydrography of the Arctic Ocean have recently been reported. The upper ocean has been freshening and pulses of warm Atlantic Water have been observed to spread into the Arctic Ocean. Although these changes have been intensively studied, salinity and temperature variations have less frequently been considered together. Here hydrographic observations, obtained by icebreaker expeditions conducted between 1991 and 2011, are analyzed and discussed. Five different water masses in the upper 1000 m of the water column are examined in five sub-basins of the Arctic Ocean. This allows for studying the variations of the distributions of the freshwater and heat contents in the Arctic Ocean not only in time but also laterally and vertically. In addition, the seasonal ice melt contribution is separated from the permanent, winter, freshwater content of the Polar Mixed Layer. Because the positions of the icebreaker stations vary between the years, the icebreaker observations are at each specific point in space and time compared with the Polar Science Center Hydrographic Climatology to separate the effects of space and time variability on the observations. The hydrographic melt water estimate is discussed and compared with the potential ice melt induced by atmospheric heat input estimated from the ERA–Interim and NCEP/NCAR reanalyses. After a period of increased salinity in the upper ocean during the 1990s, both the Polar Mixed Layer and the upper halocline have been freshening. The increase in freshwater content in the Polar Mixed Layer is primarily driven by a decrease in salinity, not by changes in Polar Mixed Layer depth, whereas the freshwater is accumulating in the upper halocline mainly through the increasing thickness of the halocline. This is especially evident in the Northern Canada Basin, where the most substantial freshening is observed. The warming, and to some extent also the increase in salinity, of the Atlantic Water during the early 1990s extended from the Nansen Basin into the Amundsen and Makarov basins, while the warm and saline inflows occurring during the 2000s appear to be confined to the Nansen Basin, suggesting that the warm and saline inflow through Fram Strait largely recirculates in the Nansen Basin.

Analysis software for upper atmospheric data developed by the IUGONET project and its application to polar science

To comprehensively understand the Arctic and Antarctic upper atmosphere, it is often crucial to analyze various data that are obtained from many regions. Infrastructure that promotes such interdisciplinary studies on the upper atmosphere has been developed by a Japanese inter-university project called the Inter-university Upper atmosphere Global Observation Network (IUGONET). The objective of this paper is to describe the infrastructure and tools developed by IUGONET. We focus on the data analysis software. It is written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) and is a plug-in for the THEMIS Data Analysis Software suite (TDAS), which is a set of IDL libraries used to visualize and analyze satellite- and ground-based data. We present plots of upper atmospheric data provided by IUGONET as examples of applications, and verify the usefulness of the software in the study of polar science. We discuss IUGONET’s new and unique developments, i.e., an executable file of TDAS that can run on the IDL Virtual Machine, IDL routines to retrieve metadata from the IUGONET database, and an archive of 3-D simulation data that uses the Common Data Format so that it can easily be used with TDAS.

Britain and the British Antarctic Territory in the wider geopolitics of the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean

Britain's contemporary and future relationship with the British Antarctic Territory and the wider region is the subject matter of this article. In the aftermath of the ill-fated plans for a merger of British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the National Oceanography Centre, it is timely to ask how the UK projects influence and secures its scientific, resource and strategic interests. The contemporary Antarctic is increasingly characterized by tension over resource management and conservation politics as Antarctic Treaty parties disagree, both in private and public, over the purpose of legal instruments and the regulation of activities such as fishing and marine conservation. While we do not predict the collapse of the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS), our analysis suggests that the effectiveness and legitimacy of the ATS is increasingly under challenge. The United Kingdom's position as a claimant state and original signatory to the Antarctic Treaty is complicated by the presence of counter-claimants (Argentina and Chile) and a wider preoccupation with other overseas territories, such as South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and the Falkland Islands. Polar science, carried out by BAS and other British agents, remains critical not only for maintaining the UK's ‘soft power’ but also increasingly for cementing a ‘strategic presence’ in the Antarctic. The article ends with a cautionary note: scientific excellence is no longer sufficient to guarantee geopolitical/strategic interests and there is growing evidence that claimant and non-claimant states alike are no longer regarding Antarctica as an area that will remain free of intensifying and diversifying resource exploitation.

The IDIPOS project: is a multidisciplinary data infrastructure for weather and space weather feasible?

<p>The Italian National Antarctic Programme (PNRA) has long supported scientific and technological activities addressed to the implementation, upgrade and maintenance of infrastructure and instruments supporting geosciences and physical sciences in the polar region. This report describes the first results of the Italian Database Infrastructure for Polar Observation Sciences (IDIPOS) project, which was recently approved by the PNRA. The project aims to study the feasibility of the hardware and software infrastructure for the construction of relational databases of acquisitions from past and current experiments in the polar areas. The study is based on the fundamental characteristics of the infrastructure: its implementation in Italy, with locations across the country, and its integration into the existing and future telematics infrastructure that will be available at the Italian bases. The project proposes a modern and high-tech infrastructure dedicated to data treatment, accessibility and archiving, in line with international standards. This infrastructure will allow modern, rapid and reliable treatment of the acquired data. The IDIPOS infrastructure is crucial during the planning phase of scientific and monitoring activities of the PNRA, especially of those included in the Scientific Committee on Scientific Research (SCAR) projects, the International Polar Year, and the framework of international cooperation. In the first phase of the project, the observations are related to research projects in different PNRA sectors. The infrastructure will be potentially extendable to other observational activities. In this report, the infrastructure is introduced, while highlighting its usefulness for weather and space-weather forecasting for the scientific community and in the framework of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Research and Application for Polar Environment (GRAPE) in particular.</p>

Polar science news in brief

The addition of the “News in Brief” series to our Views and News section will highlight recent significant research in the last year—from high-impact papers to emerging research fronts—and will include papers with both classic and new hot topics. This series will offer a rotating view among the major Earth Science areas, as various experts will be invited to provide a brief look around the recent research conducted in their area. This selection of research papers is left up to each expert and due to the broadness of each field is not intended to be a comprehensive overview. Links to the published work are provided in each section. David Carlson, former Director of the International Programme Office for the International Polar Year, has been invited to provide a glimpse into the latest findings in polar science. Carlson outlines selected research of global relevance hoping that readers will “discover the fascinating connections among and across these topics, and the unintended prominence of three restless partners: ocean, wind and ice”.

Reading and thinking about International Polar Years: five recent books

Within the polar science community the Polar (and Geophysical) Years represent signal events. We often read, largely within geoscience literature, that those events represented positive and dramatic steps forward in international science. From five recent books - two historical compilations and three personal narratives - augmented by interviews with a few key participants, a more cautious picture emerges, of remarkable successes but also of occasional or even persistent missteps and deficiencies. An improved understanding of the IPY concept and experience can provide useful guidance for future polar and global science. Keywords: International Polar Year; International Geophysical Year; international science; history of polar science (Published: 1 April 2013) Citation: Polar Research 2013, 32 , 20789, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v32i0.20789

‘On Thin Ice’: The Polar Displays at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The National Maritime Museum (NMM) holds one of the most important historical collections relating to Polar exploration in the UK. It includes artefacts relating to the great 19th century voyages of exploration to locate the Northwest Passage, as well as to the ‘heroic’ early 20th century expeditions of Scott and Shackleton. Many of the artefacts have a long history of display, and Polar exploration has been a near constant presence in the Museum since the 1950s.Representations of the Polar regions may seem to have little connection to British identity and Empire. However, the Arctic in the mid-19th century and the Antarctic in the 20th century can be seen as important places in their own right and central to constructing senses of national identity. There is a close link between the history of exploration and the history of Empire; Polar explorers were represented as heroic figures, providing powerful foci for the imagination of the nation. Polar exploration, Empire, science and national identity were interwoven.The impact of the end of Empire upon British culture and identity has been subject to much debate by historians. Although Empire has diminished in importance Polar exploration remained on display in the NMM, albeit in a number of different guises. This article investigates this phenomenon, the role museums play in promulgating ideas about Empire and nation, and asks what, if anything, happens to displays when Empire declines.