2-Year Study of Polar Changes Commences

Scientists from more than 60 countries. $350 million budget. Over 120 research projects.

The latest IPCC (Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change) report excluded estimates of changes in the Greenland ice sheet, because polar melting it is not well understood, at least not well enough to be used as the basis of a scientific report. This is about to change, as a new two-year polar study commences. The New York Times reports on the study here.

The effort is called "The International Polar Year". (The projects, as said, will actually take two years, from March 2007 to March 2009.) What will the scientists be doing? According to the Times,

They will use gliding underwater robots, giant icebreaking ships, satellites and other technologies to explore polar climate, biology, geology and ocean chemistry, and they will undertake physics and astronomy studies that can be done only at the poles.

Here's something else interesting: the Times' environment reporter Revkin traveling in the Arctic. The sites links to short video clips from his arctic journeys. One video included sounds of oil exploration that Revkin had recorded in the Northern Alaskan tundra.