6. March 2007 14:33
International Polar Year Researcher Profiles
Locked in Arctic ice and sediments are vital records of what the Earth’s environment was like in the past. To more accurately predict the future of the Earth’s climate, we need to know more about the extremes. Finding out how hot and how cold the Earth was in the past, and how much, as well as how little of it was covered by ice are key questions that APEX hopes to help answer.
Satellite observations are revolutionising our ability to observe the poles and polar processes. GIIPSY will coordinate polar observations with spaceborne and in-situ instruments and make the resulting data set – a snapshot of the polar ice sheets at the start of the 21st century – available to the international science community.
The ICED project develops coordinated circumpolar approach to better understand climate interactions in the Southern Ocean, the implications for ecosystem dynamics, the impacts on biogeochemical cycles, and the development of sustainable management procedures.
The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the Earth’s three most rapidly warming regions: most of the glaciers there are in retreat and large ice shelves have broken up. The ClicOPEN project investigates the impact of these changes on the plants and animals that live on the land, the shore and coastal sea around the Antarctic Peninsula.
