London Mother will Run in Antarctic Ice Marathon for Cancer Treatment

A north London mother who lost her son to cancer will run across Antarctica to raise money for the treatment of three girls suffering from the disease.

Yvonne Brown will face -20C temperatures during the five-day race

Yvonne Brown, of Barnet, will face -20C temperatures and 30mph winds during the five-day 26.2 mile Antarctic Ice Marathon starting from Union Glacier.

She lost her seven-year-old son, Jack, to neuroblastoma in 2009.

Mrs Brown, 44, wants to raise £10,000 to help three children who require specialised treatment in the US.

Emma Hoolin, four, from Wigan, two-year-old Sadie Rose Clifford from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire and Robyn Higgins, nine, from Surrey are all fighting the cancer, which attacks the nerves.

Mrs Brown said the children needed to undergo antibody treatment in the US, which is not yet available in Britain, and each family needed to raise £250,000.

Mrs Brown, an Acting Det Insp with the Metropolitan Police, said when she took Jack to the US in 2006 the treatment was still being tested and not available at Sloan Kettering cancer centre in New York. He was given another treatment there.

She has reached more than 40% of her target amount ahead of the race on 30 November.

'Courage and strength'

Mrs Brown said: "This is one of the most challenging physical and mental challenge I will ever undertake, with the exception of losing Jack.

"Their [the children in the appeal] courage and strength is enough to keep me going.

"This is one of the most difficult marathons in the world. I hope to reflect the challenge these children face."

Sadie, Emma and Robyn need specialist treatment for neuroblastoma in the US

She said her two other children, a son and a daughter, aged 15 and 12, and her husband Richard, also a Met officer, faced an "emotionally difficult" time while trying to raise funds for their son.

"What a challenge it was to do a job full time and having to fundraise and say thanks for the donations and help others raise funds (for other ill children). That detracted from our time with Jack."

Mrs Brown will leave for Punta Arenas in Chile, on Saturday, from where the runners will be taken to the Union Glacier on 29 November.

The glacier is a few hundred miles from the South Pole and is at 700m (2,300ft). Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15892669

Honouring Robert Falcon Scott's memory

Slimbridge was once the home to Robert Falcon Scott and still keeps his memory alive.

Family focus: Robert Falcon Scott's granddaughters Dafila (right) and Nicola at Slimbridge, their childhood home Photo: CHRISTOPHER JONES

The end of a dark, damp afternoon in the Gloucestershire countryside, and although the gathering flocks of geese, swans and ducks don’t know it, they owe their forthcoming evening meal to an explorer who died 99 years ago and 9,000 miles away.


The setting for this soggy feast is the Slimbridge Wildfowl Centre, which was founded 65 years ago this month by the naturalist Sir Peter Scott, but which still dishes out generous helpings of grain to whatever winged creatures are in the vicinity at 4pm each day.


As for the lost adventurer, it is Sir Peter’s father Captain Robert Falcon Scott who, in his last letter from the Antarctic, gave the following instruction to his wife, Kathleen, regarding the upbringing of their two-year-old son: “Make him interested in natural history.”


And didn’t she just. Not only did the young Peter Scott go on to found a network of nine centres across the British Isles, now known as the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), he became one of the earliest and loudest voices in the conservation movement, denouncing humankind’s failure to save animal species from extinction as “wicked irresponsibility”.


According to Sir Peter’s late wife, Philippa, the planting of these environmental seeds was a subtle process. “His mother was very clever,” she once said. “She made him a member of the Zoological Society of London, and he used to take his nanny in there for free, which he rather liked.” Having started with the nanny, Sir Peter then spent his entire life (he died in 1989) introducing the wonders of nature to the rest of humanity. Including, of course, his own children.


“We knew the names of all the different types of birds, and were always encouraged to show people around,” recalls Sir Peter’s eldest daughter Nicola, as she sits in the ceiling-high observation window built into the sitting room of the Scott family home.


“It’s all still much as it was when we lived here, except that the path the public used to walk along was closer to the house,” she recalls. “Often, people would be looking in through the big window with their binoculars, and we’d be looking back at them with our binoculars.”


Meanwhile, her younger half-sister Dafila (the ornithological name of the northern pintail) was busy as a child, making a visual record of all the Bewick’s swans that visited. “No two have the same colouring of face and beak,” Dafila says. “It was my job to record what each bird looked like, so we could identify them when they returned the next year.”


Pretty good training for the artist that she turned out to be. Meanwhile, her brother Falcon got some early practice for his later career as a builder and joiner by designing and constructing one of Slimbridge’s earliest birdwatching towers, still standing today.


“I think Falcon was still at school when he did the drawings for that tower,” recalls Nicola. “This was an exciting place to be brought up; there were always television cameras in the house, with great snakelike cables running through the living room.”


“And there were chameleons in that corner, weren’t there?” says Dafila, pointing to a part of the room beside her father’s old desk. “They were in a beautiful cage on top of a trolley, and would be wheeled out to enjoy the sunshine when it was warm weather.”


And the children’s father would be forever broadcasting to the world, be it on the natural history television show Look! or the perennially popular radio programme Nature Parliament. But the one subject Sir Peter never spoke about at home was his father’s Polar achievements.


“We were brought up never to mention the subject,” says Nicola. “It wasn’t that it upset Pa; it was more that he acknowledged the incredible things his father had done, but did not want in any way to capitalise on those achievements.”


“It was very important to my father,” adds Dafila, “that he did his own thing.”


But while unspoken, the Scott of the Antarctic legend has left its mark on all three children’s lives. “I think the important thing my grandfather’s story still does is to inspire people,” says Falcon Scott. “Everything he and his men did, they did properly, to the best of their ability, and I think that’s a lesson to us all. It’s something I’ve been brought up with all my life, but I have never found the story boring; in fact, I often think how amazing it is.


“People still know my grandfather’s name; he’s famous all over the world, and, as his descendants, I think we have a responsibility to uphold his reputation.”


A task that his sister Dafila took one stage further this year when she was sponsored by the Scott Polar Research Institute to travel out to Antarctica on the research ship HMS Scott and capture some of the wildlife and scenery on canvas. “I felt a responsibility to produce a body of work that would excite people about the Antarctic,” she says. “That said, I had a lot to live up to; Edward Wilson, who was the chief artist on my grandfather’s last expedition and who died alongside him, was a truly wonderful painter.”


The Slimbridge Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in Gloucestershire is open daily from 9.30am to 5pm, adults £10.35, children (four-16) £5.60, including Gift Aid donation; 01453 891900, wwt.org.uk


The British Services Antarctic Expedition 2012 is holding a fund-raising dinner in the Painted Hall at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, next Saturday, December 3. For further details, contact Captain Ivar Milligan on 01264 381072 or at ivar.milligan212@mod.uk
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/robert-falcon-scott/8912635/Honouring-Robert-Falcon-Scotts-memory.html

Antarctica Visitors' Unfavourable Iceberg

TOURISTS forking out top dollar to visit Mawson's Hut for centenary celebrations this summer are likely to face disappointment as the "Antarctic factor" heaves an enormous icy obstacle in ships' paths.


Expedition cruise ship MV Orion is due to start its 19-night Southern Ocean voyage on Thursday, with prices for the 100 passengers starting at $19,365 a person.


Orion expedition leader Don McIntyre said the Antarctic always had challenges but an iceberg the size of the ACT blocking access was "unique".


"Whilst it's not looking good, no one will know until we get there," Mr McIntyre said.


"We always maintain a simple philosophy we work with the Antarctic factor. You cannot dictate terms with Antarctica, it lets you in at its pleasure you have to work with it, you can't fight it."


A 2500 sq km tabular iceberg was part of a much larger ice mass that broke free from the Ross Ice Shelf in 1987 but subsequently broke up as it drifted westwards.


Parts of the "B9B" iceberg have grounded on the approach to the Mawson's Hut site at Commonwealth Bay.


Rob Easther, from the Mawson's Hut Foundation, yesterday confirmed their expedition to continue preservation work on the historic hut had been cancelled for this year but they hoped to return next summer.


Former Tasmanian Chris Huxley is due to travel with his wife on the expedition and remains philosophical about his chances of getting to shore.


"I just think you've got to play the elements," Mr Huxley said.


"I'm hoping, but I understand safety comes first."


And he says that even if they can't make it to Mawson's Hut, he hopes he can still play a few overs of Centenary World Series Ice Cricket.


"Being a larrikin Australian, I've organised my brother to knock me up an old cricket bat the old fashioned kids-in-the-back yard sort," he said.


"And I've got some stumps coming. We realised we couldn't stick them in the ice so they'll be in a piece of wood."


Mr McIntyre said the nature of the cruise meant that passengers were told there was always a chance they wouldn't make it to land at Commonwealth Bay.


"We've spent more time at Commonwealth Bay than anyone but I'd not like to make a prediction at this stage," Mr McIntyre said.


Even if they don't make it to shore, first-time visitors will still come away with a once-in-a-lifetime experience, he said. Source: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/11/26/279771_tasmania-news.html

A Partial Solar Eclipse over Parts of Southern Hemisphere

A partial solar eclipse was visible over parts of the southern hemisphere today (25-Nov-2011), as the moon passed between Earth and the sun for the fourth and final time this year.


The eclipse was visible in southern South Africa, Antarctica, Tasmania, and most of New Zealand, according to NASA scientists. At greatest eclipse, as the moon orbited between the sun and Earth, 90.5 percent of the sun's diameter was covered from the location closest to the axis of Earth's shadow, which is a point in the Bellingshausen Sea on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula.


While majority of the Earth was not able to view today's partial solar eclipse, the event was visible in pockets of southern South Africa, across the Antarctic continent, Tasmania and portions of New Zealand's South Island.


Observer Mike Nicholson and his wife caught the eclipse from Otaki Beach in New Zealand, though they feared at first that the strong winds in the area would blow too much sand and salt for them to see anything.


"We left home about 30 mins before the eclipse started, drove to beach, and had to hide in the car as the weather was pretty vile," Nicholson told SPACE.com in an email. "At the time conditions were also extremely hazy; the sun was just a big white blob above the horizon. However as it descended toward the horizon and into the low cloud, conditions improved visually."


The shadow with Earth last touched a point on the planet west of the South Island, in the Tasman Sea, before it swept back out into space.


Solar eclipses are some of nature's most dramatic celestial events, and occur when the Earth, moon and sun are aligned on the same plane. Partial solar eclipses happen when the moon partly covers the sun as it travels between our planet and its closest star.


Today's eclipse was the fourth and final solar eclipse of the year. Partial solar eclipses previously occurred on Jan. 4, June 1 and July 1.


The next solar eclipse, on May 20, 2012, is expected to be a stunning event, and will be visible from China, Japan and parts of the United States. During this so-called annular solar eclipse, the moon will cover a large portion (but not all) of the sun.


But, for skywatchers hoping to catch a view of the eclipse, it's important to take adequate precautionary measures. Looking at a solar eclipse can be extremely dangerous, and special eye protection is needed to safely view the sun during partial and annular eclipses.


Regular sunglasses do not adequately block enough of the infrared and ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun during the event, so specially designed "eclipse glasses" are needed, NASA scientists have said. These protective eyepieces use appropriate filtration for solar observation. Source: http://www.space.com/13731-solar-eclipse-nov-25-skywatching.html

New Exhibition of Artworks opened at Antarctica, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG)

Ahead of the 100th anniversary of Douglas Mawson’s celebrated expedition to the Antarctic, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) has opened a new exhibition of artworks inspired by the Antarctic.


The Premier, Lara Giddings, said the exhibition draws on Tasmania's long-standing connection with Antarctica.

“Antarctica holds a special place in the hearts of many Tasmanians and I am pleased that the work of some of very notable artists is able to bring us closer to the Antarctic environment and its history," Ms Giddings said.

“The Artists in Antarctica exhibition showcases work that has been inspired by the beauty of the natural environment.

"The close relationship between art and Antarctic science dates back to Mawson's official photographer Frank Hurley, whose stunning images are both a research tool and works of art in their own right.

"I commend the Australian Antarctic Division for continuing to recognise the importance of recording the Antarctic environment through photography and other artforms by helping to enable artists to travel to the continent and sub-Antarctic islands."

The exhibition includes the work of twelve artists who journeyed to Macquarie Island, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica over an eighty year period between 1912 and 1993, and has been timed to coincide with the Antarctic Centennial Year.

TMAG director, Bill Bleathman said the museum has a strong collection of artworks and other material related to the Antarctic region which will be highlighted during the Antarctic Centennial Year celebrations.

“Artworks by Charles Harrisson, Luc Marie Bayle, Sidney Nolan, George Davis, Stephen Walker, John Caldwell, Bea Maddock, Jan Senbergs, Clare Robertson, Charles Page, Sally Robinson and David Stephenson are included in the exhibition," Mr Bleathman said.
“The works on display present the artists’ deeply personal responses to the intriguing and perpetually changing Antarctic and sub-Antarctic environments throughout the history of Antarctic exploration.”

Artists in Antarctica complements TMAG’s permanent Antarctic exhibition, Islands to Ice, which features the natural environment, scientific research and heroic expeditions related to the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic.

The exhibition will be presented alongside the National Archives of Australia touring exhibition, Traversing Antarctica: the Australian experience, which opens at TMAG on Friday, 2 December 2011.

Artists in Antarctica is open to the public from Friday, 25 November 2011 until 4 March 2012. TMAG is open daily from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm except Christmas day, Good Friday and ANZAC day. Source: http://www.media.tas.gov.au/release.php?id=33739

NASA Antarctic 2011 IceBridge Mission Accomplishes

NASA's DC-8 airborne science laboratory has completed its 2011 Operation IceBridge science flights over Antarctica, and arrived home at its base in Palmdale, Calif., Nov. 22. The IceBridge flight and science team flew a record 24 science flights during the six-week campaign, recording data from a suite of sophisticated instruments on the thickness and depth of Antarctic ice sheets and glacial movement.


The aircraft departed its deployment base at Punta Arenas, Chile, Tuesday morning Nov. 22 and after a refueling stop in Santiago, Chile, set course for Los Angeles International Airport for customs clearance. The flying lab continued on to the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, arriving about 8:30 p.m. that evening after almost 15 hours in the air.


A highlight of the IceBridge mission was the discovery during a low-level overflight Oct. 14 of a large crack that had recently begun across the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, a precursor to the separation of an estimated 310-square-mile iceberg into the ocean in the near future. The growth of the estimated 18-mile-long rift was documented on several subsequent flights.


The final science flights on Nov. 17 and 19 focused on the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula and the George VI Sound on the peninsula's western side.


Mission manager Chris Miller's report on the former noted that clear weather over the eastern side of the peninsula provided "a rare opportunity to collect data over glaciers that are more regularly shrouded in cloud." The mostly clear weather allowed the science team to collect data at low altitudes of only 1,500 feet above ground for almost seven hours out of the more than 11 hours the team was aloft.

After a down day on Nov. 18 for crew rest and aircraft maintenance, the converted four-engine jetliner-turned-flying-laboratory was airborne again on its final science mission of the 2011 Antarctic IceBridge campaign Nov. 19. The IceBridge team found perfect weather conditions over their survey target, the George VI Sound on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula.


Data collection began with a long transect down the center of the sound, Miller reported, and then continued with 11 flight data lines stitching across the sound, shore to shore. Minor glitches with the Digital Mapping System and the aircraft's GPS system complicated one of the flight tracks for the Airborne Topographic Mapper instrument during the flight, but Miller said all objectives were met and the ATM data should be recoverable in post flight processing.


"Views of mountain peaks and ranges were abundant," during the 11-hour flight, he added.


Due to fuel supply issues at Punta Arenas, a 25th and final science flight on Nov. 20 was cancelled, and the team prepared for its Nov. 22 departure back to the United States.


Including the transit flights between Punta Arenas and California, the modified 45-year-old flying laboratory logged about 308 flight hours during the Operation IceBridge, including 127 hours of actual data collection from its suite of seven specialized instruments. The instruments and science teams represented several NASA centers, the University of Kansas, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University.

Operation IceBridge was begun in 2009 to bridge the gap in data collection after NASA's ICESat-1 satellite stopped functioning and when the ICESat-2 satellite becomes operational in 2016. By comparing the year-to-year readings of ice thickness and movement both on land and on the sea, scientists can learn more about the trends that could affect sea-level rise and climate around the globe. In addition to NASA's DC-8, a smaller Gulfstream V aircraft operated by the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Atmospheric Research also participated in this fall's IceBridge mission.


DC-8 research pilot Troy Asher, who flew the final science flight, offered his reflections on this fall's Antarctic campaign.


"As you will undoubtedly hear from other reports from the science and mission director community, this has been a fantastic deployment from many different aspects," he said.


NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center director David McBride emailed his congratulations to the science team and the flight and ground crews on the completion of the 2011 mission over Antarctica.

"This was a great campaign and it makes all proud," McBride added.

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/icebridge_fall_2011_concludes.html

Malaysia King Back from Antarctica Trip

PETALING JAYA: Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin returned from a five-day working visit to scientific centres in Antarctica.


Tuanku Mizan flew in to the Royal Malaysian Air Force base in Subang near here yesterday and was welcomed by senior deputy secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Othman Mahmood and Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal Datuk Syed Danial Syed Ahmad.


The visit to the South Pole was in conjunction with Malaysia’s formal accession to the Antarctic Treaty 1959 on Oct 31 this year as a non-consultative member.


Tuanku Mizan was accompanied by Science, Technology and Inno­vation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili, Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) Antarctica Task Force chairman Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor, National Antarctica Research Centre director Prof Datuk Dr Azizan Abu Samah and Mohamad Mudanoran Mohamad Mushaari of Bernama.


Malaysia’s involvement with Antarctica started when Malaysia and Antigua and Barbuda highlighted the Antarctica issue at the United Nations General Assembly in 1983. – Bernama Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/25/nation/9976359&sec=nation




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Howard Fairbank's Solo trip to South Pole begins

A Durban-born man who has sailed solo across the five seas, cycled through Africa and recently trekked unassisted from Canada to the North Pole has begun his latest adventure – walking from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole, alone.

Howard Fairbank, a former Durban High School pupil, began his journey on Saturday, after leaving Punta Arenas in Chile for Antarctica.


If he completes the journey, battling some of Earth’s toughest terrain in sub-zero temperatures, Fairbank is hoping to become the oldest person, and first South African, to do the trip solo, unassisted and unsupported.


Fairbank, who has been training for his latest adventure for months, left South Africa on November 6.


He hopes to reach the South Pole by Christmas Eve.


According to his blog, Fairbank left a successful business career in 2004 to pursue his “Simply Adventure” dream, which he describes as “a simple wandering way of life, centred around sailing, cycling, and sea kayaking adventures, and one far removed from the capitalist and material world”.


In 2009, after years of solo sailing across oceans and cycling the continents, he moved his focus to polar adventure.


Last year, with three others, he completed an unassisted trek from Canada to the geographic North Pole, joining an exclusive club of fewer than 60 people who have completed what is dubbed the “hardest trek on Earth”.


Writing on his blog shortly before he left Cape Town, Fairbank said: “This is a very emotional time, as I seem finally to be on track to meet my destiny with Antarctica.


“In 2006, 2008, and 2009, I came close to meetings with this special wilderness but the experiences weren’t to be, no doubt waiting for this very special meeting and experience that lies ahead.


“I never wanted the meeting to be on passive, commercial-operator terms, I wanted as naked an experience as I could personally manage, and now this is exactly what awaits me.


“As I think through what lies ahead, I have this huge emotional cocktail within, feelings of apprehension, fear, excitement, and a sense of handing myself over to fate.”


Fairbank said a rational person would question why someone would want to leave home to take on the hostility of the Antarctic environment solo.


“There is something bizarre about all this, but having done many of these ‘irrational’ expeditions, I know that there is an amazing way of life awaiting on the ice… It is a life free of mindless clutter, yet full of challenge, and in an environment that is the purest of the pure – the world’s largest desert, and an ice one at that…”


At the weekend while waiting to fly to Antarctica, Fairbank was co-ordinating his trip using two compasses he plans to use while he is out on the ice.


He said he had met three seasoned polar adventurers who completed the Messner route, and who went through their experiences of the dangerous crevasse areas with him.


“The main fear I have is being alone in a whiteout with crevasse around, but now having rehearsed the situation many times in my head, I have to just get out there and deal with it… Gee, this is going to be exciting,” he said. - Daily News. Source: The Post

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Antarctic mountains date back to dinosaur age

Washington: The root of the mysterious range of Antarctic mountains completely hidden under the continent's massive ice sheet may be over 200 million years old dating back to the dinosaur age, scientists have claimed. 


Researchers on a project to understand the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains in East Antarctica better, said the mountains rise up to 10,000 feet above the planet's surface, but are covered by up to 15,750 feet of ice. 

"This icy coat makes them the least understood mountain range on Earth," researcher Fausto Ferraccioli, a geophysicist at the British Antarctic Survey, said. 


"It is very fitting that the initial results of Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province project are coming out 100 years after the great explorers raced to the South Pole," said Alexandra Isern at the National Science Foundation. 


"The scientific explorers of the Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province project worked in harsh conditions to collect the data and detailed images of this major mountain range under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The results of their work will guide research in this region for many years to come." 


What details scientists have gathered about the mountains provide conflicting evidence about how they got there and how old they are. For instance, nearby rocks suggest they are very ancient, but their steep, rugged shapes, which resemble the Alps, are what one would expect of young mountains. 


To learn more about their origins, the team collected new data from the Gamburtsev region by flying about 120,000km with two aircraft equipped with ice-penetrating radars, lasers and magnetic and gravity meters. 


Magnetic anomalies seen throughout the Gamburtsevs match those of about one-billion-year-old rocks seen to the north that predate the evolution of animals and plants on Earth. 


This suggests the root of this mountain range was born around that time from collisions of several continents or microcontinents, findings corroborated by gravity and other data, the team reported in journal Nature. 


The research then suggested that rifting events between 250 and 100 million years ago, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, triggered the uplift of these mountains. Specifically, the rise of rock along the flanks of these rifts and the buoyant root of these mountains forced the land upward. 


Rivers and glaciers then cut deep valleys, giving these mountains their rugged shapes. The East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which currently covers one-tenth of Earth's crust, then entombed the range, preserving them as they are today, the researchers said. 


"Explorers that set foot on the moon for the first time were confronted with many unknowns and challenges -- the same holds true for the Gamburtsevs, in my view," Ferraccioli said. 


"Unravelling the mystery of how the mountains formed by analysing the new data and putting together bits and pieces of a billion-year history of the region was really exciting." 


The new geophysical images and models will help guide future research on geological evolution and mountain-building in this remote region for years to come, he added.  PTI Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-news/antarctic-mountains-date-back-to-dinosaur-age_743082.html

Malaysia King Reached Antarctica

SCOTT BASE (ANTARCTICA): Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin arrived here on Monday for a special working visit to Antarctica.


The King and his entourage arrived in the South Pole on a special United States Air Force C-17 Globe Master aircraft which landed at Pegasus Airfield, where the runway was built on frozen sea water, at about 1pm local time.


The entourage comprised, among others, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Academy of Sciences Malaysia Antarctica Taskforce chairman Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor, National Antarctica Research Centre director Prof Datuk Dr Azizan Abu Samah.


Also on board the aircraft were 70 international researchers and scientists who will be conducting research in Antarctica.


Tuanku Mizan was met on arrival by Antarctica Service Supervisor, David Washer, and was later taken on a 20-minute ride to Scott Research Centre.


A briefing on Antarctica was given to the King by Chief Executive of Antarctica New Zealand Lou Sanson before he took a ride on a tracked vehicle, known as Hagglund, to visit Castle Rock and Antarctic Field Training Camp.


On the second day in Antarctica, the King is scheduled to go on a helicopter trip across Mc Murdo Sound and visit the hut occupied by Captain Scott between 1910 and 1912 in Cape Evans and the hut occupied by Sir Ernest Shackleton between 1907 and 1909 in Cape Royds.


The two huts had become iconic and historic destinations for researchers and scientists in Antarctica. - Bernama. Souce: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/11/21/nation/20111121173126&sec=nation


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Antarctic Centennial Year

South Pole prepares for 100-year anniversary of historic race between Amundsen and Scott.
By Peter Rejcek, Antarctic Sun Editor


A century ago, perhaps the last great feat of terrestrial exploration took place in one of the world’s most inhospitable locations, spawning a race between two very different men.


On one side was Norwegian Roald Amundsen, a veteran polar explorer who had honed his skills among the Inuit of the Arctic. In opposition was Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, the epitome of the stoic British military officer. Their goal: To be the first to stand at the geographic South Pole.


The story is well known: Amundsen and his team easily reached the bottom of the world first on Dec. 14. Scott and his men followed more than a month later, on Jan. 17, perishing on the return trip only 11 miles from their resupply depot.


Now, 100 years later, adventurers, history buffs and avid travelers are expected to visit this once most inaccessible of sites on Antarctica’s polar plateau to commemorate the achievement. Today, 90 South is home to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station , an advanced research center that supports telescopes and observatories that investigate such weird phenomena as neutrinos and dark energy.

Photo Credit: Dwight Bohnet/Antarctic Photo Library

The South Pole Station is named after Amundsen and Scott.

                                

Robert Falcon Scott, left, and Roald Amundsen.

At the height of the summer field season — November to February — the station houses about 250 support personnel and scientists. This year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) , which manages the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) , is expecting up to double that population in tourists — a modest number in the total visitors who journey to Antarctica every year but a staggering amount given the remoteness of the South Pole.

Up to 150 people alone are expected to be at the station on Dec. 14, including a diplomatic party of about a dozen people from Norway led by Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg . Another 70 or more people may arrive on the Scott anniversary, although there is not an official British presence expected on Jan. 17.

“In terms of an event, the centennial is completely new territory,” said Bill Coughran, South Pole area director for Raytheon Polar Services (RPSC) , the company that operates the station for the NSF.

For the anniversary year, station personnel will set up a temporary visitor center and small retail store not far from the ceremonial pole behind the station, to be powered by a solar array. In addition, the tour operators will set up a small base camp at the end of the station’s airfield skiway, with additional facilities to accommodate the larger number of tourists expected around the anniversary dates.

“You don’t just pop in to South Pole with these kind of numbers for the day,” Coughran said.

Tourist visits at the South Pole have been creeping up over the last decade. As recently as the 2003-04 season, the station saw 40 visitors. Five years later, the number had quadrupled.

Last year, according to statistics from the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) , the voluntary organization of Antarctica-bound outfitters, 386 people participated in land-based expeditions, which include the South Pole and other popular destinations, including Vinson Massif, Antarctica’s highest mountain.

IAATO lists three operators as members for land-based expeditions: Antarctic Logistics & Expeditions (ALE)/Adventure Network International (ANI) , The Antarctic Company (TAC)  and White Desert . ALE is by far the largest of the three companies, flying to the continent from Punta Arenas, Chile, and operating a field camp at Union Glacier in West Antarctica. TAC and White Desert stage their operations out of Cape Town, South Africa.

Most visitors to Antarctica arrive by sea, from small, private yachts to luxury cruise ships. IAATO operators reported supporting 33,824 tourists in 2010-11.

“Overall, land-based tourism — including to the South Pole — is a very small fraction of the visitor numbers to the continent on an annual basis,” noted Steve Wellmeier, executive director of IAATO.

However, Antarctic tourism has been in decline in recent years after peaking at 46,265 visitors in 2007-08. The global recession has largely been to blame, though the numbers are expected to plummet even further this year with a ban on the use of heavy fuel oil imposed by the International Maritime Organization in the Southern Ocean taking effect. IAATO is projecting a 25 percent decline in visitors for 2011-12.

South Pole tourism will certainly buck that trend — at least this year. And it’s not a cheap visit. For example, ALE charges $40,500 for flights to the South Pole.

More adventurous tourists opt to ski to the South Pole, commonly from Hercules Inlet on the Antarctic coast, about a two-month journey of more than 700 miles. Others find more unusual means to reach the bottom of the world, such as last year’s expedition organized by the Kazakhstan National Geographic Society and TAC. The expedition team drove two Arctic Truck AT44s across 1,400 miles to the South Pole in a record-breaking 108 hours.

This year’s roster of expeditions is a long one, from an adventurer from Oman who hopes to become the first Arab to walk to the South Pole to a team of British soldiers that will follow in the footsteps of their countryman Scott. While many of the visitors to the South Pole on Jan. 17 are expected to be from the United Kingdom, the British government has no plans for a ceremony in the Antarctic.

“We are involved in lots of activities for the centenary but no significant events in Antarctica or at the Pole,” confirmed Athena Dinar, a spokesperson for the British Antarctic Survey , over e-mail. “One of our twin otters may fly over for the big ceremony on 17 January at the Pole. Otherwise, we’ll be focusing on events here in the UK.”

But Dec. 14 at the South Pole will belong to the Norwegians. In addition to the prime minister and his party, a four-person team from Norway will arrive by ski pulling sleds, led by the director of the Norwegian Polar Institute , Jan-Gunnar Winther. The expedition  is retracing Amundsen’s route from the Bay of Whales. The USAP will support the centennial event, including a live broadcast of the ceremony to Norway.

“It’s a significant milestone for Antarcticans, and I’m excited about it,” said Coughran, who has been working in Antarctica, particularly at the South Pole, since 1984. “It’s going to be pretty festive.” Source: http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/contenthandler.cfm?id=2543

Sir David Attenborough's BBC 1 series, Frozen Planet, an update

David Attenborough travels to the end of the earth in this seven part series (Frozen Planet), taking viewers on an extraordinary journey across the polar regions of our planet, North and South. The Arctic and Antarctic are the greatest and least known wildernesses of all - magical ice worlds inhabited by the most bizarre and hardy creatures on earth.

Frozen Planet is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, who himself travelled to both polar regions in the making of the series. Sir David first visited Antarctica 17 years ago, but this was his first time ever to visit the geographical North Pole. To get there, meant flying in to a Russian ice camp on the frozen Arctic ocean, where he could (after several days of bad weather) finally reach the pole itself by helicopter. 


He also returned to Scott's hut, a place he first visited several years ago, but still touches him today. This is the place where Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his men began their fateful journey to reach the geographical South Pole. "I remember very vividly indeed the first time I entered this extraordinary building…it was not like any other place - because it isn't like any other place on earth. If ever there was a place that held the personality of the people that had lived in it, a century ago, this surely must be it". 


Sir David authors On Thin Ice, the seventh film of the series, which explores the effects of climate change on the polar regions and the lengths that scientists are going to, to understand it. Some regions, like the Antarctic Peninsula, have warmed significantly in the years since Sir David first visited them. He explores what this means, not just for the animals and people of the polar regions, but for the whole planet. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mfl7n

Scientists expect significant changes before Antarctica Glacier

New discoveries about the seafloor topography off Antarctica’s Thwaites Glaciers in West Antarctica has led scientists to predict melting will accelerate in the next 20 years. The study is the latest to confirm the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how these glaciers will behave in the near future.

The retreat of Antarctica’s fast-flowing Thwaites Glacier is expected to speed up within 20 years, once the glacier detaches from an underwater ridge that is currently holding it back, says a new study in Geophysical Research Letters.


Thwaites Glacier, which drains into west Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea, is being closely watched for its potential to raise global sea levels as the planet warms. Neighboring glaciers in the Amundsen Sea region are also thinning rapidly, including Pine Island Glacier.


The study is the latest to confirm the importance of seafloor topography in predicting how these glaciers will behave in the near future, according to a press release  from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) .


Scientists had previously identified a rock feature off west Antarctica that appeared to be slowing the glacier’s slide into the sea. But this study is the first to connect it to a larger ridge, using data collected during flights over Thwaites Glacier in 2009 under NASA’s IceBridge  program, a six-year campaign to map vulnerable regions in Antarctica and Greenland with ice-penetrating radar and other instruments.

Several of the instruments used in IceBridge were developed by the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) , a National Science Foundation -funded Science and Technology Center. This year’s IceBridge campaign over Antarctica also includes for the first time the Gulfstream V , a research aircraft operated by the NSF and National Center for Atmospheric Research . 

Photo Credit: Kirsty Tinto/Lamont-Doherty
Thwaites Glacier is currently pinned on the peak of a newly discovered underwater ridge.NSF and National Center for Atmospheric Research .

The newly discovered ridge is 700 meters tall, with two peaks — one that currently anchors the glacier and another farther off shore that held the glacier in place between 55 and 150 years ago, according to the authors.


“We didn’t know what the seafloor looked like there because the floating ice prevented ships from going into the area,” said the study’s lead author, Kirsty Tinto, a postdoctoral researcher at LDEO. The new data, she said, allows scientists to understand what is happening at the glacier’s grounding line, where the glacier leaves land and floats into the sea, exposing the ice to warm ocean currents.


In 2009, researchers aboard the U.S. Antarctic Program’s  research vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer  sent a robot submarine beneath Pine Island Glacier’s floating ice shelf and discovered a ridge about half the size of the one off Thwaites Glacier. Researchers estimate that Pine Island Glacier lifted off that ridge in the 1970s, allowing warm ocean currents to melt the glacier from below. The glacier’s ice shelf is now moving 50 percent faster than it was in the early 1990s. 


A land expedition supported by the U.S. Antarctic Program is planned to the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf during the 2011-12 field season. Researchers will use helicopters to land on the ice shelf, where they’ll drill through about 600 meters of ice and send instruments into the ocean cavity to learn more about the water-ice interaction that is thinning the ice shelf. Source: http://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/contenthandler.cfm?id=2544

A British woman tries to Record Cross Antarctica

A 33 year old British woman Felicity Aston tries to cross Antarctica.

You can follow her Expedition site: http://www.kasperskyonetransantarcticexpedition.com/

An Adventurer penalised in Antarctic tragedy

Police in Tromsø, northern Norway, have confirmed fining adventurer Jarle Andhøy after his so-called “Wild Vikings – The Berserk Expedition” went seriously wrong last winter. The expedition was found to have violated several Norwegian regulations on environmental protection in Antarctica. Three of the expedition participants disappeared and are presumed dead.


The expedition, led by Andhøy, visited Antarctica in mid-February. The Norwegian Polar Research Institute later reported Andhøy to police for failing to provide advance notice, failing to submit an environmental impact assessment and failing to mount adequate insurance. The Polar Institute also cited Andhøy over a fuel spill and unauthorized activity in specially protected areas, according to Tromsø police.


The fine was issued over the lack of advance notice, lack of insurance and lack of an environmental impact statement. Police said Andhøy had agreed to pay the fine although he refused to meet them for questioning. Police opted against filing charges over the alleged illegal activity in protected areas, citing lack of evidence, or the fuel spill, for lack of resources.


Andhøy went ashore on Antarctica in an effort to reach the South Pole, while his boat later disappeared with three expedition members on board. That set off a major and expensive search and rescue effort from New Zealand, where officials criticized Andhøy for being irresponsible. The search effort was unsuccessful, the boat was not found and all three men on board are presumed dead. Source: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2011/11/17/adventurer-fined-in-antarctic-tragedy/

National Science Foundation Invites Professional Journalists to report on Antarctic Scientific Research

Media proposal request for media trip to Antarctica--January 2012

Application deadline is Nov. 28, 2011; deployments to take place Jan. 13-20, 2012


The National Science Foundation (NSF), manager of the U.S. Antarctic Program is accepting written requests from professional journalists to report on scientific research supported by NSF's Office of Polar Programs (OPP).


Selected journalists will deploy to Antarctica for approximately one working week.


NSF annually selects a small group of journalists, representing a range of news organizations, to make individual visits to McMurdo Station on the southern tip of Ross Island and, weather permitting, South Pole Station, Antarctica to report on NSF's scientific program. As logistics permit, it may be possible to visit a limited number of field science projects. The reporting plan described below should include these requests in detail.


OPP and NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs (OLPA) jointly manage and coordinate media visits to the Polar Region.


Examples of projects that will be open to media visits:

• Astronomy and Astrophysics at the South Pole
• Ice sheets and ice shelves as influenced by climate change
• Long-term Ecological Research in the McMurdo Dry Valleys
• Population Dynamics of Penguins and Seals in McMurdo Sound
• Reporters may also have the opportunity, depending upon researchers' travel schedules to interview scientists with the WAIS Divide Ice Coring Project and joint NSF-NASA supported research at the Pine Island Glacier as they return from the field.

How to apply: Applicants must submit the equivalent of two printed pages detailing specifically what they intend to cover while in the field. NSF public affairs officers can help applicants craft a proposed reporting plan that has the best chance of meeting minimum criteria.


Competition is expected to be intense for a limited number of slots, and space on aircraft is severely constrained. Logistical limitations make it nearly impossible to modify reporting plans once in Antarctica.


A panel consisting of program staff from OPP and media officers from OLPA will review all proposals and select finalists. The panel will look for proposals that indicate an understanding of the nature and challenges of NSF's scientific enterprise in the Antarctic as well as the desire and ability to communicate that understanding to the public.


Application Deadline: Nov. 28, 2011--U.S. media receive preference in selection.


Application: Focused applications with thorough reporting plans that indicate solid working knowledge of the U.S. Antarctic program and its science goals stand the best chance of selection. Feature-film proposals and general reporting about Antarctica, travel or logistics are not given priority, though film makers may apply to the Informal Science Education program administered by the Education & Human Resources directorate of NSF. Applications should also include the outlet(s) in which the reporting will appear and the anticipated audiences reached through the reporting.


For additional background please go to United States Antarctic Program website.


Medical: Finalists must pass rigorous medical and dental examinations before being approved to travel with the USAP to Antarctica. These examinations are conducted at the finalist's expense by a personal physician and dentist, using USAP medical screening forms. Certain medical conditions may disqualify a candidate from visiting Antarctica, even in eventually selected as a media visitor.


Expenses: Reporters selected for the media or their employers pay for round-trip transportation to--and accommodation in--Christchurch, New Zealand. Reporters must visit NSF headquarters in Arlington, VA., at their own expense for pre-trip planning. NSF furnishes at no cost cold-weather clothing solely for use in the field as well as housing, transportation and food while in Antarctica.


Note: From time to time, NSF has received requests for media opportunities from reporters who plan to travel to Antarctica at various times of the year via non-governmental means. Such requests are reviewed on a case by case basis. Such requests should be directed to the NSF media officer listed below.


How to Apply: Contact the NSF media officer listed below (by phone or by e-mail) as soon as possible to express interest. Freelancers are eligible for consideration but must supply with their letter of application evidence of a firm commitment from prospective employer to publish or air their work on their employer's letterhead. For further information please visit: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=122320

Antarctica Ice Marathon & Half Marathon

Adventure marathoners and ultra athletes are always looking for the next big challenge. It could be a remote desert marathon, a high altitude mountain marathon or a jungle marathon. However, mainland Antarctica represents the last frontier, the final great wilderness to be conquered. And now adventure athletes like you can do it. Introducing the only footraces within the Antarctic Circle...... 

The Marathon

On November 30th, 2011, the seventh Antarctic Ice Marathon will take place at 80 Degrees South, just a few hundred miles from the South Pole at the foot of the Ellsworth Mountains. It is the 100-year anniversary of Man reaching the South Pole.


This race presents a truly formidable and genuine Antarctic challenge with underfoot conditions comprising snow and ice throughout, an average windchill temperature of –20C, and the possibility of strong Katabatic winds to contend with. Furthermore, the event takes place at an altitude of 700 metres.


The Antarctic Ice Marathon is the only marathon run in the interior of the Antarctic and is organised by Polar Running Adventures, the organiser of the annual North Pole Marathon.


The five-day itinerary will see competitors fly by private jet from Punta Arenas, Chile, on November 29th to the marathon location at Union Glacier. A marked course of 26.2 miles will already have been prepared and snowmobile support, aid stations and medical personnel will be at hand for the duration of the race.


The Antarctic Ice Marathon is the southernmost marathon on earth and a unique opportunity to complete a marathon that is truly worthy of the seventh continent. Don't expect to run your quickest time, however, as winds can blow from the Pole at a steady 10-25 knots. Also, forget about penguins or crowds cheering you along the route - no penguins live this far south and you will have to rely upon yourself to push onward in the hushed, indomitable surroundings.

100Km Ultra Race

he Antarctic 100k ultra race will take place on December 2nd. Undoubtedly, “the world’s coldest 100”, this ultramarathon challenge is reserved for only the toughest of endurance athletes. The 100k (62.1 miles) distance will seem endless, run under a sun that never sets against the backdrop of hills, mountains and large expanses of ice. This race presents the only opportunity to complete a 100k event on the frozen continent and creates the prospect of a 100k Seven Continents Club for global ultra athletes.

White Continent Half-Marathon

For those who prefer a half-marathon option, the White Continent Half-Marathon will also be run on the day of the Marathon race. This half-marathon is your opportunity to cover 21km (13.1 miles) on the 'white continent' and finish the southernmost half marathon on the planet.

Antarctic Mile

If you're a speedster, or simply don't want to run long distances, the Antarctic Mile is new to the 2011 calendar. This event is also ideal for partners, family or friends of marathon participants who want to travel to Antarctica but not run double digit miles! While the 4-minute barrier is unlikely to be broken, could 5 minutes be broken, or even 6 minutes, by the fastest competitor? The Antarctic Mile will take place on November 30th, the same day as the marathon.

Price

For the registration fee of €9,900, incredible value for the Antarctic, participants will be flown round-trip from Punta Arenas, Chile, to the Union Glacier camp in the interior of the Antarctic. Competitors will also receive accommodation and food for the entire five-day Antarctic trip and entry to their races of choice. Top class photos of each competitor in action will be distributed for personal use, as well as commemorative certificates, medals, t-shirts and patches.


Please note: Weather problems can result in flight re-scheduling and the expected five-day trip could be shortened or lengthened accordingly.  

Mountain Climbing & the South Pole

It is also possible to combine your marathon trip with climbing Vinson Massif, the highest mountain in Antarctica and / or flying to the exact Geographic South Pole. There are very substantial discounts in combining these trips compared to registering for them as separate expeditions. Source: http://www.icemarathon.com/