Arctic, features and articles | Educational Science

Jun 28, 2007

Mysterious Clouds Creeping Out of the Arctic

A new NASA satellite has recorded the first detailed images from space of a mysterious type of cloud called “night-shining” or “noctilucent. The clouds are on the move, brightening and creeping out of polar regions, and researchers don't know why. It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign...

Jul 1, 2007

Album: Stunning Photos of Antarctic Ice

The Beauty of the Antarctic (Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)Shown above is an iceberg in Gerlache Strait. Photographer: Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren, NOAA Corps (ret.). Huge Block of Ice (Image credit: Image Courtesy of NOAA Photo Library)Pictured above is an iceberg off the Antarctic Peninsula. The...

Feb 7, 2008

Noah's Arctic Ark for Seeds Set to Open

If much of civilization is ever wiped out, at least our seeds will survive. The first specimens — 7,000 seeds from 36 African nations — have shipped to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a repository in the Arctic Circle being built to store a safety copy of vital agricultural information,...

Apr 21, 2009

Man Survives 3 Days Lost in the Arctic

In a real scene worthy of the most harrowing reality shows, a man working on a scientific research project in Greenland's Arctic went missing last week but used survival techniques to stay alive for three days before being rescued. The man, whose name has not been released, was rescued Saturday...

Jun 8, 2010

NASA to Go Boldly ... to the Arctic

U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. (Image credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Patrick Kelley)A NASA mission is about to go boldly into the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean in the space agency's first oceanographic research voyage to the top of the world. NASA researchers are preparing for...

Jul 11, 2010

Red Hot Chili Peppers Stored in Cool Arctic Doomsday Vault

Seeds from some of North America's hottest chili peppers were recently delivered to the cool Arctic and stored in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, where they'll be safe for centuries in case some terrestrial catastrophe renders them otherwise extinct. The so-called doomsday seed vault now contains seeds of more than...

Aug 2, 2010

Arctic, South Pacific Landscapes Added to World Heritage List

Kanton Island in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area of Kirabati. (Image credit: NASA)A unique set of landscapes from around the globe from Siberia to the South Pacific islands have been added to the List of Natural World Heritage sites by UNESCO, it was announced Monday. The World Heritage Committee, an...

Aug 3, 2010

Torpedo-Shaped Robot Dives Under Arctic Ice

A one-of-a-kind study of marine life is under way, made possible by an autonomous, torpedo-shaped robot that recently took its first dive beneath the Arctic sea ice. The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) underwater vehicle, dubbed Bluefin, was deployed under heavy pack ice from a German icebreaker ship, the Polarstern, July 26. The...

Aug 3, 2010

Robotic Submarine Returns in Triumph, with Samples from Under Arctic Ice

A one-of-a-kind study of marine life is under way, made possible by an autonomous, torpedo-shaped robot that recently took its first dive beneath the Arctic sea ice. The 13-foot-long (4-meter-long) underwater vehicle, dubbed Bluefin, was deployed under heavy pack ice from a German icebreaker ship , the Polarstern, July 26....

Sep 3, 2010

Massive Greenland Iceberg Floats Into Arctic Strait

The giant iceberg that calved from Greenland's Petermann glacier on Aug. 5 is now entering the Nares Strait a stretch of water that connects the Lincoln Sea and Arctic Ocean with Baffin Bay. Petermann Glacier is one of the two largest remaining glaciers in Greenland that terminate in floating shelves....

Sep 13, 2010

Log from Doomed 1912 Arctic Expedition Unearthed

A sailor's log from a 1912 Arctic expedition through the Northeast Passage was unearthed on an ice-covered land mass in northern Europe, Russian explorers said today (Sept. 13). The log chronicled the legendary Arctic expedition that vanished as the crew attempted to plow through the ice-choked Northeast Passage (now more...

Sep 20, 2010

The Myth of Arctic Daylight and Darkness Exposed

Certain astronomical myths die hard. One of these is that the entire Arctic region experiences six months of daylight and six months of darkness. Often, night is simply considered to be when the sun is beneath the horizon, as if twilight didn't exist. This fallacy is repeated in innumerable geography...

Feb 2, 2011

Rescue in the Arctic: Historic Treaty To Coordinate Operations

When an uncharted rock off the remote Arctic coast of Nunavut, Canada, grounded the cruise ship MV Clipper Adventure this past August, the 128 passengers aboard got very lucky. Sunshine and calm seas prevailed, and they waited just three days before a Canadian icebreaker came to the rescue. The story...

Mar 16, 2011

New Identity for Arctic Explorer Emerges 140 Years Later

In 1845, two ill-fated British ships headed for the Canadian Arctic in the hope of discovering the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. More than two decades later, the nearly complete skeleton of one of the explorers was recovered from a shallow, stone-covered grave on King William Island in the...

Apr 20, 2011

On Ice: Stunning Images of Canadian Arctic

Canadian Arctic Research (Image credit: Alex Gardner)Summer sea ice off the coast of Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. Canadian Arctic Research (Image credit: True color image prepared by Alex Gardner, data downloaded from http://glovis.usgs.gov)Landsat 7 ETM+ satellite image of the south-east Devon Island Ice Cap, Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada. The darker...