Arctic, features and articles | Educational Science

Sep 19, 2012

Rare Research Opportunity in Arctic Extended to U.S. Students

This Research in Action article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation. For three weeks in July, high school students from across the United States had a rare opportunity to work alongside an international team of research scientists in Greenland. The Joint Science Education Program is...

Dec 13, 2012

Photographer on Arctic Trek Snags Stunning Northern Lights Photos

National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss has always wanted to see the northern lights. So when an assignment took him to Whitehorse, in Canada's Yukon Territory, he rented a car and drove more than 550 miles (885 kilometers) north to the Arctic Circle. While it usually takes a major solar storm...

Jan 24, 2013

Chilling! Arctic Air Invasion Captured in Animation

If you live anywhere within the northern two-thirds of the United States, you've probably noticed that it's pretty chilly outside. The plunge in temperatures over the past few days comes courtesy of an invasion of Arctic air that has been captured in a mesmerizing new animation from the National Oceanic...

Mar 11, 2013

Cause of Odd Arctic Ozone 'Hole' Found

Cold temperatures, chlorine and a stagnant atmosphere caused a thinning in the ozone layer over the Arctic in 2011, a new NASA study finds. This ozone loss is not the more famous ozone hole, found seasonally over Antarctica, which has been shrinking since the phase-out of chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, that...

Jul 2, 2013

How to Pack for an Arctic Summer Expedition

For a team of paleontologists, this summer's destination isn’t a tropical island or a theme park, but a barren part of the Canadian Arctic accessible only by helicopter. So, what do you pack when planning to spend about three weeks in the wilderness hunting fossils, in a place so remote...

Dec 23, 2013

54-Year-Old Message in a Bottle Found in Canadian Arctic

In 1959, Paul T. Walker, an American glaciologist, buried a message in a bottle under a pile of rocks on Ward Hunt Island, in the northernmost part of the Canadian Arctic. Fifty-four years later, researchers who set out to collect microbes on the remote island stumbled upon the message from...

Feb 5, 2014

In Images: Ancient Beasts of the Arctic

Arctic beasts (Image credit: Photo by Jonathan S. Blair/National Geographic)A 2014 study in Nature has found that Arctic mega-beasts like the wooly mammoth may have grazed a much more varied landscape than previously thought. Grassland steppe (Image credit: Mauricio Anton)Previously, researchers thought the Arctic looked like monolithic grassland steppe. Permafrost...

Apr 14, 2014

What a Gas! Arctic's Ozone Hole Looking Good

With a boost from Mother Nature, the worldwide ban on ozone-depleting chemicals stopped Arctic ozone from disappearing and forming an ozone hole similar in size to Antarctica's, a new study finds. It seems like we did just the right thing at the right time, said Susan Solomon, an atmospheric chemist...

Aug 4, 2014

Brilliant Blue Arctic 'Melt Ponds' Captured in Photos

Every summer, piles of snow on top of ice sheets in the Arctic begin to melt, creating brilliant aqua-colored pools that dot the otherwise snow-white landscape. A NASA aircraft recently flew over the region, capturing eye-catching images of these glittering pools. The Arctic pools are called melt ponds, and NASA's...

Sep 9, 2014

As Arctic Melts, Shipping Traffic Blasts Wildlife (Op-Ed)

Gary Strieker was a CNN correspondent for 20 years, covering Africa as Nairobi bureau chief and then traveling the globe to report on the planet's threatened species and habitats. He founded Environment News Trust as a nonprofit production unit to cover stories ignored by corporate media. This American Land is...

Sep 12, 2014

Warming Air Was Trigger for Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse

It was clear to anyone who went to Antarctica in the summer of 2001-02 that it was an unusually warm one — record-setting, in fact — and just one in a series of warm austral summers. That December, geologic oceanographer Eugene Domack, now at the University of South Florida, was...

Apr 14, 2015

Spooky Ring of Light Created by Arctic's Ice-Mapping Lasers (Photo)

It may look like the setting for a sci-fi film, but a new photo of a backward-C-shaped pattern of lights against a desolate blue background has a more terrestrial origin. The image, released April 5 by NASA's Earth Observatory, shows pulses of laser light hitting Arctic sea ice — the...

May 2, 2015

Stunning Total Solar Eclipse Observed Over the Arctic (Photos)

A stark black disc haloed by streaks of light — a team of scientists captured this image of a total solar eclipse over the Arctic in March. The international Solar Wind Sherpas team, led by astronomer Shadia Habbal at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, observed the March 20 solar...

Jul 2, 2015

Colorful Arctic Animals Revealed in Thousands of Undersea Images

New photographs of fluorescent sea creatures — including bright orange animals that resemble feather dusters with long, skinny handles, and spongy, neon-pink anemones — on the Arctic seafloor could help researchers determine how much methane, a potent greenhouse gas, will make its way to the atmosphere and contribute to climate...

Dec 21, 2016

Obama Bans Arctic Drilling Ahead of Trump Inauguration

The Obama administration on Tuesday put vast swaths of the Arctic and Atlantic oceans off limits to oil and gas drilling to protect marine life, address climate change and safeguard the areas from development after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. At the same time, Canadian Prime Minister Justin...