Arctic News Archives - Technology

A collection of older (2003-2004) news items related to technology, computer models and impact of technology on the ecosystem in the Arctic. All links will take you to sites outside of the PRISM site. Use your back button to return.

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Technology News - 2004

• December 17, 2004 - Russia's North Pole-33 Station Drifting At High Speed - Novosti
  Russia's North Pole-33 Arctic research station has traveled more than 700 km over a 100 day period. Such ice-drift speeds are considered to be unusual.
  
  
• December 5, 2004 - A Stitch In Time Saved America's First Settlers - SFGate
  Thousands of years ago people from Siberia probably came across a now-sunken land bridge to populate North America, but they probably wouldn't have survived without the simple sewing needle. What might be the world's oldest sewing needle has been found at a Russian archaeological site.
  
  
• November 24, 2004 - On Alert: Canada's North Pole Command Centre - Space Daily
  Alert station, a military and scientific base, helps Canada establish and maintain its sovereignty over the Arctic.This is of increasing importance as the Northwest Passage begins to thaw.
  
  
• November 18, 2004 - New Findings From Arctic Coring Expedition ... - Space Daily
  Scientists from 10 countries met to analyze sediment cores from below the Arctic Ocean. These cores seem to indicate that the Arctic Ocean was frozen much earlier than previously thought. More results are expected in the next few months.
  
  
• November 18, 2004 - Russian Energy Strategy Programme Calls For Tapping Arctic Shelf - Novosti
  Russia is proposing to drill for oil and gas on the Arctic ice shelf saying it is absolutely necessary for Russia to meet its energy needs until 2020.
  
  
• Nov. 12, 2004 - Arctic Thaw May Open Shipping Lanes, But ... - ABC - Australia
  Though the thawing of the Arctic Ocean may result in a shortcut between the Pacific and Atlantic, a trans-Arctic shipping boom is not expected due to high costs and numerous icebergs.
  
  
• October 11, 2004 - From Nuclear Icebreakers to Floating Nuclear Power Plants - Novosti
  Russia, which has used nuclear-powered icebreakers for 40 years in the Arctic is contemplating developing floating nuclear power plants.
  
  
• September 27, 2004 - Arctic Drilling As Divisive As Issues Get - Sacramento Bee
  Bush and Kerry appear to be widely divided in their positions about whether the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge should be opened to oil and gas drilling. Their positions are outlined here by a political analyst.
  
  
• September 23, 2004 - Arctic Glacier Photos Worth A Thousand Words - SitNews
  Photos of McCall Glacier in the Arctic National Wildlife Reguge show how far the glacier has receded between 1958 and 2003.
  
  
• September 14, 2004 - Warming A Hot Topic Among Arctic Scientists - Planet Ark
  A Joint US-Russian expedition is looking at the marine life in the Bering Strait and Chukchi sea and are finding species that indicate that the area is warming. They have also dropped autonomous equipment to monitor various aspects of marine change.
  
  
• September 9, 2004 - Flags of Russia, St. Petersburg Flown Over Arctic Drifting Station - Novosti
  Eleven Russian polar researchers have been safely delivered to a spot on the ice over the North Pole. A research & living complex was built on the sea ice for the team which will remain at the station for several months. (Earlier story from Novosti).
  
  
• September 9, 2004 - Arctic Science Mission Faces Cold War-Style Hurdles - Yahoo!
  Getting the opportunity to place U.S. instruments in Russian waters off Cape Dezhnev to monitor climate change required repeated proposals to the Russian authorities and many delays before permission was granted. (Map of Cape Dezhnev from Audubon Society.)
  
  
• August 31, 2004 - Ice Clarifies Climate's Secrets - USA Today
  Pink ice, possible plant material and mud extracted from the bottom of the Greenland ice sheet at North GRIP are providing many new interesting insights into climate through the ages and possible life at the bottom of the ice sheet.
  
  
• August 30, 2004 - Arctic Coring Expedition Retrieves First Arctic Core- Space Daily
  An underwater mountain chain near the North Pole may hold clues to the climate 50 million years ago. Scientists have extracted a 40 million year old sediment core from the Arctic Ocean Ridge to unlock these secrets. (More on dangers faced by the drilling team from scotsman.com)
  
  
• August 30, 2004 - Pioneer On Pilgrimage To Kayak Birthplace - Scotsman
  Duncan Winning, the man who developed the modern kayak, has traveled to Uummannaq island, north of Greenland. He was able to meet the family of the man who constructed the Inuit sealskin kayak he used as a model for his modern version made of high-tech materials.
  
  
• August 27, 2004 - Toxins Accumulate In Arctic Peoples, Animals - National Geographic
  Studies of people and animals living in the Arctic have shown very high levels of chemical contaminants in their bodies. Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from industrialized nations are infiltrating the food web.
  
  
• August 24, 2004 - Norway To Consider Boosting Arctic Activity, Oil Minister Says - Bloomberg
  Norway is considering opening more of its waters to increased oil drilling and exploration.They recently reopened some of the Barents Sea for exploration and are under pressure from oil companies to increase drilling in the area.
  
  
• August 19, 2004 - Military To Test Unmanned Surveillance Plane - Canoe
  Canada is planning to utilize UAVs to increase their ability to keep Canada's coastline under surveillance. These drone aircraft will be under remote control. The Canadian Government is planning on testing the first of these aircraft in the next week.
  
  
• August 18, 2004 - Arctic Pipeline Project Environment Review... - Yahoo! News
  Those who favor a natural gas pipeline across the Arctic have been given information on what must be included in their environmental assessment. The document outlining the requirements is more than 70 pages long.
  
  
• August 15, 2004 - Aircraft To Rescue Endangered Geese- Gulf Daily News
  A group of scientists will try to use an ultralight aircraft to guide a group of endangered geese on their annual migration, by imprinting the chicks on the aircraft. (Photo of goose.)
  
  
• August 8, 2004 - Drift-Ice Research Unit..To Be Set Up... - Novosti
  The Russians are sending a ship to study the Arctic environment from the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans.The ship will serve as a station for two years with a rotating roster of scientists.
  
  
• July 29, 2004 - Yellow River Station Opens - China.org
  The Yellow River Station on Spitzbergen, China's first Arctic research station, has opened and work has begun.
  
  
• July 16, 2004 - Russian Scientists Plan To Study Sunken Icebreaker - Novosti
  Russia has announced that they will be using an underwater robot to study a Russian icebreaker that sank in the Chukchi Sea in the 1930s. (Map showing Chukchi Sea near Wrangel Island.)
  
  
• July 9, 2004 - Three Democratic Senate Candidates Call For Opening ANWR - RigZone
  Senatorial candidates Brad Carson, Chris John and Tony Knowles have called for "responsible development of the coastal plain" of the ANWR. Experts feel this may bode well for energy policy in the next Congress.
  
  
• July 6, 2004 - Oil and Gas Potential of Russia's Continental Shelf To Be Developed... - Novosti
  A strategy outline as process for studying and developing resources on Russia's continental shelf has been developed by Russia's ministry of natural resources, in collaboration with specialized research institutes and specialists of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
  
  
• July 5, 2004 - Scientists Confront The Arctic ... - SpaceDaily
  Scientists have been doing validation experiments in remote Arctic areas in support of the ESA satellite due for launch at the end of the year. This satellite, known as CryoSat, will be used to measure changes in ice sheet elevation with unprecedented accuracy.
  
  
• July 3, 2004 - Canada Starts Seabed Mapping... - CBC
  Canada has begun mapping the seabed in the Beaufort Sea, taking a step toward establishing sovereignty under international law.At stake is control of oil and gas reserves in the area.
  
  
• June 4, 2004 - Arctic Cores Offer Climate Clues - BBC
  An international group is studying sediment cores taken from the Arctic sea bed to try to unravel how long Arctic sea ice has existed and how it had formed. Reports and images from this work will be online beginning in August at
  http://www.rcom-bremen.de/English/IODP.html
  
  
• June 3, 2004 - Man-Made Toxins Found In Arctic - CBS
  Chemicals used in televisions, toys and fire retardants have been found in Arctic wildlife according to Norwegian scientists. This is a sign that these chemicals do not break down as quickly as had been thought. (Similar story from Yahoo)
  
  
• May 19, 2004 - Study to Examine How Climate Change Melts Permafrost Under Arctic Roads - Yahoo News
  The federal and territorial governments will study how climate change will affect the infrastructure, such as roads and runways, in the Arctic regions. Pipeline development must be carefully planned if the permafrost continues to melt.
  
  
• May 18, 2004 - Arctic Runner's Plane Drama - BBC
  Several runners in the North Pole Marathon had to dive off the runway as a plane came in to land. They had been asked to stop to allow the plane to land, but some just kept running resulting in the somewhat "close shave."
  
  
• May 13, 2004 - Inuit 'Poisoned From Afar' By Climate Change - New Zealand Herald
  The head of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference said that the Inuit are paying dearly for the actions of people in other countries. Toxins and rising temperatures are two of the challenges caused by pollution in the Arctic.
  
  
• May 09, 2004 - E-mail Provides Arctic Lifeline - BBC News
  A team taking part in a recent race to the Magnetic North Pole used PDAs instead of satellite phones to connect to the internet and report back to base.
  
  
• April 26, 2004 - New Ice Sheet Research Indicates Possible Global Climate Change - Newswise (U of Missouri-Columbia)
  Analysis of satellite data from 1978-2002 indicates that the upper elevations of the Greenland ice sheet are thinning especially in the southeast and that this trend has been going on for several decades.
  
  
• April 23, 2004 - NASA Arctic Sea Ice Study May Stir Up Climate Models - Science Daily
  It has just recently been determined, by analyzing synthetic aperture radar data from the RADARSAT satellite, that Arctic sea ice undergoes small oscillations twice a day, even in the winter. This may increase chances for new ice formation and should be factored into climate models according to the scientists.
  
  
• April 19, 2004 - Nuclear Sub Surfaces In Arctic. - BBC
  The Royal Navy submarine, the HMS Tireless, is working with the US Navy to determine the thickness of the pack ice around the North Pole. After a couple of months below the surface, they have surfaced at the North Pole.
  
  
• April 16, 2004 - Satellites Record Weakening North Atlantic Current - Science Daily
  Satellite records indicate that the North Atlantic Ocean circulation weakened considerably in the late 1990s when compared to levels in the 1970s and 1980s. This could herald dramatic changes in North Atlantic Ocean climate, but we won't know for another 5-10 years. (Abstract from Science magazine.)
  
  
• April 14, 2004 - Bowheads On The Beeb - CBC North
  A reality TV series for children, Serious Arctic, is helping the Fish and Game department survey bowhead whales. Eight students are participating in the research and TV show.
  
  
• April 8, 2004 - ASIRAS, New Airborne Instrument Sees Ice... - Science Daily
  AIRAS, a new synthetic aperture radar and interferometric radar altimeter, designed to validate data from CryoSat was launched and successfully tested near the North Pole during the last two weeks of March.
  
  
• April 7, 2004 - Trans-Arctic Expedition Sets Off From Siberia - Russian Information Agency Novosti
  An international team has set out to determine effects of global climate change on plant and animal species across the Arctic. This expedition will use new health-monitoring and transportation technology.
  
  
• April 2, 2004 - Yukon Doubtful About Offshore ANWAR Drilling - North CBC
  While the Alaskan governor favors oil drilling off the shores of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the members of the Yukon government are not so sure it is a good idea.
  
  
• Mar. 24, 2004 - Russia Arctic Oil Facility To Ease Northern Export- Daily Times
  A huge Russian oil tanker on the Barents Sea will begin operation as a storage facility this week. It is predicted this will make exports to Europe and the United States easier.
  
  
• Mar. 24, 2004 - Reindeer Herders Building Snowy Drive-In - The State (SC)
  Reindeer herders in Norway are building a snowmobile drive-in theater for the Eighth Sami Film Festival, April 5-7.
  
  
• Mar. 18, 2004 - Back-Door Arctic Drilling Plans Fail - Yahoo News
  The U.S. House Budget Committee has passed a budget resolution that does not include any provisions for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Conservationists view this as good news.
  
  
• Mar. 17, 2004 - Alaska Oil Would Barely Help U.S. - Alexanders Gas & Oil Connections
  An Energy Dept. analysis showed that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development would only slightly reduce America's dependence on imports and lower the prices by less than 50 cents per barrel.
  
  
• Feb. 18, 2004 - Traditional Inuit Ice Treks Guided From Space - Science Daily
  Maps of ice type and extent (Floe Edge maps) created from satellite data are proving very helpful to the Inuit of Northern Canada in their annual quest for fish and game.
  
  
• Feb. 17, 2004 - Satellite Map Helps Track Quest Racers - CBC North
  The Yukon Quest dogsled race has gone high-tech, with the trail being put on satellite maps and volunteers helping map it with GPS. (Follow the race here.)
  
  
• Jan. 30, 2004 - Exxon's Alaska Spill Bill Climbs to $5.8bn - Australian
  An Alaskan judge has ordered Exxon to pay $US4.5 billion ($Euro5.8) in punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. Exxon plans to appeal the decision.
  
  
• Jan. 29, 2004 - Convoys Gear Up For Winter Season - CBC North
  The road has opened between Yellowknife and the gold mines just south of the Arctic Circle in Alaska. Big rig transports have begun to move along the road, which will be open until April.
  
  
• Jan. 5, 2004 - Alaska Wildlife Experts Use Floating Lab - The State
  Researchers use a unique shipboard lab to study sea lions and other marine animals and plants. The Tiglax is a floating science center that has been in use for 16 years.