NASA: Arctic Ice Arch Has Crumbled Months Earlier Than It Should Have. An Arctic ice arch has crumbled months earlier than expected, NASA images have revealed. The structure spanning the Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, was found to have disintegrated through a series of images from NASA's Earth monitoring Terra and Aqua satellites, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite. "The timing of the breakup affects the amount of old and thick ice that flows out of the central Arctic," Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,  said in a statement. "The early breakup this year will likely contribute to the overall loss of Arctic sea ice thickness." Newsweek

 

DOD Awards Second $3.4 Million to CREATES for Arctic/ Cold Region Research. The US Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded another $3.4 million grant to the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES) at Rowan University to provide support for U.S. Army initiatives in the Arctic and other cold regions. The grant comes about nine months after the DoD awarded an original $3.4 million to CREATES for the project "Innovative Construction Materials to Protect National Security Interests in the Arctic Region." The two DoD awards were the largest to date ever presented to a faculty member on Rowan's Glassboro campus. Rowan Today

 

Doctor Warrants Norwegian Engagement With Arctic Issues. As High North News wrote a few weeks ago, the Environmental Lab in Tromsø is conducting research on environmental toxins in the population of the Arctic. However, even if we are '"marinated in the environmental toxins" according to scientist Jan Brox, the problem is not that big in the Norwegian part of the population compared to others. The cool climate is the reason that environmental toxins accumulate in Arctic areas. Yet due to the Gulf Stream, not much is accumulated along the Norwegian coast. High North News

 

Permafrost Researcher From Yukon College Joins International Project on Herschel Island. Louis-Philippe Roy stands at the edge of the Arctic Ocean on the northernmost edge of Yukon, Canada. He stares out across an endless landscape of ice and snow, broken only by a few muskoxen here and there. Right now, this place feels absolutely permanent, frozen in place. Yet, Roy knows the ground below him is unstable--thawing at an alarming rate. Where he stands, Herschel Island, is falling into the sea and taking parts of Canada's history with it. Originally a base for Inuvialuit people to hunt and fish, in the 1890s and 1900s Herschel Island, Qikiqtaruk in Inuvialuktun, became a bustling community of around 1,500. EurekAlert! 

Russian Radiosonde to Monitor Situation in Arctic. The Polus radiosonde system, made by the Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET), is used in the Arctic region to measure profiles of weather, radiation and climate changes, KRET's First Deputy Director General Vladimir Zverev said in an interview with TASS at the Army-2019 international military show on Tuesday. "Right, the Polus system is working in the Arctic region," he said. "Polus registers meteorology data and measures radiation and industrial pollution; the system also can warn about natural and man-made disasters, it is effective in global climate change forecasts." TASS  

 

Norway Aims for Boost in Arctic Communications. "There is bad and unstable broadband coverage in the High North," the Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry Torbjørn Røe Isaksen underlined as he on Friday announced the deal that is to help boost communications across the remote region. The launch of two Norwegian-owned satellites developed by company Space Norway is to radically alter the situation. The launch is due in year 2022 and internet connectivity north of the 65th Parallel will subsequently be available 24/7, the Norwegian Government informs.  The Barents Observer