Marooned: Researchers Will Freeze Their Ship into Arctic Ocean Ice for a Year. Every autumn the Arctic undergoes a radical metamorphosis. As the sun dips below the horizon one last time-not to rise again until spring-the icy seascape darkens, the temperatures plummet, and the sea ice swells into a brutal fortress, so thick that no icebreaker can penetrate it. Research vessels flee south, desperate to avoid getting trapped during the fearsome season. But this year scientists-and a few lucky journalists, including me-will dare to do just the opposite. In late September we will set sail from Tromsø, Norway, heading east along Siberia, then north toward the North Pole. Scientific American

 

The Arctic is Browning. Professor Gareth Phoenix has been visiting Abisko, in the Arctic circle of Sweden, for years. He's been there in the depths of winter when the snow is several feet deep, and in the height of summer when mosquitoes are buzzing around every person (and reindeer) in sight. If there's one thing he's learnt from his years of research in the Arctic circle, it's to be prepared for extremes. Phoenix, a professor at the University of Sheffield, studies Arctic ecosystems. In particular, the impacts of climate change on the ecosystem structure and function. Phys.org

 

Arctic Methane Levels Reach New Heights. Latest data released by a US institution, the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), sounds afresh alarm bells for the Arctic and climate change. It adds further evidence corroborating an earlier hypothesis that predicts a catastrophic release of methane in the coming decades due to thawing Arctic permafrost. In a central Arctic location, a research site in the US state of Alaska, record-breaking level in methane concentration was recorded for this year. The sudden jump sent waves of uneasiness through social networks. E&T