The Seattle-based Coast Guard Cutter Healy is moored in the port of Seward this week after completing the first in what is to be a three-part science mission in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea. 46 researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Alaska-Anchorage are disembarking after 39 days at sea. Taking […]
This summer, with sea ice across the Arctic Ocean shrinking to below-average levels, a NASA airborne survey of polar ice just completed its first flights. Its target: aquamarine pools of melt water on the ice surface that may be accelerating the overall sea ice retreat. NASA’s Operation IceBridge completed the first research flight of its […]
Shorebirds breeding in Alaska are being exposed to mercury at levels that could put their populations at risk, according to new research from The Condor: Ornithological Applications. Thanks to atmospheric circulation and other factors, the mercury that we deposit into the environment tends to accumulate in the Arctic. Mercury exposure can reduce birds’ reproductive success […]
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Two leaded bronze artifacts found in northwestern Alaska are the first evidence that metal from Asia reached prehistoric North America prior to contact with Europeans, according to new Purdue University research. “This is not a surprise based on oral history and other archaeological finds, and it was just a matter of […]