09/16/2026 | Heiner Kubny
Satellites track emperor penguins through the polar night
Emperor penguins with a chick on Antarctic sea ice. New satellite observations show that emperor penguin colonies by no means remain in the same place throughout the entire breeding season. They can split up and, depending on ice conditions and the time of year, sometimes move to significantly diffe
09/15/2026 | Heiner Kubny
Tropical heat is causing Antarctica to expand
Satellite view of the Totten Ice Shelf in East Antarctica. The rugged ice surface meets sea ice and open water, which appear black in the satellite image. The Totten Glacier is one of the most significant outflow areas of the East Antarctic ice sheet and is highly sensitive to changes in the ocean a
09/15/2026 | Heiner Kubny
New project investigates the Southern Ocean
In early March, an iceberg blocked the northern jetty used to supply Neumayer Station III in Atka Bay, Antarctica. Just as the wind had carried the iceberg to the edge of the ice shelf, it blew it away again after a few days. (Photo: Alfred Wegener Institute / Peter Jonczyk)The Southern Ocean and An
09/14/2026 | Polar Journal AG Team
Do Polar Bears Kiss?
Polar bears are specifically mentioned by the Ig Nobel-winning researchers as animals that engage in kissing under their definition, alongside a diverse range of animals including ants and birds. (Image: Alan D. Wilson / CC BY-SA 3.0 / cropped)A 2026 Ig Nobel Prize went to scientists who redefined w
09/13/2026 | Heiner Kubny
Tara Polar Station meets Xue Long 2 in the Arctic pack ice
On 9 September 2026, the Tara Polar Station reached its planned drift area in the central Arctic Ocean. In the background is the Chinese research icebreaker Xue Long 2, which helped Tara navigate through the pack ice to the selected ice floe. There, at 82°24′ N, 155°03′ E, the planned drift through
09/13/2026 | Rosamaria Kubny
The first emperor penguin chicks have arrived
An emperor penguin chick seeks shelter between its parent’s feet. The thick down keeps the chicks warm, but in the first few weeks of life they still rely on their parents for protection and warmth. (Photo: AAD, Jordan Smith)At the Auster Rookery in East Antarctica, a new chapter in life is beginnin
09/12/2026 | Polar Journal AG Team
Arctic climate change, archaeology and Trump
In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential”, an executive order aimed at expanding and accelerating oil and gas development in Alaska. (Image: USGS / Public Domain)As climate change transforms Alaska, an academic calls for archaeology to beco
09/11/2026 | Yana Kirichenko
The huge Arctic archipelago nobody knew existed
Severnaya Zemlya is a heavily glaciated archipelago in the Russian High Arctic. The satellite image was acquired on 6 July 2001. (Image: Jacques Descloitres / NASA / Public Domain)The existence of this Arctic archipelago, almost the size of Switzerland, was unknown until 1913, making it the last lar
09/10/2026 | Heiner Kubny
The secret of the narwhal’s tusk has been unravelled
A narwhal with its characteristic spiral-shaped tusk in the Arctic pack ice. (Photo: PolarJournal)The narwhal’s spiral-shaped tusk is one of the most unusual structures in the animal kingdom. It can grow to more than two metres in length, yet remains almost perfectly straight. Researchers have now,
09/10/2026 | Heiner Kubny
Fibre-optic cable to connect Antarctica to the world
The Chilean research and logistics settlement centred around the Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva Base on King George Island. The island is considered a possible terminus for a future fibre-optic link between South America and Antarctica. (Photo: Mefisto29 / Wikimedia Commons)Antarctica could, for t
09/09/2026 | Heiner Kubny
Why Antarctica became covered in ice long before the Arctic
The Gamburtsev Mountains lie entirely beneath the massive East Antarctic ice sheet. Geophysical measurements offer a glimpse of the rugged mountain landscape that has been hidden beneath the ice for millions of years. (Graphic: Zina Deretsky/NSF)Why did Antarctica become covered in ice as early as a
09/09/2026 | Rosamaria Kubny
Emperor penguins defy the receding ice
A large colony of emperor penguins gathers on the ice in front of the mighty Dawson Lambton Glacier in Antarctica. Numerous chicks in their grey downy plumage stand amongst the adult birds. (Photo: Heiner Kubny)Emperor penguins are more dependent on fixed breeding sites than many other seabirds. How
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