The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. From last week we chose: a new logistics portal, a Chilean hunt for bird flu, and an increase in Arctic military spending.
The Polar Retrospective is a collaborative effort by the Polar Journal team. Each writer chooses a topic they found interesting and important in the past week. The intitials at the end of each section indicate the author. We hope you enjoy it.
Ice Logistics Portal : A single platform for all ice charts
A new portal now offers global access to polar ice charts. Developed by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in collaboration with the International Ice Charting Working Group (IICWG), the platform, online since this month, enables users to consult ice charts for both the Arctic and Antarctic.
The Ice Logistics Portal provides access, on a single platform, to ice charts from thirteen different institutions. They are available as raster images and vector data in SIGRID-3 format. Convenient and user-friendly, the site allows to consult ice conditions in near-real time.
Indispensable for research, navigation, and commercial and tourism operations, ice charts are now available on a single site designed, moreover, to improve accessibility and functionality thanks to a simplified and intuitive interface.
A must for anyone navigating or operating in the icy waters of the Arctic and Antarctic. M.B.
Link to website: https://www.icelogistics.info
The Chilean vessel Betanzo on the track of avian flu in Antarctica
Covered from head to toe to diagnose the health of penguins – on the fringes of noisy colonies – Chilean scientists are conducting a field study of the elusive H5N1 avian flu. The Instituto Milenio Base announced last week that Dr Juliana Vianna’s team had passed the limits of the polar circle, west of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Their progress is not by land, but by sea, aboard the ship Betanzo. “In January 2024, we were able to contribute […] to the detection of positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Antarctica,” recalls the biologist. The team brought some of the first cases to light with the support of the icebreaker Commandant Charcot, but since then the epidemic has spread around the continent. The aim of this new campaign is to continue monitoring. New cases were detected last December around the peninsula, notably on Torgersen Island.
“At the Milenio BASE Institute, we are dedicated to scientific excellence. We work rigorously and collaboratively to study this constantly evolving phenomenon. Scientific excellence enables us not only to obtain accurate results, but also to provide the tools needed to anticipate and mitigate the risks associated with the spread of infectious diseases,” said Dr Elie Poulin, Director of the Milenio Base Institute. This mission will provide a more detailed look at the spread of the virus, which is a global health issue for both wildlife and humans.
In early January, the United States reported the first death from the infection on its territory. C.L.
Denmark to spend billions on Arctic military vessels
For the past few years, Denmark’s military presence in the Arctic has been under criticism, both from the Greenland government and from NATO. And not without reason: Last year, for instance, it came to light that for 15 years, cannons on Denmark’s Arctic patrol ships had not been working properly.
But now, it would seem, Denmark has been motivated to spend more. Last week, Danish Defence Minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, announced a new deal that will boost security in the Arctic regions.
The deal allocates around two billion Euro for this purpose; money that, among other things, will be spent on three new Arctic military vessels and more long-range missiles.
The deal comes after weeks of intense focus on Greenland and Denmark after President Donald Trump expressed his desire for a US takeover of the territory. The Danish Defence Minister, however, claims that the spending increase had been planned before the recent uproar. O.E.
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