In August 2016, the first traveled through the Northwest Passage, the northern waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The following year, the first plied the Northern Sea Route, a path along Russia’s Arctic coast that was, until recently, impassable by unescorted commercial vessels.

In recent decades parts of the Arctic seas have become increasingly ice-free in late summer and early fall. As sea ice is expected to continue to recede due to climate change, seasonal ship traffic from tourism and freight is projected to rise. A study from the 91̽»¨ and the University of Alaska Fairbanks is the first to consider potential impacts on the marine mammals that use this region during fall and identify which will be most vulnerable.

The is published the week of July 2 in the .

“We know from more temperate regions that vessels and whales don’t always mix well, and yet vessels are poised to expand into this sensitive region,” said lead author , who did the research as a postdoctoral researcher at the 91̽»¨and is now a research assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Even going right over the North Pole may be passable within a matter of decades. It raises questions of how to allow economic development while also protecting Arctic marine species.”

The study looked at 80 subpopulations of the seven marine mammals that live in the Arctic and identified their risks on or near major shipping routes in September, a month when the Arctic Ocean has the most open water.

Forty-two of these subpopulations would be exposed to vessel traffic, and the degree of exposure plus the particular characteristics of each species determine which are most sensitive.

The most vulnerable marine mammals were found to be , or tusked whales. These animals migrate through parts of the Northwest Passage to and from their summertime habitats.

“Narwhals have all the traits that make them vulnerable to vessel disturbances — they stick to really specific areas, they’re pretty inflexible in where they spend the summer, they live in only about a quarter of the Arctic, and they’re smack dab in the middle of shipping routes,” said co-author , a polar scientist at 91̽»¨Applied Physics Laboratory’s Polar Science Center. “They also rely on sound, and are notoriously skittish and sensitive to any kind of disturbance.”

Other mammals found to be vulnerable were beluga and bowhead whales. Walruses also were vulnerable because some populations are relatively small and known to live along shipping routes, compared to generally large and widely distributed populations of ringed and bearded seals, which were shown to be less vulnerable.

The study found the least vulnerable animals were polar bears, which are largely on land during September, and don’t rely on underwater sound for communication or navigation. Shipping in other seasons may have a greater impact.

The paper also identified two “pinch points,” narrow passageways where ships and animals are most likely to intersect. These are the Bering Strait that separates the U.S. and Russia, and Lancaster Sound in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut. These regions had a risk of conflicts two to three times higher than on other parts of the shipping route.

“These obligatory pinch points are used by migratory species to get in and out of the Arctic, but they are also necessary passageways for vessels using these sea routes,” Hauser said. “Identifying the relative risks in Arctic regions and among marine mammals can be helpful when establishing strategies to deal with potential effects.”

Travel through the Arctic Ocean is already beginning, with the Russian route having the most potential for commercial ships. The Northern Sea Route had more than 200 ships from 2011 to 2016, all of which were large vessels. More than 100 vessels passed through the Northwest Passage during that time, with more than half being small, private vessels like personal yachts.

The International Maritime Organization in May established the . The voluntary code was proposed by the U.S. and Russia to identify safe routes through the Bering Strait.

The new study could help to create future guidelines, prioritize different measures to protect marine mammals and identify areas needing further study, the authors said.

“I think we can learn a lot from areas that have already been thinking about these kinds of conflicts between ships and marine mammal populations — for example the North Atlantic right whale, or fin and blue whales around California,” Laidre said. “We could aim to develop some mitigation strategies in the Arctic that help ships avoid key habitats, adjust their timing taking into account the migration of animals, make efforts to minimize sound disturbance, or in general help ships detect and deviate from animals.”

The study was funded by NASA and the Collaborative Alaskan Arctic Studies Program. The other co-author is , a polar scientist at the 91̽»¨Applied Physics Laboratory. Laidre is also a 91̽»¨associate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

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For more information, contact Hauser at dhauser2@alaska.edu or 907-474-1553 and Laidre at klaidre@uw.edu or 206-616-9030.

NASA grant: NNX16AG33G

Reductions in sea ice in the Arctic have a clear impact on animals such as polar bears that rely on frozen surfaces for feeding, mating and migrating. But sea ice loss is changing Arctic habitat and affecting other species in more indirect ways, new research finds.

Beluga whales that spend summers feeding in the Arctic are diving deeper and longer to find food than in earlier years, when sea ice covered more of the ocean for longer periods, according to a new analysis led by 91̽»¨ researchers. The , published this month in the journal Diversity and Distributions, is one of the first to consider the indirect effects of sea ice loss on Arctic species that dwell near the ice, but don’t necessarily depend on it for survival.

“I think this paper is novel in that we’re presenting some of the first indirect effects of sea ice loss for an Arctic whale species,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at the UW’s Polar Science Center and former doctoral student at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. “As changes in sea ice affect oceanographic properties, that could be affecting the distribution, abundance or species composition of prey for belugas.”

Two genetically distinct beluga populations spend winters in the Bering Sea, then swim north in the early summer as sea ice melts and open water allows them passage into the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. There they feast all summer on fish and invertebrates before traveling back south in the fall. Both populations are considered healthy.

The researchers analyzed migration data collected intermittently from two different periods — referred to in the paper as “early” and “late” — for two beluga populations, covering the years 1993-2002 and 2004-2012. Satellite-linked tags attached to the whales tracked their movements around and away from the high Arctic feeding grounds. Dive-depth data were collected for only one population, the Chukchi belugas, because the other population’s tags did not have those capabilities.

Researchers also tracked sea ice cover in the Arctic over these two periods and found that the ice declined substantially from the first to the second period.

“We have documented loss of sea ice and reductions of habitat for Arctic marine mammals across most of the circumpolar Arctic, so this area is not unique,” said co-author , a 91̽»¨associate professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and the Polar Science Center. “We’re seeing this ice loss broadly in all areas where belugas occur.”

Sea ice loss appears to affect how the Chukchi belugas dove for their food. During the later period, when there was less sea ice, the whales dove significantly longer and deeper than in the earlier period — presumably in search of prey as the animals, in turn, changed their habits because of different ocean conditions brought on by sea ice loss.

Specifically, during the earlier period belugas dove for 20 minutes or longer only once per day, compared to nearly three times a day during the later period. Similarly, their average daily dive depth increased from about 50 meters (164 feet) to 64 meters (210 feet) between the two periods.

The belugas might be diving longer and deeper to follow prey that has dispersed or been driven deeper itself from changing ocean conditions. It’s also possible that feeding opportunities are actually better for belugas in an ocean with less sea ice.

“Reduced sea ice cover over a longer period of time over the summer could mean improved foraging for belugas,” said Hauser, who is also a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “But it’s also important to recognize these changes in diving behavior are energetically costly.”

It’s unclear whether diving changes are positive or negative for belugas, and studies on body condition and health are needed to understand the implications of these changes, she added.

Aside from changes in how belugas dove for food, the nearly two decades of data show that the whales were able to thrive in their summer and fall ocean habitats, despite less ice cover. This adaptability to changes in Arctic conditions speaks to the whales’ resiliency, the researchers said.

“Belugas feed on a lot of different prey and use many different habitats, across open water and dense sea ice and everything in between,” Hauser said. “Because they are such generalists, that could buffer them under climate change.”

Other co-authors are of the UW; Robert Suydam of North Slope Borough in Utqiaġvik, Alaska; and Pierre Richard of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

This analysis was funded by the National Science Foundation’s 91̽»¨IGERT Program on Ocean Change, NASA and the 91̽»¨School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Many individuals and organizations supported beluga whale tagging, including the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, North Slope Borough, Village of Point Lay, the Inuvialuit Hunter and Trapper Committees, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Minerals Management Service.

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For more information, contact Hauser at dhauser@uw.edu or 907-474-1553 and Laidre at klaidre@uw.edu.

This year’s lineup includes a simulation from NASA of its new . Visitors can get scanned by an instrument above their head that measures a person’s height using an infrared distance sensor. The real ICESat-2 satellite, scheduled for launch in 2018, will map the Earth’s ice surfaces to very high precision, from space.

During the weekend visitors can talk to 91̽»¨experts about Arctic sea ice, which this winter set new record lows for winter extent. They can try on historic polar explorers’ gear and a modern survival suit, and touch real polar bear fur. Other stations will display projects studying Antarctic ice and oceans.

“At Polar Science Weekend, visitors can talk to real scientists who study some of the most remote and inhospitable places on Earth, to learn what they’re doing and why it’s important,” said organizer , a scientist at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory.

91̽»¨undergraduate students in oceanography and fisheries classes will complete a science communication training run by the science center before helping with the event.

As in other years, the weekend will include a science stage with presentations by 91̽»¨scientists, polar shows on the 6-foot-diameter Science on a Sphere and screenings of the IMAX film “To The Arctic 3D.”

Polar Science Weekend is included with museum admission. The exhibits will be open Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The event is a partnership between Pacific Science Center and the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory and .

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For more information, contact Stern at 206-543-7253 or hstern@uw.edu.

The annual migration of some beluga whales in Alaska is altered by sea ice changes in the Arctic, while other belugas do not appear to be affected.

A led by the 91̽»¨ finds that as Arctic sea ice takes longer to freeze up each fall due to climate change, one population of belugas mirrors that timing and delays its migration south by up to one month. In contrast, a different beluga population, also in Alaska, that migrates and feeds in the same areas doesn’t appear to have changed its migration timing with changes in sea ice.

The paper was published Dec. 21 in the journal Global Change Biology.

“The biggest take-home message is that belugas can respond relatively quickly to their changing environment, yet we can’t expect a uniform response across all beluga populations,” said lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at the UW’s .

“If we’re trying to understand how these species are going to respond to climate change, we should expect to see variability in the response across populations and across time,” Hauser said. “That may complicate our predictions for the future.”

Two genetically distinct beluga populations spend winters in the Bering Sea, then swim north in the early summer as sea ice melts and open water allows them passage into the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. There they feast all summer on fish and invertebrates before traveling back south in the fall. Other research suggests the whales are taught by their mothers when to migrate and which route to take, so it was unclear if belugas would be responsive to sea ice changes.

The Chukchi beluga population’s response to follow sea ice timing and delay migration likely means the whales are opportunistically feeding later into the fall, but researchers don’t yet know if that delay is overall beneficial. On one hand, the whales might be gaining valuable food resources, but they also risk getting blocked from their migration path south if the ice quickly freezes up and catches them off guard.

In contrast, the Beaufort beluga population’s apparent indifference to sea ice timing is surprising, Hauser said, given that both populations frequent many of the same feeding areas and otherwise appear to have similar life histories. Perhaps the Beaufort whales have a tradition of feeding elsewhere that requires they move away earlier in the fall, regardless of sea ice characteristics, she explained.

“This all suggests that beluga whales can respond to their changing Arctic conditions, although all populations will not necessarily respond the same,” Hauser said.

Very few studies exist on beluga whales, a marine mammal that lives in some of the Earth’s harshest conditions. Analyses on their body condition or population trajectories will need to take place before researchers can say whether their response — or lack thereof — to environmental change is beneficial or detrimental to the health of the populations.

Researchers, however, note that when they do see changes, they are happening quickly — within a 10-year span for whales that often live to be over 60 years old. That means migration patterns that are inherited over generations are changing within the lifespans of multiple generations of whales, Hauser said.

In this study, the researchers used migration data collected intermittently from two different periods — referred to in the paper as “early” and “late” — for both populations, corresponding roughly to the 1990s and 2000s decades. Satellite-linked tags attached to the whales tracked their movements around and away from the high Arctic feeding grounds.

They also used acoustic data from two underwater hydrophones that recorded the vocalizations of marine mammals each day for about six years. The social signals — an assortment of squeaks, whistles and cries — told researchers when belugas were present up to about 3 miles from the instrument. The use of underwater microphones is a good way to detect belugas in their dark, icy environment, said , a co-author and oceanographer at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory who uses the underwater microphones to study a range of animals in the Arctic.

These two datasets let the researchers track exactly when belugas passed certain key points along their fall migration, then correlate those days to regional sea ice information.

“One of the predictions of climate change is animals are going to change their seasonal presence in a region,” Stafford said. “This study shows that at least one population of belugas might be adapting to rapid changes in its environment. We can’t be sure, but this study is a start in documenting how an Arctic species is reacting to these changing conditions.”

Other co-authors are and of the UW; of North Slope Borough in Utqiaġvik, Alaska; and of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

This analysis was funded by the National Science Foundation’s , NASA and the UW’s . Passive acoustic data collection was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation’s Arctic Observing Network and the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic.

Many individuals and organizations supported beluga whale tagging, including the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee, North Slope Borough, Village of Point Lay, the Inuvialuit Hunter and Trapper Committees and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

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For more information, contact Hauser at dhauser@uw.edu or 907-474-1811.

, a polar scientist at the 91̽»¨’s Applied Physics Laboratory, has been studying the Arctic Ocean for decades, and sailed part of the Northwest Passage in 2009. Stern’s latest work uses the earliest explorers’ experiences to better understand a maritime environment that still contains many unknowns. A published in November in Polar Geography uses Captain James Cook’s records of sea-ice edge, more than two centuries ago, as a way to understand the changes we’re seeing now. 91̽»¨Today asked him a few questions about the project.

How did you come to publish a paper about this historical map of Arctic sea ice?

It started when I was writing a book chapter called “” for a book by 91̽»¨ Press. In the course of researching Cook’s 1778 foray into the Arctic, I realized that he had sailed close to the ice edge, and that his officers had made detailed charts of their positions. It didn’t take long to figure out that these were the earliest historical records of the ice edge in the Chukchi Sea.

Where did you find the map?

The definitive versions of Captain Cook’s journals were published in several volumes in the 1950s and 1960s. Accompanying them is a large-format collection, “Charts & Views Drawn by Cook and his Officers and Reproduced from the Original Manuscripts.” Both are available at Suzzallo Library. In looking through the large-format collection, I found the chart by naval officer that became Figure 1 of my paper. The figure is actually just a portion of his original chart.

To learn more about it, I went to 91̽»¨Libraries Special Collections and found “The Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook’s Voyages,” which had a lot of useful information, including reproductions of other charts made by Cook and his officers. There I also found a first edition, from 1784, of the published account of Cook’s third voyage. The original charts from that voyage are in various places around the world, including the U.K. and Australia, so I have not yet seen an original chart.

You note that the ice has been quickly retreating since the 1990s. Why have we only begun to see this in recent decades?

For hundreds of years — or maybe longer — the ice edge in the Chukchi Sea in August varied from year to year, but on average it was more or less where Cook found it in August 1778. With global warming, things began to change, but the cumulative effect before the 1990s was not noticeable above the year-to-year variability inherent in the system. Sometime in the 1990s the “signal” began to emerge from the background “noise” — that is, the northward retreat of the ice edge became larger than the typical year-to-year variability of the August ice edge. That’s when we started to notice that things were changing.

What strikes you most about the changes to Arctic sea ice since Cook’s failed voyage?

In the last 10 to15 years, the changes have been dramatic. The summer ice edge in the Chukchi Sea is now hundreds of miles farther north than it used to be. This has opened up the opportunity for many ships, mostly private yachts, to transit the Northwest Passage, and for oil companies to consider drilling in the Chukchi Sea. It’s also like polar bears and beluga whales. But one thing hasn’t changed: it’s still dangerous to navigate through ice-covered waters.

When will the Arctic Ocean be ice-free in summer, and when might the Northwest Passage be used for navigation?

Climate models predict a nearly ice-free summer Arctic Ocean by about 2060, but with a large spread among models (some predict decades earlier, some decades later). However, the actual observational record over the last 35 years shows that most models are too conservative and that a nearly ice-free summer Arctic Ocean is more likely to arrive in the 2020 to 2040 timeframe. Note that “nearly ice-free” is commonly used to mean that the ice extent in the Arctic Ocean is 1 million square kilometers or less. This compares with 7 to 8 million square kilometers for the summer sea-ice extent before the year 2000, and about 5 million sq. km in more recent years.

The Northwest Passage is a long and complex series of channels and waterways that wind through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. While the Northwest Passage has been open in recent summers to small boats and occasional , it is not yet a commercially viable shipping route, for several reasons: ice can still be a hazard, the route is shallow and narrow in places, there are very few aids to navigation and there is no search-and-rescue capability in place.

I wouldn’t expect the Northwest Passage to become a major commercial shipping route anytime soon. On the other hand, the Northern Sea Route, which passes along the north coast of Russia, has been handling an increasing amount of commercial traffic in recent years and is probably a more viable shipping route. The Northwest Passage will continue to see more “destinational” shipping (e.g., to a northern port and then out by the same route) and more small-boat traffic.

Does anything else strike you about this map?

The chart included as Figure 1 in my paper is interesting beyond the fact that one can deduce the approximate sea-ice edge from it. It contains a handwritten note by calling attention to a “gross mistake” in which the same island has been plotted as two separate islands. Bligh writes: “How they have blundered to lay them down as two I cannot conceive.” Bligh was an officer on Cook’s third voyage, 1776-1780, but he is better known in connection with the mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789.

The chart also contains the handwritten word “Lisburne” at the site of Alaska’s modern-day Cape Lisburne, but it is not known who wrote that word on the chart, nor who came up with the name. Details like that add interest to the chart.

My dad is an antique map dealer, so maybe that’s where my interest comes from.

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For more information, contact Stern at 206-543-7253 or hstern@uw.edu.

It’s no secret that Arctic sea ice is melting.

Polar bears, the poster child for climate change, are among the animals most affected by the seasonal and year-to-year changes in Arctic sea ice, because they rely on this surface for essential activities such as hunting, traveling and breeding.

A new 91̽»¨ , with funding and satellite data from NASA, finds a trend toward earlier sea ice melt in the spring and later ice growth in the fall across all 19 polar bear populations, which can negatively impact the feeding and breeding capabilities of the bears. The paper, published Sept. 14 in , is the first to quantify the sea ice changes in each polar bear subpopulation across the entire Arctic region using metrics that are specifically relevant to polar bear biology.

“This study shows declining sea ice for all subpopulations of polar bears,” said co-author , a researcher with the UW’s . “We have used the same metric across all of the polar bear subpopulations in the Arctic so we can compare and contrast, for example, the Hudson Bay region with the Baffin Bay region using the same metric.”

The analysis shows that the critical timing of the sea ice break-up and sea ice freeze-up is changing in all areas in a direction that is harmful for polar bears.

Nineteen separate polar bear populations live throughout the Arctic, spending their winters and springs roaming on sea ice and hunting. The bears have evolved mainly to eat seals, which provide necessary fats and nutrients in the harsh Arctic environment. Polar bears can’t outswim their prey, so instead they perch on the ice as a platform and ambush seals at breathing holes or break through the ice to access their dens.

“Sea ice really is their platform for life,” said co-author , a researcher at the UW’s Polar Science Center. “They are capable of existing on land for part of the year, but the sea ice is where they obtain their main prey.”

The new study draws upon 35 years of satellite data showing sea ice concentration each day in the Arctic. NASA scientists process the data, stored at the in Boulder, Colorado.

The center also the yearly minimum low for Arctic sea ice. This August saw the fourth lowest in the satellite record.

Across all 19 polar bear populations, the researchers found that the total number of ice-covered days declined at the rate of seven to 19 days per decade between 1979 and 2014. Sea ice concentration during the summer months — an important measure because summertime is when some subpopulations are forced to fast on land — also declined in all regions, by 1 percent to 9 percent per decade.

The most striking result, researchers said, is the consistent trend across all polar bear regions for an earlier spring ice melt and a later fall freeze-up. Arctic sea ice retreats in the springtime as daylight reappears and temperatures warm. In the fall months the ice sheets build again as temperatures drop.

“These spring and fall transitions bound the period when there is good ice habitat available for bears to feed,” Laidre said. “Those periods are also tied to the breeding season when bears find mates, and when females come out of their maternity dens with very small cubs and haven’t eaten for months.”

The researchers found that on average, spring melting was three to nine days earlier per decade, and fall freeze-up was three to nine days later per decade. That corresponds to a roughly 3 ½ week shift at either end — and seven weeks of total loss of good sea ice habitat for polar bears — over the 35 years of Arctic sea ice data.

“We expect that if the trends continue, compared with today, polar bears will experience another six to seven weeks of ice-free periods by mid-century,” Stern said.

The trend appears to be linear and isn’t accelerating or leveling off, Stern added. The researchers recommend that the incorporate the timing of spring ice retreat and fall ice advance as measures of climate change in future reports.

The study’s results currently are used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s , which completes assessments of polar bears and issues the species’ . Specifically, the group used the sea ice metric as a measure of polar bear habitat in the assessment of polar bears. The researchers plan to update their findings each year as new ice coverage data are available.

“It’s nice to see this work being used in high-level conservation goals,” Laidre said.

The study was funded by NASA and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. The Cryosphere, where the results are published, is a journal of the .

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For more information, contact Laidre at klaidre@uw.edu and Stern at hstern@uw.edu.

Images available for download:

Grant programs and numbers:

Development and Testing of Potential Indicators for the National Climate Assessment (NASA): NNX13AN28G

Climate and Biological Response (NASA): NNX11A063G

The book, “” was published in March by the 91̽»¨ Press. The accompanying opens Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.

Book contributor , a polar scientist at the 91̽»¨Applied Physics Laboratory, will speak at the exhibit opening at 1 p.m. on early exploration of the North Pacific and what was known about sea ice conditions at that time. He will speculate about how closely Captain James Cook actually came to discovering the Northwest Passage, before ice in the Chukchi Sea forced his crew to turn back.

Stern wrote one of the book’s 18 essays, titled “Sea Ice in the Western Portal of the Northwest Passage from 1778 to the 21st Century,” that explores the idea of whether Captain Cook would have discovered the Northwest Passage if the summer ice conditions in 1778 had been similar to what they are today.

“Yes, he would have, but Arctic navigation is still treacherous,” Stern said.

Stern’s research at the 91̽»¨focuses on current sea ice trends and the . He also participated in an that sailed through the Northwest Passage in 2009.

“In Cook’s day, they didn’t think that the ocean could freeze,” Stern said. “They thought the ice in the ocean came from rivers that froze and discharged ice into the sea.”

He will bring a demonstration to the opening that shows the difference between salty ice and freshwater ice. Other activities include a scavenger hunt, knot-tying demonstration and presentations by Northern artists.

The exhibit of art and artifacts related to Cook’s explorations runs through March 6, 2016. Admission to the museum is $11 for adults, $8 for students, seniors and members of the military. Read more from its debut in Anchorage.

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For more information, contact Stern at 206 543-7253 or hstern@uw.edu.

• Included with admission price
• Thurs./Fri.: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Sat./Sun.: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Would-be Arctic explorers of all ages can stoke their imaginations – and meet their real-life counterparts – Thursday through Sunday (Feb. 28-March 3) at the 8^th annual organized jointly by the 91̽»¨Applied Physics Laboratory and Pacific Science Center.

Visitors will have a chance to peek inside tents used in polar research camps, don a cold-weather survival suit, learn about ice cores and participate in an ice-smashing demonstration. A new exhibit this year is “Sea Ice Thickness: Making Sense of the Chaos.” Returning favorites include “Narwhal Mysteries,” “Salinity Taste Test” and “Glacier Flow.”

In addition to the Applied Physics Laboratory, other 91̽»¨units including oceanography, atmospheric sciences, Earth and space sciences and biology all will be represented, as will agencies such as the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is the fourth year NASA has funded Polar Science Weekend, which is included with regular museum admission.

A “Passport to the Poles” encourages kids to collect a stamp from each station. Visitors of all ages can attend presentations on polar bears, penguins and Arctic climate, and take part in hands-on activities such as building an igloo or operating an infrared camera that is used to explore the surface of Mars and other planets.

While the focus is on science, there is also an arts component. Local photographer Chris Linder, who accompanies scientific expeditions, will be giving a slide show and autographing copies of his book . Local artist , who depicts polar landscapes and wildlife, will present her work at the event just before setting off for Greenland on a research expedition with , a biologist with the Applied Physics Laboratory.

This weekend the IMAX Theater will be showing and .

To help 91̽»¨student and faculty presenters prepare for the event, Pacific Science Center staff held two 2-hour workshops that introduced basic concepts and techniques of science communication, and provided practice in engaging audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

“Science communication is an increasingly important skill for scientists to have, so this event is good training for students,” said lead organizer , senior mathematician with the Applied Physics Laboratory.

91̽»¨museology graduate students will collect data about visitors’ experiences, and for the first time 91̽»¨Photography Club members will be taking photos.

A returning exhibit, “Investigating Arctic Ice Melt,” based on the work of Applied Physics Laboratory researchers , , and will be on display through August in the “Portal to Current Research” area.

Pacific Science Center was among five institutions recognized in November with the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ highest honor for community service and outreach. The citation noted the Seattle museum’s ability to connect scientists with the general public, a direction that Dennis Schatz, vice president for strategic programs, said began in 2006 with the first successful polar-science collaboration.