From the editor—endings and beginnings in 2009

Abstract

As the International Polar Year (IPY) drew to its conclusion earlier this year, so did the Norwegian–American Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica. Led by Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) director Jan-Gunnar Winther, the first stage of the two-stage expedition took place in the austral summer of 2007/08. The Norwegian–American team travelled from the Norwegian research station Troll to a point about 350 km shy of the South Pole (see my editorial in Polar Research 27[1]). Along the way, they extracted ice cores, planted snow stakes mounted with GPS devices, deployed automatic weather stations, surveyed the route using several types of radar and collected an array of meteorological, glaciological and other data. The journey took two months.