The polar regions are famous for being inhospitable, difficult to access, and one of the final frontiers for exploration. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were filled with explorers seeking the achievement of being the first person to the Pole. These harrowing stories have action and adventure but lack a critical component: women. Women historically have not played a primary role in polar research or exploration. Many barriers to access existed such as prejudice, lack of education opportunity, and physical restrictions. Today, women have better access to the Antarctic and Arctic for research and research support but still face barriers to equitable participation. A “boys club” environment in stations can lead to women being excluded or subjected to sexual harassment. Despite this, the addition of women is shown to improve team dynamics, morale, and the culture within research stations. Women’s representation in polar research is better today than it’s ever been, yet there is still improvement being made for the future.

In 1893, the British explorer Frederick George Jackson travelled in the north of the Russian Empire, where he learned lessons—particularly in the areas of diet, transport, and clothing—from the Nenets and Sami people. I argue that his travels in this area influenced both his subsequent Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (1894–97) and British Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century, including those led by Robert F. Scott and Ernest H. Shackleton

Studying Jackson’s travels and writings can advance discussions about the role of Indigenous knowledge in British Polar exploration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Based on a new reading of both published and archival materials, the paper also charts some forms of knowledge that Jackson struggled to appropriate—particularly the use of reindeer for transport. In examining his failures, I argue that attempts to write Indigenous contributions into the history of exploration must focus on explorers’ failures as well as their successes—and on forms of Indigenous knowledge that proved difficult to use in other contexts.

Changing sea-ice conditions have significant societal impacts and implications across Alaska and the Arctic. This research examined the relationship between sea ice and extreme weather events with socio-economic impacts in Nome, Alaska (1990–2020), a community that has experienced notable changes in sea ice and impacts from extreme weather events. The research is based on the analysis of sea-ice concentrations from passive microwave data, socio-economic impacts of extreme weather events from an archival analysis of newspaper coverage, and an examination of the relationship between sea-ice concentrations and impacts. We found that sea-ice concentrations at the time of the reported socio-economic impacts were all characterised by ice-free conditions. Additionally, extreme events linked to socio-economic impacts occurred when sea-ice concentrations were at or below their historical (1979–2000) median for the day. Key implications for the observed increased probability of ice-free conditions in the autumn include a greater likelihood that a given coastal storm from November to mid-December may contribute to socio-economic impacts, which may have been mitigated by sea ice in the past, as well as an increased potential for impacts to occur when they have previously not been experienced.

This article reviews the potential for United States accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) under the current U.S. leadership, the administration of President Donald J. Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress. The strategic significance of U.S. ratification of UNCLOS is demonstrated by U.S. claims and rights in areas subject to geopolitical contestation such as the Arctic and South China Sea. More broadly, the United States has a compelling interest in preserving the international order and protecting the global commons, as embodied in the terms of the treaty. Despite clear evidence that ratification is in the U.S. national interest, UNCLOS faces the obstacle of continued Senate inaction and the challenge of a domestic political atmosphere suspicious of international law and institutions. President Trump, as a Republican leader and populist dealmaker, may be well-positioned to overcome domestic political opposition and achieve a vital U.S. foreign policy objective that has eluded his White House predecessors.

Just before World War I, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) geographically expanded its trade in the Canadian Arctic to derive profits from Arctic fox fur and secure its position in a global value chain (GVC) delivering fur to metropolitan consumers. The “problem of nature” challenged the company’s business venture. Furthermore, “nature” was made and remade by the HBC’s own capital investments. The fox trade itself changed human ecology. Technology transfers to Inuit modified their hunting regimes to increase the company’s returns of polar bear skins. Though these skins had high potential market value, modes of production introduced by the HBC to the Arctic precluded the company from sending high-quality products to metropolitan dressers. Within a changing Arctic human ecology, the HBC produced one highly valued commodity for the market while producing another from which it could derive only modest profit. The HBC’s fox and polar bear trade at the onset of the last century suggests ways that business empires can set off complex and unanticipated changes in human ecologies and, therefore, the dynamics of nature and business at their very peripheries.

Sea-ice floating in the Arctic ocean is a constantly moving, growing and melting layer. The seasonal cycle of sea-ice volume has an average amplitude of $10\,000\,\mathrm{km}^3$ or 9 trillion tonnes of sea ice. The role of dynamic redistribution of sea ice is observable during winter growth by the incorporation of satellite remote sensing of ice thickness, concentration and drift. Recent advances in the processing of CryoSat-2 radar altimetry data have allowed for the retrieval of summer sea-ice thickness. This allows for a full year of a purely remote sensing-derived ice volume budget analysis.

Here, we present the closed volume budget of Arctic sea ice over the period October 2010–May 2022 revealing the key contributions to summer melt and minimum sea-ice volume and extent. We show the importance of ice drift to the inter-annual variability in Arctic sea-ice volume and the regional distribution of sea ice. The estimates of specific areas of sea-ice growth and melt provide key information on sea-ice over-production, the excess volume of ice growth compared to melt. The statistical accuracy of each key region of the Arctic is presented, revealing the current accuracy of knowledge of Arctic sea-ice volume from observational sources.

Brine migration from sea ice into the overlying snowpack is relatively understudied yet can significantly modify thermodynamic and electromagnetic properties of the snow. In this study, we investigate the impact of snow properties on brine wicking and runoff by producing samples of four distinctly different snow types (soft wind slab, hard wind slab, faceted grains and melt-freeze clusters) and monitor changes in snow properties after adding brine. The results illustrate that snow grain type and density have a pronounced effect on the height of brine wicking and runoff, snow compaction rates and salt concentrations. In all samples, we observed separation of the initial brine-saturated slush layer into two sublayers with distinctly different properties: solid saline snow-ice at the bottom and less saline brine-wetted snow above it. The maximum height of brine wicking ranged from 6.5 cm in faceted snow to 8.9 cm in hard wind slab samples, which was equivalent of 40 to 50% of total samples’ height. The volume and timing of brine runoff varied between samples, occurring later and in smaller volumes in hard wind slab compared to soft wind slab and coarse-grained samples.

Passive microwave measurements of Arctic sea ice have been conducted over the last 50 years from space and during airborne, ship- and ground-based measurement campaigns. The different radiometric signatures of distinct surface types have led to satellite retrievals of, e.g., sea-ice concentration. In contrast, ground-based upward-viewing radiometers measure radiation emitted from the atmosphere and are used to retrieve atmospheric variables. Here, we present results from a ship-based radiometer setup with a mirror construction, which allows us to switch between atmospheric and surface measurements flexibly. This way, in summer 2022, surface observations in the Arctic marginal sea-ice zone could be performed from the research vessel Polarstern by two radiometers covering the frequency range from 22 to 243 GHz. At low frequencies, the brightness temperatures show clear signatures of different surface conditions. We estimate emissivities at 53∘ zenith angle from infrared-based skin temperatures. Predominantly vertically polarized 22–31 GHz emissivities are between 0.51 and 0.55 for open ocean and around 0.95 for sea ice. Predominantly horizontally polarized 243 GHz ocean emissivities are around 0.78 and ice surfaces exhibit a large variability from 0.67 to 0.82. Our results can improve the characterization of surface emissions in satellite retrieval algorithms.

Since the emergence of the Thule culture (AD 1200), dog sledding has been perceived as a central means of transportation in traditional Inuit life in the Arctic. However, there is an absence of research concerning Inuit dog-sled technology and the tradition of the craft. This study investigates the Inuit dog-sled technocomplex using enskilment methodologiesby employing experimental and ethno-archaeological observations to explore the relationship between knowledge and technical practice. It involves the reconstruction of a historical West Greenlandic dog sled, shedding light on carpentry techniques and construction processes. This method emphasizes the interaction between humans, technology, and time, providing essential practical data for future archaeological and historical research, particularly for comprehending fragmented archaeological remains. By focusing on process rather than end product, this research provides insight into understanding Inuit dog sled technology and the complexity of the practice. The connection between artifacts and materially situated practice is demonstrated through the reconstruction of a dog sled, which illustrates the value of physicality in enskilment. It highlights how experimental archaeology can improve our insights into the historical and prehistoric Arctic societies’ technologies, economies, and practices.

The global population and status of Snowy Owls Bubo scandiacus are particularly challenging to assess because individuals are irruptive and nomadic, and the breeding range is restricted to the remote circumpolar Arctic tundra. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) uplisted the Snowy Owl to “Vulnerable” in 2017 because the suggested population estimates appeared considerably lower than historical estimates, and it recommended actions to clarify the population size, structure, and trends. Here we present a broad review and status assessment, an effort led by the International Snowy Owl Working Group (ISOWG) and researchers from around the world, to estimate population trends and the current global status of the Snowy Owl. We use long-term breeding data, genetic studies, satellite-GPS tracking, and survival estimates to assess current population trends at several monitoring sites in the Arctic and we review the ecology and threats throughout the Snowy Owl range. An assessment of the available data suggests that current estimates of a worldwide population of 14,000–28,000 breeding adults are plausible. Our assessment of population trends at five long-term monitoring sites suggests that breeding populations of Snowy Owls in the Arctic have decreased by more than 30% over the past three generations and the species should continue to be categorised as Vulnerable under the IUCN Red List Criterion A2. We offer research recommendations to improve our understanding of Snowy Owl biology and future population assessments in a changing world.

Hunting pits are common archaeological features in northern landscapes, mainly researched from a morphological perspective, as dateable material is scarce. This has resulted in a limited and generalized understanding of hunting pits. While human land use in non-agrarian settings is often subtle, it can still be understood in terms of distribution and management by using relational approaches that address spatial organization and the nature of land use. This study, based on extensive field surveys and GIS analyses and guided by the concept of landscape domestication, has identified the characteristics of approximately 1500 previously unrecorded hunting pits in the Arctic region of Sweden. It examines how hunting pit systems, their selective spatial distribution, and strategic arrangement can be seen as expressions of landscape domestication. The author concludes that, through profound knowledge and deliberate resource management, communities invested in the landscape, generating dense spatial and temporal manifestations in the form of hunting pits. These systems reflect an elaborate hunting technique involving the whole landscape.

Bortolanite, a rare mineral of the rinkite group, seidozerite supergroup occurs in two different associations in the Lovozero massif in the Kola Peninsula, Russia: (1) together with ferri-katophorite and phlogopite, it forms porous or mesh aggregates (symplectitic accretions) with euhedral contours in the contact zone of a volcano–sedimentary xenolith and eudialyte lujavrite at Kuamdespakhk Mt and (2) in intergrowths with titanite and fluorcaphite in the poikilitic feldspathoid syenites at Sengischorr Mt. In both cases, bortolanite was found in association with rosenbuschite that is close to it in chemical composition, but unlike bortolanite, it contains no REEs. The mineral is triclinic, space group P$\bar{1}$, a = 9.5807(5), b = 5.6943(4), c = 7.2813(4) Å, α = 89.891(5)°, β = 100.959(4)°, γ = 101.241(5)°, V = 382.25(4) Å3 and Z = 1.

The Lovozero bortolanite differs from the Brazilian holotype sample from de Caldas alkaline massif, Minas Gerais, due to the presence of (OH)-groups in its composition, which is indicated by Raman data. A combination of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data and electron microprobe data provides the following crystal-chemical formula: (Ca1.97Ce0.01Nd0.01Th0.01)Σ2(Ca1.39Zr0.61)Σ2(Na0.72Ca0.28)Σ1(Na1.36Ca0.56Mn0.03Zn0.01)Σ1.96(Ti0.78Zr0.08Nb0.05Mg0.05Fe0.04)Σ1Si4O14((OH)0.92O0.87F0.21)Σ2F2.

While much work on expertise has explored the mobilisation and production of knowledge, the development of epistemic communities, and the mechanisms through which expertise operates – little work has been done exploring how expertise is understood across academic literature on particular regional cases such as the Arctic. In this article, I scope a broad literature review of the Arctic, seeking out how expertise has been depicted and framed in academic and theoretical literature. The results are framed around five different themes: (1) expertise serving the interests of great powers, (2) recognition of the overall importance of expertise in Arctic governance, (3) the purpose of experts, (4) science diplomacy and expertise: a murky barrier, and (5) how to study experts, but also find that Indigenous knowledge is often left out of literature that relies upon Western frameworks of expertise. This incongruity suggests that there are two competing conceptualizations of Arctic expertise, one in theory and another in practice – which has consequences for how the region and its expertise are narrated.

This study investigates the impacts of the timing of an extreme cyclone that occurred in August 2012 on the sea-ice volume evolution based on the Arctic Ice Ocean Prediction System (ArcIOPS). By applying a novel cyclone removal algorithm to the atmospheric forcing during 4–12 August 2012, we superimpose the derived cyclone component onto the atmospheric forcing one month later or earlier. This study finds that although the extreme cyclone leads to strong sea-ice volume loss in all runs, large divergence occurs in sea-ice melting mechanism in response to various timing of the cyclone. The extreme cyclone occurred in August, when enhanced ice volume loss is attributed to ice bottom melt primarily and ice surface melt secondarily. If the cyclone occurs one month earlier, ice surface melt dominates ice volume loss, and earlier appearance of open water within the ice zone initiates positive ice-albedo feedback, leading to a long lasting of the cyclone-induced impacts for approximately one month, and eventually a lower September ice volume. In contrast, if the cyclone occurs one month later, ice bottom melt entirely dominates ice volume loss, and the air-open water heat flux in the ice zone tends to offset ice volume loss.

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data suffer from an elevation bias due to signal penetration into the firn and ice surface, rendering the height information unusable for elevation and mass-change detection. This study estimates the penetration bias in X-band InSAR data to quantify its impact on elevation and mass-change detection and to demonstrate the applicability of TanDEM-X digital elevation models (DEMs) for cryosphere research. To achieve this, a multiple linear regression model is applied to a time series of four TanDEM-X DEMs acquired between 2010 and 2018 over the Sverdrup Glacier basin (SGB), Devon Ice Cap, Canada. The resulting penetration corrected TanDEM-X DEMs agreed to within ±14 cm of spatially and temporally coincident precise in situ kinematic dGPS data (±10 cm RMSE). Additionally, multi-year estimations of mass change for the SGB derived from differencing TanDEM-X DEMs over multi-year periods between 2010 and 2018, showed good agreement with mean deviation of 338 ± 166 mm w.e. with independent measurements of mass change derived from annual in situ surface mass balance over the same time periods. The results show that the penetration bias can vary significantly, leading to random under- and overestimations in the detection of elevation and mass changes.