The ABCs of the IPY 2007-2008

01 Sep 2006 - Special Reports, Logistics, Atmosphere & Space, Water & Oceans, Land & Geology, Ice & Snow, Flora & Fauna, Human Dimension, Arctic, Antarctic

Polar Science - Global Impact

The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 has adopted the slogan "Polar Science - Global Impact" as the IPY will be an interdisciplinary and internationally coordinated research campaign, expected to usher in a new era of polar science. The international scientific community is eagerly anticipating its start in March 2007, as the IPY is expected to yield new knowledge in key areas.

To help set the scene for this vast international scientific collaborative effort, SciencePoles will feature a series of articles on the IPY's research scope. Look for upcoming articles on key IPY research topics. In the first of this series, we provide an overview of the basics about the 2007-2008 IPY and previous international polar years.

The upcoming International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-08 is a joint initiative of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Intended as an interdisciplinary, collaborative and internationally coordinated campaign, it will involve some 50,000 scientists and support personnel from around 60 participating nations.

Because only a limited range of scientific research can be carried out during the polar winters, the IPY research "year" will in fact run for a 24 month period from March 2007 to March 2009. This will allow for two (six-month) summer periods of research in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Key Research Areas

IPY participants have agreed on six key themes to shape the IPY scientific agenda:

The environmental status of the Polar Regions.
Understanding past and present change in to better predict future change.
Links between polar and global processes.
Bridging science frontiers to Polar Regions.
Observing the Earth and space from the Poles.
The sustainability of Circumpolar societies.

Within this context, projects endorsed under the banner of the IPY range across eight areas of research.. The IPY is expected to yield new knowledge in all these key areas:

People

Arctic communities are resilient but changes in climatic and social conditions pose great challenges to their way of life. Studies on the sustainability of traditional cultures will be important.

Earth

Over Earth's history, plate tectonics have moved continents and created oceans and mountain ranges, impacting polar and global climate and human activities. Understanding the history of change is the key to predicting future change.

Land

Polar environments are under threat from climate change and human-induced risks such as pollution. It is important to monitor changes and to understand ecosystem adaptation to these.

Ocean

Major changes in ocean circulation, for example to the Gulf Stream, could occur with increased freshwater input from melting ice sheets and other climate shifts.

New ways of getting data, including new satellite systems and remote-control vehicles, will help track changes in ocean currents and in marine ecosystems.

Ice

Melting of polar ice sheets will contribute significantly to sea level rise. Satellite measurements and computer models are needed to better estimate future change.

Decreasing sea ice, especially in the Arctic which could be ice-free in summer within 100 years, will significantly affect global climate and polar ecosystems.

Ice samples from kilometres deep in the polar ice sheets reveal hundreds of thousands of years of climate history.

Atmosphere

Better understanding of the role of polar regions in global climate and weather is essential for improved weather forecasting and for understanding climate change.

Ongoing polar measurements at the surface and from satellites are essential to monitor ozone depletion and pollution transport.

Space

Charged particles from the sun interact with the upper atmosphere in polar regions causing "space weather" that affects our health, communications and electric power systems.

The clarity of the polar atmosphere provides an ideal window for deep space astronomical observation.

Range of projects and funding

Of approximately 220 projects and project clusters that have received IPY endorsement, some 115 are Arctic based, 37 Antarctic based, and 66 are bi-polar.

Funding for IPY research will be provided and shared by the national organizations and institutions taking part in each project. To this effect, a number of countries will be boosting polar research funding over the IPY period, whilst others will be funding projects through pre-existing funding programmes.

Among the countries making additional funding available for IPY projects are Canada (0 million), the United States ( million), China ( million), the UK (£5 million for Arctic research) and France (€10 million). The European Union is also funding a number of IPY projects directly, the most important of which is the circa €16 million, Arctic focused, DAMOCLES ice-atmosphere-ocean monitoring project.

Building on a great tradition

The IPY 2007-2008 is the fourth International Polar Year. The first IPY took place in 1881-84; the second in 1932-33; the third in 1957-58.

The first IPY was initiated by Karl Weyprecht, an Austrian naval officer who had co-led the Austro-Hungarian Arctic expedition of 1872-74, and who recognised the scientific importance and relevance of the Polar Regions. It was wholly Arctic based as the Antarctic remained almost entirely unexplored at the time. With a total of 11 nations taking part and a whole new network of observing stations deployed across the Arctic, it was the first programme to study the Arctic through a full annual cycle.

The second IPY of 1932-33 involved 44 nations and also focused entirely on the Arctic. It built on prior research in meteorology and the basic geography of the Arctic, but also studied the newly discovered Jet Stream and expanded exploration into space, examining the ionosphere and the behaviour of radio waves and auroras.

The third IPY was expanded and subsequently renamed the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1958-59. The IGY was the first Polar Year where research was carried out in the Antarctic, which by then was opening up. It also heralded the space age and helped bring forward the launch of the first Earth orbiting satellite, Sputnik. The IGY was truly global involving 67 nations, 8,000 observing stations and about 80,000 participants. The cooperation was all the more remarkable for taking part at the height of the Cold War. It resulted in major scientific breakthroughs such as the discovery of the van Allen radiation belts, the confirmation of continental drift, and the measurement of the Antarctic ice cap's vast extent and thickness. It also led to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 and the setting aside of Antarctic territorial claims.

The first three IPYs were intense and highly successful periods of interdisciplinary scientific research. They yielded a broad range of data giving a snap shot of the state of the polar regions, as well as addressing important questions about their past evolution, and the central role they play in the Earth system.

Education, Outreach and Communication

The IPY aims to raise public awareness of the central importance of the Polar Regions in the Earth System - especially as it relates to climate change. It is also a privileged platform for the broad diffusion of research findings and science in action.

During and beyond the IPY, a host of national, international, private and non-governmental organizations will develop and produce a whole range of events and projects across all platforms and for all types of audiences. Ranging from IMAX films to public lectures, these will also include television documentaries, exhibitions, publications, artworks, dedicated websites, open days, webcasts from the field, conferences and workshops. As well as focusing on polar science they will also address subjects such as polar geography, history, culture, communities, policy, economics and conservation.

To facilitate and help coordinate the IPY education, outreach & communication effort, the IPY International Programme Office is currently redesigning its website (to be re-launched in autumn 2006). The new website (replacing a predominantly administrative site) will be packed with information of interest to a broad range of users. It will include educational links and resources, IPY news, blogs, and an agenda listing education, outreach and communication events and projects around the world.

Coordination

In announcing the next IPY in 2004, ICSU and WMO set up a Joint Committee (JC) to oversee the selection and coordination of scientific research programmes within the IPY framework. The Joint Committee is made up of eminent scientists and Directors of polar research organisations from across the world. Two specialized sub-committees have also been set up to oversee IPY Education and Outreach projects and activities (EOC), and IPY Data Management.

In November 2004, the IPY International Programme Office (IPY-IPO) was opened at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, UK. Funded by the British Natural Environment Council (NERC) and headed by Dr David Carlson, the office comprises three full time staff, two part-time staff, and a Senior Advisor. It will operate until 2010.

Although the IPY does not fund scientific projects, a selection process was instigated whereby 870+ expressions of interest were reviewed by the Joint Committee in order to identify potential IPY topics and research clusters. In the collaborative spirit of the IPY, many projects were encouraged to merge to help coordinate better research outcomes and to submit joint-proposals. When the selection process was closed in March 2006, the Joint Committee and the Education & Outreach subcommittee had selected some 220 projects and clusters to be endorsed as IPY projects.

By: Jean de Pomereu