International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

July 2003 AOSB Newsletter details the three initiatives:
(1) multi-platform Intensive Observing Period to focus
on the Arctic Ocean, its physics, biogeochemistry, variability
and the climatic drivers of that variability; (2)
integrative circum-arctic assessment of the physical,
biogeochemical, ecological and socio-economic importance
of the Arctic shelves; and (3) study of the role
of the High-latitude Oceans in the Global Water Cycle.
The rationale for the three suggested proposals was
based upon the fact that the Arctic Ocean was likely
to be very different in 2007–2008 from that revealed in
the past observational records and that the forthcoming
change in the Arctic would likely have global impacts.
The full text of the white paper was published in
a special ‘IPY issue’ of the AOSB Newsletter (July 2003
– Fig.1.4-6) that opened up with a short overview of
IPY by Chris Elfring and Chris Rapley (AOSB, 2003).
By the time of the next AOSB meeting in April 2004
in Reykjavik, Iceland, the ICSU process had developed
into a full-fledged planning group. Naja Mikkelsen
of the AOSB attended the IPY Open Forum in Paris
in March 2004, from which the five main science
themes for IPY 2007–2008 were developed. During the
following AOSB meeting, it was agreed that the three
AOSB proposals developed in 2003 tracked nicely
with the proposed IPY themes. Knowing that the ICSU
Planning Group would meet again in September 2004,
the Board appointed Robert Dickson to produce an
initial draft of a feasibility study, which would serve
to integrate all three AOSB proposals. It was agreed
that time did not permit the full integration of all ideas
related to the Arctic Ocean studies submitted to the
IPY Planning Group, but rather to focus on the three
developed by the AOSB (integration of most of the
physical oceanographic IPY proposals was completed
at a later date). Dickson visited key players in the AOSB
planning and developed an overarching AOSB draft
proposal that was vetted by the drafting group in
Copenhagen in June 2004. The integrated plan, which
was renamed the ‘integrated Arctic Ocean Observing
System’ (iAOOS), was endorsed as an AOSB observing
plan for the Arctic Ocean and submitted to the IPY PG
in September 2004. It was eventually approved by the
IPY Joint Committee as a ‘core project’ in 2005; the
Science Plan for iAOOS, approved by both the AOSB
and CliC Boards, was fully developed and published in
2006 (Dickson, 2006; Chapter 3.3).
The World Climate Research Programme
(WCRP)
Barry Goodison and Vladimir Ryabinin
The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP)
was founded in 1980 by WMO and ICSU. In 1993 the
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
(IOC) of UNESCO became the third sponsor of WCRP.
WCRP plays a key role in stimulating, coordinating
and facilitating climate research and has made major
contributions to IPCC and Ozone Assessments as
well as to the development of climate prediction.
The WCRP research over the past decade was clearly
indicating the likelihood of massive changes in the
Polar Regions and their high importance for the rest of
the globe. This awareness helped set the stage for the
climate component of IPY 2007–2008 and served as an
essential justification for a new IPY.
In 2000, WCRP initiated the core project “Climate
and Cryosphere” (CliC), a global initiative, which would
continue beyond the end of the Arctic Climate System
Study (ACSYS). In October 2002, the ACSYS/CliC
Scientific Steering Group discussed the idea of a new
IPY in detail for the first time within WCRP. Chad Dick,
Director of the ACSYS/CliC IPO (IACPO), who had been
involved in early discussions with other groups, presented
the concept of an International Polar Year (IPY)
in 2007–2008 to mark the 50th anniversary of the International
Geophysical Year (IGY). The SSG had a positive
discussion on the status of the concept and possible
projects that CliC and WCRP might like to consider supporting
under the IPY framework (Chapter 1.2).
To move the discussion forward, Ian Allison, Roger
Barry, Chad Dick, Vladimir Kotlyakov and Jay Zwally
formed an ad hoc committee, which agreed that cryosphere
and climate should be an important element of
the IPY program and that synchronous observations
of snow cover, sea-ice, permafrost, mountain glaciers
and ice sheets should be made in both hemispheres.
They also recommended that a concept paper should
be developed to justify the initiation of an International
Polar Decade (IPD) in 2007–2008 rather than just
a “Polar Year,” which was deemed to be too short for
climate studies (Chapter 1.2).
This discussion continued at the next session of the
Joint Scientific Committee (JSC) for the WCRP in March
2003 and resulted in JSC supporting the involvement
of WCRP in the activities associated with a proposed
P l a n n I n g a n d I m P l e m e n t I n g I P Y 2 0 0 7–2 0 0 8 77