International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
Fig. 1.5-7. JC Co-
Chairs, Michel Béland
and Ian Allison,
outside the IPO at
the British Antarctic
Survey, Cambridge,
U.K. during JC-3, April
2006.
(Photo: David Carlson)
et al., 2007) (Box 6).
A notable development for a meeting a year prior
to the opening of IPY was its focus on the impact of
the IPY after its completion in March 2009. For the first
time, the JC addressed what later became known as
‘IPY legacies’. JC members identified a list of successes
that they hoped would emerge from IPY 2007–2008:
(1) a new regime for research access to the Arctic; (2)
integration of local communities and social sciences;
(3) new observing systems in the Polar Regions; (4)
changing the data management and data centre
culture; and (5) new understanding of the operation of
polar climate (Part 5, Introduction).
The JC also discussed the issue of Ethical Principles
for IPY projects and expressed its reservation regarding
any commercial partnerships within IPY activities. It
reviewed the preparations for IPY ‘launch activities’,
scheduled for early 2007, and agreed to explore the
options for an ‘IPY Summary Conference’ to take place
in either 2009 or 2010. A “statement of requirements”
for such meetings was to be drafted for the next JC
session in September 2006.
Actions from JC-3 and IPY implementation were
subsequently discussed at various meetings, including
the 3rd IPY Open Forum during the SCAR Open
Science Conference in Hobart, Australia in July 2006
(Box 4). Over the course of IPY, the JC Members and the
staff of International Programme Office gave numer-
ous presentations on IPY to many scientific and public
audiences worldwide (Box 5, Chapter 1.6).
JC-4 Meeting: September 2006
The JC-4 meeting was held on 26-28 September
2006 at the University Center of Svalbard (UNIS) in
Longyearbyen (78°N) on the Arctic island of Svalbard
(Appendix 3, Fig. 1.5-9). As part of its regular agenda,
the JC reviewed reports on the activities of the IPO,
the three Subcommittees (on Data Management; Observations;
Education, Outreach and Communication),
the Youth Steering Committee and on the status of IPY
funding. The JC agreed on the establishment of the
IPY Space Task Group as a sub-group of the Subcommittee
on Observations in order to help meet the requirements
on satellite data of individual IPY projects
by the space agencies. The JC also welcomed a new
group of heads of the national IPY secretariats (HAIS)
that was preparing for its first meeting in Washington,
D.C. in October 2006 (Chapter 1.7).
At JC-4, members broke into small teams to advance
completion of the “science plan” in time for the IPY
opening in March 2007 (Box 6, Fig. 1.5-10).
The JC reviewed planning for the main ‘IPY launch
event’ on 1 March 2007 (Box 7) and of the several
related national launch events. Two national IPY
committees submitted reports on their activities for