International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Fig.1.5-16. JC-8
Meeting in St.
Petersburg, July 2008.
Left to right: Rhian
Salmon (IPO), Odd
Rogne (IPO), Nicola
Munro (IPO), Olav
Orheim (Norwegian
IPY Secretariat,
standing), Ian Allison,
Keith Alverson,
Vladimir Kotlyakov.
(Photo: Jerónimo López-
Martínez)
102
IPY 20 07–20 08
the offer from the Canadian IPY Committee to host a
major post-IPY science and policy conference in 2012.
This offer was accepted. For the first time, the JC also
considered the role of its members after the end of
the JC term in 2009, as well as the fate of the JC-IPO
records, website postings and publications.
JC-6 established crucial milestones in planning
for the completion of IPY and for securing its legacy.
Following JC-6, negotiations commenced to find a
secure repository for the IPY archival files, including
the voluminous IPO electronic and online records.
Eventually, Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge,
U.K. agreed to host the IPY 2007–2008 archives and
memorabilia through an agreement with the IPO
(Chapter 4.2). The Arctic Portal (IPY no. 388) took
responsibility for maintaining IPY electronic records. In
spring 2008, Igor Krupnik began recording narratives
of the early IPY champions on the origination and
planning for IPY in 2000–2003 for future IPY historical
records (Chapters 1.2 and 1.3).
JC-7 Meeting and Fourth Open
Consultative Forum: July 2008
With IPY field activities now past their mid-point,
and with limited remaining financial support available
from the sponsors, it was decided to hold only one JC
meeting in 2008 (JC-7) and to hold a final meeting of
the committee (JC-8) in conjunction with the official
IPY ‘closing’ ceremony in March 2009.
JC-7 was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, 4-5 July
2008 at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute
(Appendix 3, Fig. 1.5-16) prior to the joint SCAR/IASC
IPY Open Science Conference 19 (Chapter 5.5; Klepikov,
2008). The conference was the first major meeting for
presentation of results from IPY 2007–2008. The IPY
observational phase had now been running for more
than one year and many endorsed scientific projects
were well underway. This JC meeting was, again, concerned
largely with the issues related to the legacy of
IPY. Ensuring appropriate identification and access to
all IPY data and their long-term preservation, continued
to be a major challenge. National data coordinators,
or data “points of contact”, were to be sought to
help with meta-data registration, but for certain data,
particularly from the social sciences and some life sciences,
there were no guaranteed long-term archives.
The JC prepared an outline of a statement on IPY
activities and ongoing polar challenges to be released
near the end of the IPY observational period in early
2009, and prior to the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic
Treaty (Chapter 5.5). Preliminary arrangements for the