International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

organized by broad disciplinary field. Each chapter
summarizes scientific activities in both polar regions,
except for the ocean science chapters (2.2 and 2.3)
and the ice sheet chapters (2.4 and 2.5) which treat the
Arctic and Antarctic research during IPY separately.
Chapter 2.1 covers research related to the polar
atmosphere. It includes reference to 16 projects
that are grouped under two main topics: i) physics
of the troposphere and stratosphere, and climate
change, and ii) tropospheric chemistry, air pollution
and climate impacts. Chapter 2.2 on the Arctic Ocean
focuses on the present and future state of northern
seas and their role in climate. It describes some of the
main advances that were made in research of Arctic
and subarctic seas during IPY, and shows how the
integrated Arctic Ocean Observing System (iAOOS)
served as a coordinating framework for northern
oceanographic projects during IPY. This chapter
reports on important achievements during IPY that
build on existing knowledge of: i) the changing inputs
to the Arctic Ocean from subarctic seas; ii) the changing
oceanography of the Arctic Ocean itself; and iii) the
changing outputs from the Arctic to subarctic seas. IPY
research in the Southern Ocean is covered in Chapter
2.3. It summarizes preliminary results on the role of
the Southern Ocean in the Earth system resulting from
multidisciplinary IPY projects in the Southern Ocean
carried out by scientists from more than 25 countries.
Activities here are grouped into sections on: i) ocean
circulation and climate; ii) biogeochemistry; iii) marine
biology, ecology and biodiversity; and iv) Antarctic
sea ice. Much of the research covered in this chapter
is coordinated with similar activities in the Arctic
(Chapter 2.2) providing a bipolar perspective.
New measurements during IPY led to important
advances in knowledge of the Antarctic and Arctic
ice sheets, and these are described in Chapter 2.4 and
Chapter 2.5 respectively. IPY projects investigated
ice shelves and the interaction between the ice
sheets and the ocean; the subglacial domain; surface
and subglacial measurements, including satellite,
geological and geophysical observations; and field
and numerical modeling studies of climate and glacial
history. Advances in the study of subglacial aquatic
environments during IPY are summarized in Chapter
2.6. During IPY 2007–2008, subglacial lakes and water
movement beneath the ice was recognized as a
common feature of ice sheets, with potential influence
on ice sheet movement and possibly on past and
future climate change.
Chapter 2.7 covers regional, bipolar and multidisciplinary
permafrost research. Activities during IPY
focused on assessment of the thermal state of permafrost
and the thickness of the active layer; on the
quantification of carbon pools in permafrost and
their potential future remobilization; on quantification
of erosion and release of sediment along permafrost
coasts; and on periglacial process and landform
quantification.
Chapter 2.8 deals with IPY projects studying
Earth structure and geodynamics in polar regions. It
includes research into the geodynamic, tectonic and
sedimentary processes that drive the topographic
formation and the location of the ocean basins and
corridors between emergent land masses. These
corridors, which determine ocean current paths,
have changed over time, with consequences to
global climate. New geodynamic observations in
several regions during and just prior to IPY, using
seismic, magnetic, gravity and ice-penetrating radar
techniques, together with satellite imagery and
geological observations, contributed to this research.
Research into geodynamic processes at the base of
polar ice sheets are also covered in this chapter. This
chapter shows how the network of polar Earth and
geodynamics observatories has been significantly
improved during IPY.
The research carried out during IPY on terrestrial
ecology is covered in Chapter 2.9. Parts of the Arctic
and the Antarctic Peninsula are warming twice as
fast as elsewhere on Earth and many impacts already
affect biodiversity and ecosystem processes, some
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