International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

participated and were trained within the IPY projects.
The NEEM project has provided a deep ice core
reaching back beyond the Eemian period that will
provide a record to advance our knowledge of the
North Atlantic climate and to provide needed data for
a bipolar comparison. This ice core record will continue
to be exploited over the next decade or longer. NEEM
has also helped to reignite interest in using the last
interglacial in both polar regions as a constraint on
the likely environmental impacts of a sustained polar
temperature a few degrees warmer than present. The
IPICS consortium continues to operate, and is in the
process of expanding its NEEM priority project into a
more general study of the last interglacial.
Improved observational facilities include a network
of weather stations on the Greenland ice sheet
and long-term monitoring systems of the fast-moving
Greenland outlet glaciers. The example of cooperation
and coordination between national space agencies
established through the GIIPSY project, and the continuation
of the Space Task Group beyond IPY (Chapter
3.1), will continue to provide high quality satellite data
for polar operations, research and international monitoring
activities such as the Global Cryosphere Watch
(Chapter 3.7).
The GLACIODYN network continues through the
IASC group, now restructured and renamed as the
IASC Network of Glaciology. New projects have been
established by the GLACIODYN network as follow-ups
to the IPY efforts. Some examples include:
1) Six former partner groups in GLACIODYN are
now working together in the EU-project ice2sea
(2009–2013), which aims to reduce the uncertainty
References
ACIA, 2005. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, U.K.
Ananicheva, M.D. and G. Kapustin, (in press). Change
of glacier state in mountain regions of the Russian
Sub-Arctic: assessment by satellite imagery and
aerial photography in the USSR Glacier Inventory
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Boon S., D.O. Burgess, R.M. Koerner and M.J. Sharp,
of sea level contribution from both ice sheets and
glaciers and ice caps.
2) In the Nordic countries a new Nordic Center of
Excellence in Climate and Cryosphere called SVALI
(Stability and Variations of Arctic Land Ice) has been
funded by the Nordic Ministry for the period 2011
to 2015. The 17 partners consist mainly of former
GLACIODYN groups and the established network
during IPY was the basis for the new center.
3) Seventeen former GLACIODYN groups from ten
European countries have recently started a new
project with focus on Svalbard glaciers (SvalGlac).
This is under the umbrella of European Science
Foundation (ESF) program PolarCLIMATE for the
period 2009 to 2012 and was launched as a direct
successor to IPY.
4) Steps have been taken to establish a new modeling
initiative to include dynamics in predictive models
as a contribution to the ice2sea project. This is a
direct follow up of the aims of GLACIODYN which
included development of robust, predictive
models that include key dynamic processes. The
inclusion of ice dynamics in predictive models
of future glacier response would represent a
significant advance from current mass balance
models.
On the wider global stage, International Polar Year
2007–2008 provided a unique opportunity to develop
polar observing systems and, by doing so, begin to
close one of the most significant gaps in global observations.
The Integrated Global Observing Strategy
(IGOS) Cryosphere Theme and the Global Cryosphere
Watch (GCW, Chapter 3.7) are major outcomes of IPY.
2009. 47 years of research on the Devon Island ice
cap, Arctic Canada. Arctic, 63(1):1-17.
Buzin I.V., A.F. Glazovsky, Yu.P. Gudoshnikov, A.I. Danilov,
N.Ye. Dmitiev, G.K. Zubakin, N.V. Kubyshkin, A.K.
Naumov, A.V. Nesterov, A.A. Skutin, E.A. Skutina
and S.I. Shibakin, 2008. Icebergs and glaciers of the
Barents Sea. Results of the most recent research.
Part.1. Main producing glaciers, their propagation
and morphometric properties. Problems of the Arc-
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