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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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of la Cour; it was later expanded to 15 members. 15<br />

IPY-2 was formally announced in December 1929<br />

and national committees were set up by several<br />

countries to organize national IPY efforts (Patton,<br />

1933). Germany and, particularly, Russia (then Soviet<br />

Union) developed the most ambitious IPY programs. 16<br />

Also, an important step was the IMO’s invitation to the<br />

<strong>International</strong> Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG)<br />

and other outside bodies to join forces in the IPY-2<br />

planning. The IUGG General Assembly endorsed the<br />

plan for IPY-2 and set up a small committee in August<br />

1930 to manage that cooperation. 17 This brought<br />

financial resources of IUGG to the IPY-2 process. It<br />

also opened a new page in IPY history, as the same<br />

model of partnership among several organizations<br />

representing international scientific unions and<br />

governmental meteorological agencies would be later<br />

invoked in the preparation for IGY and IPY <strong>2007–2008</strong>.<br />

Eventually, the <strong>International</strong> Scientific Radio Union<br />

(URSI), <strong>International</strong> Council for the Exploration of the<br />

Sea and three commissions of the IMO (Commission for<br />

the Study of Clouds, Commission for Solar Radiation<br />

and the Commission for the Investigation of the Upper<br />

Air) joined the planning effort and promoted IPY-2<br />

observations in their respective fields (Laursen, 1951,<br />

1959).<br />

By comparison with IPY-1, IPY-2 had a broader<br />

science program beyond meteorology, atmospheric<br />

electricity and aurora and geomagnetic observations,<br />

particularly in planetary geophysics. New fields<br />

included aerology, cosmic rays, radiation and<br />

radioelectricity, Earth currents, and ozone studies.<br />

More research was done from ships, particularly in the<br />

Russian Arctic, also on polar ice sheets and mountain<br />

glaciers in the temperate regions. At the same time,<br />

IPY-2 steered away from the IPY-1 ‘natural history’<br />

template that included botany, zoology, anthropology<br />

and museum collecting (Baker, 1982a). IPY-2 had little<br />

of that (Laursen, 1951) and whatever research beyond<br />

geophysics was conducted as individual team or even<br />

scientist’s initiatives.<br />

The CPY held three meetings: CPY-1 in August<br />

Fig. 1.1-5 Materials<br />

collected during IPY-1<br />

were published in<br />

large-size ‘Expedition<br />

report’ volumes, like<br />

those for the U.S.<br />

IPY expeditions to<br />

Point Barrow, Alaska<br />

and Lady Franklin<br />

Bay, Elsmere Island,<br />

Canada.<br />

(Photo: Igor Krupnik)<br />

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 11

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