International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Fig. 1.1-6 First
meeting of the
Commission for the
Polar Year 1932–1933
(CPY-1), 26–30 August
1930, Leningrad
Russia. Most of the
Russian and foreign
dignitaries are sitting
in the front row. Hugo
Dominik is the third
person and Dan la
Cour is the last person
on the right (see Lajus
2008 for the full list of
names).
Photo courtesy: Julia Lajus,
with the permission from the
Russian Academy of Sciences
Archives, St. Petersburg,
Russia.
12
IPY 20 07–20 08
1930 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg – Fig. 1.1-6), CPY-
2 in September 1931 in Innsbruck and CPY-3 in
Copenhagen in May 1933. At CPY-2 in 1931, it became
clear that, owing to the world economic crisis, several
nations would be unable to provide funds for their
IPY efforts. The CPY considered postponing the start
of IPY until a better time, but eventually resolved to
proceed (Laursen, 1959).
IPY-2 officially lasted 13 months (same time-span as
IPY-1): from 1 August 1932 until 1 September 1933. The
operational dates for proposed Antarctic stations were
set from January 1933 to February 1934 (Elzinga, 2009).
Forty-four nations took part, four times the number of
the IPY-1 participants, including several countries from
the Southern hemisphere, such as Argentina, Australia,
Chile, New Zealand and South Africa (Box 3). 18 Sixteen
countries formed their national IPY committees and
22 organized expeditions or established observational
stations beyond their national borders (Laursen, 1951).
Also, the IPY-2 worldwide observational network
introduced many nations and then colonial states
to global science efforts, including those located far
away from the Poles, making it a true international
program. More than 30 stations operated in the Arctic,
including nine that had been active in IPY-1 (Barrow,
Bossekop, Cape Thordsen, Dikson, Fort Rae, Godhavn,
Jan Mayen, Matochkin Shar and Sodankylä). 19 Despite
much effort, no stations were established on the
Antarctic continent; only three stations operated on
sub-Antarctic islands and at the southernmost tip of
South America.
Great attention was paid to the publication and
management of the IPY-2 data. A special subcommittee
for publications was established at CPY-1 in 1930.
It prepared detailed instructions for future publication
of data in meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, atmospheric
electricity, aurora and aerology. Proceedings
of three CPY meetings were published in French, English
and German as subsequent issues of the Secretariat
de l’Organisation Météorologique Internationale. 20
Other reports, observational instructions and resolutions
related to IPY-2 appeared in IMO publications
between 1929 and 1938. The full set of documents
pertaining to the preparation, implementation and
results of IPY-2 was compiled after World War II by the
former CPY secretary Bruun de Neergaard in a manuscript
preserved at the Danish Meteorological Institute
(Laursen, 1951) 21 ; it was never published.
The most important international contribution of
IPY-2 was the almost complete set of daily synoptic