International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

5.1 Early Science Outcomes of IPY 2007–2008
Lead Author:
Robin Bell
Contributing Authors:
Ian Allison, Keith Alverson, Kjell Danell, Eberhard Fahrbach, Igor Krupnik, Jerónimo López-
Martínez, Eduard Sarukhanian and Colin Summerhayes
Reviewers:
Robert Bindschadler and Vladimir Ryabinin
Introduction: Reflecting on IPY Planning
Themes
During the planning phase of IPY 2007–2008, a number
of major themes emerged from the communitybased
consultation planning. In 2004, the ICSU Planning
Group identified six major research themes outlined in
the “Framework” document (Rapley et al., 2004; Chapter
1.3). These major IPY research themes were:
(1) To determine the present environmental status of
the polar regions by quantifying their spatial and
temporal variability.
(2) To quantify and understand past and present
environmental and human change in the polar
regions in order to improve predictions.
(3) To advance our understanding of polar-global
teleconnections on all scales and of the processes
controlling these interactions.
(4) To investigate the unknowns at the frontiers of
science in the polar regions.
(5) To use the unique vantage point of the polar
regions to develop and enhance observatories
studying the Earth’s inner core, the Earth’s
magnetic field, geospace, the Sun and beyond.
(6) To investigate the cultural, historical and social
processes, which shape the resilience and
sustainability of circumpolar human societies, and
to identify their unique contributions to global
cultural diversity and citizenship.
This summary reviews the early ideas and findings
from each of the themes. Our objective is to take stock
of what the IPY scientific community has learned to
date, that is, by the official closing of IPY 2007–2008
at the IPY Open Science Conference in Oslo in June
PA R T FI V E : T H E L E G AC I E S O F I PY 20 07–20 0 8 A N D FU T U R E O F P O L A R R E S E A R C H
2010 (Chapter 5.6). The previous chapters outlined
what happened during IPY. Here, we will focus on the
general achievements of the IPY science program. This
summary is deliberately written to avoid referring to
individual IPY projects, program names or specific
activities that have been amply covered in other
sections of this volume (Part 2; Part 3; Chapters 5.2, 5.3,
and 5.4). As is known from previous IPY/IGY efforts
(Chapter 1.1), the major insights will take a substantial
time to emerge. Given the initial stage of analysis and
interpretation of much of the IPY data, this summary
is neither comprehensive nor complete. Also, it uses a
limited number of references, since the main literature
based on the IPY results has not emerged yet. Many
preliminary results (at the time of this writing) were
only available from the abstracts of papers presented
at the Oslo IPY Science Conference in June 2010 (e.g.,
Bell et al., 2010a; Ferracioli et al., 2010; Wiens et al.,
2010). 1 Nonetheless, this chapter should be viewed as
a first glimpse of the advances in our inter-disciplinary
(and often, cross-disciplinary) understanding of
the processes and linkages in the polar regions. For
decades, the data collected during IPY 2007–2008 will
support new scientific insights and advances.
Theme 1: Present Environmental Status
of the Poles
The aim of the ‘status’ theme was to determine
the present environmental status of the polar regions
by quantifying their spatial and temporal variability.
During the planning process it was envisioned
that the main outcome would be a synoptic set
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