International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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IPY 20 07–20 08
of multidisciplinary observations to establish the
status of the polar environments during the ‘IPY era’
that would become a baseline for measuring future
change. The status theme specifically included polar
issues related to biodiversity and to polar residents,
their health, and social and economic well-being.
The examples advanced during the planning process
included establishing the status of the high latitude
ocean circulation and composition, documenting
polar ecosystem structure and function variability
through space and identifying the contemporary
factors of social cohesion and values for polar societies.
The IPY benchmark measurements produced
new baselines of polar environmental conditions,
biodiversity and ecosystem processes, status of
the polar oceans, uniquely coordinated satellite
observations of the polar environments and new
measurements of the polar permafrost and the polar
atmosphere. Determining spatial and temporal
status of the environmental change, understanding
the connections between the change and human
impacts and understanding polar-global linkages
– cannot possibly be addressed with two years of
data. Understanding these complex connections
will require sustained, global monitoring integrated
across a wide range of disciplines.
IPY 2007–2008 built on the wealth of new scientific
discoveries that catalyzed the development of
sustained observing systems. For example, because
of IPY, atmospheric observations are now taken at a
consortium of research stations, employing standardized
measurement techniques to monitor meteorological
parameters, greenhouse gases, atmospheric
radiation, clouds, pollutants, chemistry, aerosols and
surface energy balances (Chapters 3.4 and 3.5). Similarly,
the oceanographic community has effectively
used IPY projects to address some of the major gaps
in global ocean monitoring systems, to develop novel
polar technologies as the core of efforts in the Arctic
and Southern Oceans, and to link different monitoring
systems run by individual agencies or nations into
much more extensive and coordinated network (Bates
and Alverson, 2010; Figs. 5.1-1 and 5.1-2).
Early insights are emerging from IPY baseline
measurements. For example, IPY baseline permafrost
observations were based on borehole temperature
measurements (Chapter 2.7). The analysis of the
permafrost temperature data in the borehole network
improved during IPY demonstrated that the evolution
of the permafrost temperatures is spatially variable
and that the signs of warming of the upper permafrost
differ in magnitude regionally. Simultaneously, new
observing systems, particularly in biological sciences,
have begun. Integrated, systematic observations
of key species and habitats as part of long-term
circumpolar monitoring programs are beginning
to take shape and will be increasingly required to
underpin management of ecosystem health and
services in the face of the combined future impacts
of climatic change and economic development in the
polar regions.
IPY 2007–2008 was organized at a critical time.
The Arctic and Antarctic Peninsula are known to be
warming much faster than the rest of the globe (IPCC,
2007). Many impacts are already affecting biodiversity
and ecosystem processes, some of which are likely
to have global consequences. The international science
community documented changes, deepened
understanding of their causes, established baselines
against which future changes can be measured, and
projected future scenarios including local and global
impact (Chapter 5.2; Dahl-Jensen et al., 2009; SWIPA,
2009; Turner et al., 2009a). Key to establishing these
ecological benchmarks were biodiversity monitoring,
data management and reporting through the development
of integrated, ecosystem-based monitoring
plans, coordinated, web-based data management
products and targeted reporting tools (e.g. development
of biodiversity indicators and indices). One
important result is the intensified discussions on the
urgent need for ongoing international, integrated
monitoring systems of the Polar systems.
The facilities and instruments were improved at
significant number of meteorological polar stations
during IPY to provide basic meteorological variables
and more reliable aerosol, chemistry, pollutant,
greenhouse gases, fluxes, radiation, cosmic rays, ozone
and carbon cycle measurements. Fluxes of charged
particles observed in the atmosphere are the evidence
to unusually profound and long-lasting solar activity
minimum (Kotlyakov et al., 2010). To improve the data
coverage in Antarctica, the meteorological observing
network was extended by deploying new automatic
weather stations at the location of the former manned