International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

540
IPY 20 07–20 08
Background with the South Pole Telescope. These
galaxy clusters are more numerous and appeared
earlier in the evolution of the universe than previously
expected (Staniszewski et al., 2009).
Links between the behavior of the sun and earth
climate have long been advanced and discussed primarily
through variations in the amount of energy put
out by the sun, i.e. via solar irradiance changes. During
IPY, scientists deployed instruments designed to measure
the electrical flux through the polar atmosphere
in an effort to examine whether there are additional
couplings between the sun and earth’s climate. These
investigations suggest that small day-to-day atmospheric
pressure variations in the Arctic and Antarctic
are associated with a proxy for the output of the meteorological
generators (thunderstorms and strongly
electrified clouds) of the global atmospheric circuit.
This proxy is derived from vertical electric field measurements
made at the Vostok Station on the Antarctic
ice plateau. Proportionate pressure variations on
the Antarctic plateau are correlated with atmospheric
circuit changes due to solar wind interactions in the
polar regions. This result provides experimental evidence
that a small portion of the global surface pressure
variations is due to the influence of the global atmospheric
circuit. The pressure response to the solar
wind variations is an example of ‘sun-weather’ coupling
via a different mechanism than solar irradiance
changes (Burns et al., 2008).
Measurements in polar regions have potential for
improving the seismic and tomographic models of the
Earth interior. These regions are also unique vantage
points for studying the structure and improving understanding
of the evolution of the Earth’s inner core
and new studies will provide insights into core dynamics
with implications for the Earth’s magnetic field.
Only seismic phases traveling along polar paths can
map seismic anisotropy in the core, generally aligned
parallel to Earth’s rotation axis, which may be due to
convection patterns in the core (Leykam et al., 2010).
Lake Vostok is frequently compared to the ice
covered moons of Saturn and Jupiter, and the
environments in the Antarctic Dry Valleys are viewed
as the habitat on Earth most similar to that on Mars.
During this IPY scientists used the same technology
that was used on the Mars Landers to measure
environmental conditions in the Dry Valleys of
Antarctica. IPY scientists identified microbial biota in
this extreme environment that may be typical of the
types of biota that once inhabited Mars.
The idea that polar regions offer unique insight into
global processes also resonates in the social science
and humanities research, due to the amplification
of many societal phenomena at the local scale. Also,
Arctic regions often feature well developed long-term
data sets, thanks to the long established tradition
of community and human-environmental studies.
During IPY, substantial efforts were made to place
the circumpolar regions into wider global context,
including the development of policies for managing
‘common spaces’, commercial resource exploitation of
the economic ‘frontier’ zones, population exchange
between Arctic and mid-latitudes; and the search for
broadly applicable indicators of sustainability and
community well-being (Larsen et al., 2010).
An internal ‘vantage point’ in the Arctic is the stock
of knowledge about polar environments accumulated
by local residents and, especially, by indigenous
people. Many social scientists and indigenous experts
believe that both of the vantage points offered by
the two ways of knowing, academic knowledge
and local/indigenous knowledge, are needed for a
comprehensive understanding of the polar regions
and processes.
Theme 6: Cultural, Historical and Social
Processes (Human Dimension)
While the goal of IPY was to be fully interdisciplinary
across all the themes, the ICSU IPY Planning Group
added the sixth theme to address various issues related
to human activities (e.g. cultural, economic, health,
political) in the polar regions (Rapley et al., 2004). This
sixth theme ensured that social sciences and the humanities,
as well as polar indigenous people were a
more visible part of the planning and implementation.
The projects developed under this theme sought to
investigate the cultural, historical and social processes
that shape the resilience and sustainability of circumpolar
human societies, and to identify their unique
contributions to global cultural diversity.
In the years prior to IPY, the dichotomy between the
northern and southern regions went far beyond the
basic biological and physical differences exemplified