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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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November 2004, it was agreed that the standing IASC<br />

Executive Secretary should represent IASC on the IPY<br />

Joint Committee. Subsequently, IASC representatives<br />

took active part in all meetings of the Joint Committee<br />

and in the implementation of IPY during 2005–2010.<br />

Scientific Committee on Antarctic<br />

Research (SCAR)<br />

Colin Summerhayes<br />

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research<br />

(SCAR) was formed by ICSU in 1958 to continue the<br />

work on coordinating Antarctic research that had<br />

begun during the <strong>International</strong> Geophysical <strong>Year</strong> of<br />

1957–1958. SCAR’s mission is “to be the leading independent<br />

organization for facilitating and coordinating<br />

Antarctic research, and for identifying issues emerging<br />

from greater scientific understanding of the region that<br />

should be brought to the attention of policy makers”. The<br />

membership of SCAR comprises the National Committees<br />

or research councils of 36 nations that are active<br />

in Antarctic research, and nine ICSU Scientific Unions.<br />

The earliest record of SCAR involvement with IPY<br />

<strong>2007–2008</strong> is from the report of the SCAR meeting in<br />

Tokyo, 17-21 July, 2000, where Karl Erb (U.S.A.) told Delegates<br />

that the COMNAP XII Meeting held during the<br />

previous week had agreed “to prepare for recognition<br />

of the 50th Anniversary of the <strong>International</strong> Geophysical<br />

<strong>Year</strong> in <strong>2007–2008</strong>”. The following year (22 August,<br />

2001), at the joint meeting of the SCAR and COMNAP<br />

Executive Committees in Amsterdam, there was a discussion<br />

on the prospective activities to celebrate the<br />

50th Anniversary of the <strong>International</strong> Geophysical<br />

<strong>Year</strong> in <strong>2007–2008</strong> (Chapter 1.2).<br />

At the 27th SCAR meeting, in Shanghai, on 22-26<br />

July, 2002 (Fig.1.4-1), delegates were reminded that the<br />

year <strong>2007–2008</strong> would be the 50th Anniversary of IGY,<br />

and so was also an important anniversary for SCAR,<br />

which had been formed in 1958. Delegates were<br />

asked to consider what plans SCAR had to celebrate<br />

or commemorate this anniversary. Heinz Miller (AWI)<br />

gave a presentation on a proposal to investigate the<br />

Ice Divide of Eastern Antarctica (IDEA), which would<br />

involve a surface traverse of Eastern Antarctica over<br />

a four-year period (2007–2011), with a series of glaciological,<br />

geological, geophysical and climatological<br />

Fig. 1.4-1. A group of the participants of the XXVII SCAR meeting (Shanghai, 22-26 July 2002) including several people<br />

who were later instrumental in the IPY development: first row - Chris Rapley (PG Chair, JC member and SCAR Vice<br />

President 2000-2004, later President, 2006-2008, fourth from left), Roland Schlich (SCAR Vice President 2000-2004,<br />

fifth from left), Bob Rutford (outgoing SCAR President, eighth from left); second row - Jerónimo López-Martínez (JC<br />

Co-Chair and SCAR Vice President 2002-2006, second from left), Prem Pandey (PG Member, sixth from left), Jörn Thiede<br />

(SCAR President 2002-2006 and EPB Chair, seventh from left), Olav Orheim (PG Member and organizer of the 2010 Oslo<br />

IPY Conference, eighth from left), Chris Elfring (Director, U.S. <strong>Polar</strong> Research Board, ninth from left); third row - Michael<br />

Stoddart (Leader of the CAML IPY Project, third from left); fourth row - Vladimir Kotlyakov (PG and JC Member, fifth from<br />

left), Ian Allison (PG Member and JC Co-Chair, seventh from left), Chuck Kennicutt (JC Member, and SCAR President 2008<br />

onwards, eleventh from left), Heinz Miller (one of the first proposers of an IPY science project, fifteenth from left). Many<br />

other key members of the SCAR and IPY communities are also in the photograph.<br />

(Photo: SCAR archives, courtesy Colin Summerhayes)<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 71

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