INTERNATIONAL POLAR YEAR 2007-2008

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Arctic Council Directed

Arctic Human Health Initiative
Human health has not been a theme of any previous IPY, and this event provides an opportunity to highlight Arctic human health issues, concerns, and research successes and challenges that face Arctic populations. The objectives of the AHHI are to promote international collaboration on health research and health promotion in the areas of health disparity elimination, the effects of anthropogenic pollution, rapid social and economic changes, and climate variability on human health.

Expressions of Intent for IPY 2007-2008 Activities
The international research community was invited to submit to the IPY International Programme Office (IPO) brief expressions of intent for IPY activities. The EoI's have been placed in an online database, which can be searched from this web-page.

International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008
The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 will be an intense, internationally coordinated campaign of research that will initiate a new era in polar science. IPY 2007-2008 will include research in both polar regions and recognize the strong links these regions have with the rest of the globe. It will involve a wide range of research disciplines, including the social sciences, but the emphasis will be interdisciplinary in its approach and truly international in participation.

International Polar Year Data and Information Service (IPYDIS)
This site helps researchers and data users identify data access mechanisms, archives, and services. It also provides information and assistance to data managers on compliance with standards, development of a union catalog of IPY metadata, and other data management requirements for IPY. It provides a general communication forum for all matters related to accessing, managing, and preserving IPY and related data.

Organizations

Canadian International Polar Year Web Site
Federal funding has enabled Canada to carry out an innovative, multidisciplinary program for IPY that focuses on two key priority areas for science and research: climate change impacts and adaptation, and the health and well-being of Northern Canadians.

International Council for Science (ICSU)
The ICSU and World Meteorological Organization formed a joint committee to launch IPY 2007 -2008. ICSU was formed to strengthen international science for the benefit of society.

International Polar Year Alaska
The University of Alaska IPY Office was established to promote UA research, education, and outreach activities and to ensure that the benefits of IPY extend to everyone in Alaska.

International Union for Circumpolar Health
The health problems and needs of northern peoples has become the focus of the only organization of its kind dedicated to the health problems of the circumpolar regions—the International Union for Circumpolar Health.

NASA and the International Polar Year
NASA brings a unique perspective to IPY, offering a vantage point from space and unique technical capabilities for monitoring the current and future health of our planet.

National Research Council - A Vision for International Polar Year 2007-2008
Guide for IPY research in the United States. (PDF 27.5 MB)

National Science Foundation - International Polar Year (IPY), 2007-2008
Information for the research and education communities.

US Arctic Research Committee
The committee's principal duties are to develop and recommend an integrated national Arctic research policy and assist in establishing a national Arctic research program plan to implement the policy. They also facilitate cooperation between the Federal Government, State and local governments, and other nations with respect to arctic research, both basic and applied.

US International Polar Year
National Science Foundation site designed to provide researchers, educators, the news media, and the general public with information about federally supported IPY research, expeditions, resources, events and related activities.

World Ocean Observatory: International Polar Year 2007-2008
The World Ocean Observatory is working in partnership with IPY on several projects. Project information will be available on this site as they occur over the next two years.

Workshops, Conferences and Reports

International Polar Year Data Management Workshop Report
The report of the workshop that was held to develop a strategy for the management of data from the International Polar Year. The IPY will be the largest international polar science project ever conducted, and it is considered essential that its legacy be fully available for future generations. (PDF 1.6 MB)

13th International Congress on Circumpolar Health—Gateway to the International Polar Year
Conference held in Novosibirsk, Russia, June 12-16, 2006, with a mission to (1) strengthen the international professional ties between the medical scientists, health care specialists, health administrators, and indigenous peoples of the Far North; (2) enrich knowledge in the circumpolar health sciences and up-to-date scientific technologies; and (3) develop new cooperative projects.

Other

Arctic Documentary Film database
This database contains information on approximately 35,000 documentary films from the Barents region.

As Polar Year ends, researchers look for climate clues in mountains of data
PBS NewsHour, April 10, 2009. A period of intensive study of the Earth's polar caps, called the International Polar Year, ended in March 2009, leaving researchers with a bounty of data to sort through to help inform the next generation of polar research.

The big melt: Notes from the front lines of climate change
E. Grossman. Earth Island Journal (2008) 23(2):34-38. For almost a month, the author's home was the CCGS Amundsen, a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker and scientific research vessel that was the first to spend the winter moving through sea ice north of the Arctic Circle. This expedition, which involved more than 200 scientists from 15 different countries, was the largest International Polar Year project underway.

First International Polar Year: 1881-1884
The records of the first International Polar Year (IPY) offer a unique opportunity to study the Arctic as it existed prior to the present era of environmental change.

Ice stories: Dispatches from polar scientists
For the International Polar Year, polar scientists were given cameras and blogging tools and asked to document their field work. Follow along on their adventures and see what it's like to be a research scientist in the Arctic or Antarctica.

International Polar Year kicks off
NPR's "Talk of the Nation," March 2, 2007. A two-year research program aims to better understand the poles and how they affect Earth's climate. Polar explorer Will Steger provides an update from the site of his latest trek, a 1,200-mile dogsled expedition across the Canadian Arctic's Baffin Island.