With 50,000 student, scientists, crew and technicians from more than 60 nations working on 170 projects with a total budget of US$1.3 billion, the International Polar Year (IPY), which ran from March 2007 to March 2009, was the largest research effort ever undertaken in the Arctic and Antarctica. A summary report released today (also here) describes its wealth of findings.
IPY took place against the background of galloping climate change, with some Arctic regions and the Antarctic Peninsula warming twice as fast as the global average. In September 2007, for example, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean fell to a record minimum. But IPY researchers report that climate change also affects physical, chemical and biological processes near the poles in more subtle ways.
The IPY also included studies of geology and tectonics, astronomy, animal and human health, and indigenous people and knowledge in the Arctic.
The 720-page summary report, “Understanding Earth’s Polar Challenges,” was compiled by some 300 authors and reviewers on behalf of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Joint Committee which co-sponsored the IPY. It will be submitted to the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Nuuk, Greenland in May, and to the 34th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina in June.
Some key findings and achievements:
– Changes in the Arctic Ocean are affecting ocean circulation in the North Atlantic. This might lead to a warmer Arctic and colder conditions in mid-latitudes.
– More than 1,000 previously unknown species of marine animal have been identified. Of these, 250 are found at both poles.
– New data on the role of plate tectonics in the main polar corridors for oceanic circulation. As a result, the tectonic map of Antarctica is being redrawn.
– The South Pole Telescope, based in Antarctica, has detected a previously unknown class of galaxy clusters.
– Indigenous knowledge can be combined with instrumental data for monitoring changes such as in polar ice, snow, vegetation, and fauna.
Image: Research station in Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. Credit: Jens Kube.