WGMS and the International Polar Year 2007-2008

The International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008 is an ambitious coordinated international science program co-sponsored by the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) including research and observations in both the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions. Rapid changes in snow and ice cover as well as resulting impacts on atmosphere, land, ocean, vegetation, animals and human beings are one of the key issues of the IPY. About three quarters of the global area of glaciers and ice caps are located in polar regions (outside 60° North and South). From this glacierized area, there are 224 front variation series and 82 mass balance series available at WGMS. The IPY is a great opportunity to strengthen and extend the existing glacier monitoring network.

In cooperation with the IPY Data and Information Service (IPYDIS), the WGMS actively supports the IPY by providing monitoring standards for glaciers and ice caps, making readily available the existing data, and aiming at compiling, storing and publishing standardized glacier data produced during this project.

WGMS staff members, in cooperation with scientists related to the WGMS network, contributed to the Global Outlook for Ice and Snow - the official IPY project of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

http://www.unep.org/geo/geo_ice/

If you are looking for glacier data and monitoring standards, or if you want to submit data to the WGMS, please contact us!

The following lists give an overview of selected IPY projects and events related to glaciers and ice caps, as well as of IPY links.

• The dynamic response of Arctic glaciers to global warming (Netherlands)
• Dynamic response of Greenland outlet glaciers to Arctic warming (UK)
• Extending SEAMONSTER: Building a Wireless Infrastructure Across Coastal Alaskan Glaciers and Icefields (USA)
• Subpolar glaciers network as natural sensors of global warming evolution (Spain)
• The stability of floating glaciers of northeast Greenland in an era of increased wave height and diminishing sea ice conditions. (UK )
• Evolution of Spitsbergen Glaciers in response to climate change (Poland)
• Mass Balance and Ice Dynamics of Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers for IPY2007-2008. (USA)
• Glaciers, Climate and Sea Level (USA)
• CANADA #150:THE DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF ARCTIC GLACIERS (Canada)
• CANADA #125: Dynamic response of tidewater vs. land-terminating glaciers to climate change, Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada (Canada)
• Temporal Changes of Tidewater Glaciersic Drilling to Investigate Geology, Geomechanics, Gas Hydrates and Microbiology of Deep (USA)
• Polar glaciers and ice caps as indicator of climate change (Russia)
• Monitoring movements of Antarctic Ice Sheet and Glaciers on Coastlines by SAR (Japan)
• Archaeology on Ice: The Emerging Archeology of Glaciers (USA)
• Climate and mass balance on glaciers in the Nordic countries (Iceland)
• Temperate ice caps in changing climates (Iceland)
• A circum-polar study of the sensitivity of large Arctic ice caps to climate change (UK)
• More IPY projects...

• MOCA Joint Assembly
  (Quebec, Canada; Jul 19–Jul 29, 2009)
• IPY Oslo Science Conference
  (Oslo, Norway; June 2010)
• More IPY events...