IPY Joint Committee Meeting and Celebration
23-25 February 2009
World Meteorological Organization
Geneva, Switzerland
The IPY Joint Committee (JC) met 23 and 24 February, and the IPY Celebration marking the end of the primary IPY field period was held 25 February. The focus of the JC meeting was on how to maintain the momentum of IPY activities and sustain the networks, observing systems, and data produced during IPY. I attended to present a report of the IPY Data Policy and Management SubCommittee, which I co-chair. The report entitled “IPY Data Management Strategy, Status, and Roadmap” is available at http://ipydis.org/documents/jc8report_feb09.pdf. The JC accepted this report and agreed to support continued IPY data management activities.
The primary product for the celebration was The State of Polar Research, a summary document prepared by the JC which highlights initial advances in polar research made during IPY, the critical research challenges for the future, and recommendations for a way forward. See the report at http://www.ipy.org/index.php?/ipy/detail/state_of_polar_research/. This should be viewed as an initial report. The JC will be writing a book on the overall IPY experience and scientific advances. I will contribute to data and other chapters. IPY will also be contributing to several major scientific assessments, including:
- Climate Change and the Cryosphere: Snow, Water, Ice, and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) is an Arctic Council ‘Cryosphere Project’ in Cooperation with IASC, CliC and IPY. An initial version will be presented to the Conference of the Parties in the UN climate convention (CoP15) in Copenhagen in December.
- Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment which is intended to be an equivalent of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and should be published this summer.
The Joint Committee will continue but will not meet again until the end of their term right before the next IPY Science Conference in Oslo, 8-12 June 2010 (http://www.ipy-osc.no/). The Programme Office will also continue at a reduced level until this meeting. The Oslo conference and a follow-on in Canada in 2012 will provide the focus for IPY wrap-up activities including publication of the data and research results and the incorporation of sustained activities within international structures. Members of IPYDIS will work over the next year at a workshop supported by Canada and in conjunction with a September meeting of the Standing Committee on Antarctic Data to define the “IPY Data Collection”. The collection will be presented at the Oslo conference. Major scientific assessments and the book by the JC will be completed by the the 2012 Conference.
To continue the data effort, ICSU has provided a small grant to CODATA to develop the framework for polar data sharing and preservation through a “Polar Information Commons.” My report to the JC describes the effort. More information will be coming out soon. This relates to the transition to the World Data System. The WDS transition team chaired by Bernard Minster and Nicole Capitaine, meets in 9-11 March. Taco de Bruin and I will submit a brief white paper on lessons learned from IPY. Paul Cutler, the ICSU observer on the JC will represent IPY at the meeting. Lessons and recommendations from IPY, other projects, and the Unions will be reviewed. The final result of this meeting will be a white paper on the particulars of how to implement the new WDS including certification criteria. The ICSU Executive meet at the end of April during which the new ICSU data committees will likely be determined. I suspect we will have a nascent functioning WDS in six to twelve months.
Finally, the UN and WMO hosted a series of celebrations and press conferences. A reception one evening at the Palais des Nations featured a photo exhibition by Christian Morel highlighting IPY researchers at work in the field. The photo gallery is available at http://www.wmo.int/artgallery/polar/our_polar_heritage/our_polar_heritage.html.
