Informing, educating and involving the next generation is vital to the success of IPY. The YSC is committed to maximizing the benefit of IPY for the world’s youth through youth involvement and youth-focused education and outreach information. Some YSC projects include an international youth conference (2008), an educational website (on-going) and a joint expedition series to both poles (2007-2008).

Comparative Studies of Marine Arctic and Antarctic Ecosystems and the Potential Consequences of Climate Change The polar ecosystems are of key importance for the earth's climate and biosphere. ICES will coordinate a symposium to present major results and conclusions of the IPY entitled “Comparative Studies of Marine Arctic and Antarctic Ecosystems and the Potential Consequences of Climate Change”. The congress will be held in 2010 in an ICES member state or affiliate country.

PPS Arctic: Present day processes, Past changes, and Spatiotemporal variability of biotic, abiotic and socio-environmental conditions and resource components along and across the Arctic delimitation zone. PPS Arctic investigates the causes and consequences of changes in the circumarctic treeline zone, using fieldwork and remote sensing to study and model temporal and spatial aspects of ecological, social and cultural factors. Changes in the zone affect Arctic ecosystem processes, resource availability and the entire Arctic climate through changes in tree and shrub cover and in albedo, with global consequences.

An International Antarctic University The International Antarctic Institute is a consortium being developed by leading global Antarctic educational and research-intensive institutes. Its purpose is to facilitate cooperation and collaboration between member universities in Antarctic undergraduate and postgraduate multi disciplinary education. By sharing teaching resources between international partner universities we can create educational opportunities on a scale unattainable by any one institute or through traditional bilateral alliances.

"Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY is the coordinated project for the sea ice zone surrounding Antarctica, covering over 20 million sqkm (the size of South America) at maximum extent. Our purpose is to determine, for the first time, the circumpolar year-round sea ice thicknesses in this zone. This effort requires extensive ship investigations, coordinated satellite monitoring and use of underwater technologies such as up looking sonar from moorings and use of unmanned autonomous underwater vehicles. The reflectivity or albedo of the earth's surface represents one of the main determinants of surface temperature and, Antarctic sea ice as one of the most large-scale changeable sources of reflected solar energy therefore represents a major contributor to climate and climate change."

Three terrestrial components of the cryosphere: snow cover, permafrost, and small glaciers will be studied as well as their interactions with society and potential feedbacks to the Global Earth System. Within each area of research the foci of studies will be on the models’ development and creation of conditions for seamless their implementation to improve understanding and projections of environmental change and to serve numerous practical applications.

The Arctic coastal zone is sensitive to changes in marine, atmospheric, and terrestrial systems. Variations in sea ice extent, wave and storm intensity, air and water temperatures, and ground ice content affect the rate and magnitude of coastal change. A very sparsely populated region, the Arctic coastline is poorly observed when compared to temperate and tropical coastal zones, despite the fact that human systems in the Arctic are located in and dependent on processes in the coastal zone. The Arctic coastal zone needs to be monitored, both as a barometer for global change and for its human relevance. The international effort to align coastal observations in the Arctic is led by the Arctic Circumpolar Coastal Observatory Network (ACCO-Net). ACCO-Net includes a network of key sites setup by the Arctic Coastal Dynamics (ACD) project of the IASC, and 17 International Polar Year (IPY) projects from around the Arctic. ACCO-Net provides three categories of support to an SAON: 1) a network of regional experts responsible for running observations; 2) historical and current data in an Arctic circumpolar GIS database; and 3) a catalogue of site characteristics based on remotely sensed products. The regional experts have been assembled through IASC’s Arctic Coastal Dynamics project, and through the IPY project cluster on Arctic coastal observatories, which ACCO-Net leads. The coastal database is currently available in beta form, and includes a segmentation and classification of the circumpolar Arctic coastline. The current coastline used is the World Vector Shoreline, which has been divided into over 8000 segments on the basis of geomorphology, coastline position change rate, and ground composition, as well as other parameters. The GIS format allows searching and querying, and the database is currently mounted as an internet map server. The catalogue of site characteristics has two principle aspects: i) a monitoring template describing the primary and secondary monitoring parameters for each observatory site, and including links to standard operating procedures for each, and ii) standardized coastline position and digital elevation models for each observatory site, based on optical and infrared satellite data collected during IPY as part of the European Space Agency’s IPY program. ACCO-Net partner projects are currently selecting imagery for the catalogue and will co-ordinate their activities via a series of workshops supported by the International Space Science Institute.

The proposed project focuses the efforts of 20 scientists in 9 countries to produce a series of benchmark data sets for the International Polar Year. Those data sets culminate in the first quantification of the total rate of ice loss by flow from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work will be conducted by young scientists mentored by professional scientists to help train the next generation of scientists in the use of remote sensing data of the polar regions. Satellite data include ICESat laser altimetry, Landsat optical imagery and various European and Canadian synthetic aperture radar data.