Contents:

1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007
2. AGU
3. Data Coordinators
4. IPO in December
5. IPY Events and Conferences
6. Logos and Clothing
7. Two recent meetings
8. Blog on www.IPY.org

From: IPY International Programme Office
To: IPY Project Coordinators
cc: IPY Community Google Groups



1. IPY Science Day: Ice Sheets, December 13th 2007

December 13th marks the second IPY Science Day, focussing on Ice Sheets. You can find information from more than 20 IPY Projects researching various aspects of Ice Sheets on www.ipy.org, as well as an educational flier, in 16 languages, and information for teachers and media. Show your involvement in IPY by launching a virtual balloon on this day!


2. American Geophysical Union meeting, 10 to 14 December 2007

IPY will have a large presence at AGU, with Union and Section science and education sessions, town meetings, and countless side meetings. We hope to display a list of daily IPY-related events at the IPY exhibit. We will also have copies of the new LIMA poster - arrive early to get one. If you have time to 'work' at the IPY exhibit, for even an hour or two, please let us know - we need assistance. IPO thanks the USA NSF Office of Polar Programs for their support of and partnership in the IPY exhibit.

3. Data Coordinators

We hear of recent efforts in two IPY nations to establish national data coordinators. We see those appointments as extremely helpful in the overall IPY data and information effort. Encouraging rapid and free data exchange and ensuring reliable and accessible long-term data archives remain our most important tasks. The IPY DIS website provides many resources for IPY researches and project coordinators. Leaders of the IPY DIS effort will provide an information and help service at AGU, from the IPY exhibit.

4. IPO in December

Kathy Salisbury will cover many of Nicola Munro's duties as IPY IPO Administrator while Nicola works in Antarctica. The IPO will close from December 24th- January 4th. For urgent enquiries, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it directly during this time.

5. IPY Events and Conferences

At this point, planning proceeds for two IPY-endorsed conferences:

A Mid-IPY Science Conference, as part of the SCAR / IASC Open Science Conference in St Petersburg in July 2008;
and
An IPY Early Science Conference in Oslo in May 2010.

Canada has proposed to host an IPY Science and Policy conference for 2012 (see the November report) and the IPY youth and early career organization, APECS, works to convene an international youth-focussed IPY Polar Discovery Conference in 2009.

6. Logos and IPY Clothing

We assume that every recipient of this report knows the familiar circular IPY logo. Did you know, however, that the IPY logo comes in several variants, modified to express the enthusiasms of a particular group or country? We hope to display these versions of the logo on www.ipy.org. Please see two interesting versions here. Please send us your versions.

You may also have seen, on www.ipy.org, the IPY logo on a very nice polar parka. The manufacturer of those parkas (Made by the North, for the North) offers a very nice product at a very substantial discount price to all IPY participants. Order form

7. Recent meetings

Heads of Arctic and Antarctic IPY Secretariats (HAIS) met 5-6 November at the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI) in St. Petersburg, Russia. HAIS members play key roles in implementing IPY in their countries. You can read draft Minutes, the agenda and written agenda contributions available at: http://classic.ipy.org/national The HAIS recommended to involve the Arctic Council and the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings in the planning of the 2012 Science and Policy Conference (see item 5, above). The HAIS visited the Eastern Arctic IPY Sub-office (the IPY EASO web site - provides useful information for everybody involved in IPY projects in the Eastern Arctic) and heard presentations by young Russian IPY scientists.

A workshop on Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) occurred in Stockholm, Sweden 12-14 November, 2007. Along with parallel activities for the Southern Ocean and Antarctica, this initiative seeks to ensure continuation of observing systems currently in place the Arctic and to provide an international forum for pan-Arctic cooperation on issues related to data sharing and to future observing systems. A web site, http://www.arcticobserving.org, offers access to the SAON planning documents and to information about the second (Canada) and third (Finland) SAON workshops.

For more information about either of these activities, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .


8. Blog on www.IPY.org

Several IPY Projects provide frequent material for blogs on www.IPY.org. In recent days you will have seen very interesting reports from several traverses crossing Antarctica. These Projects find blogging fun, easy, and a great way to take stories directly to the public. We receive regular enthusiastic comments from the public and from teachers especially saying how much they enjoy to read a collection of diverse stories reported almost immediately by scientists in the field. If you or your IPY Project would like to blog on www.IPY.org, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .