The polar region are critical archives of polar change. Different techniques and disciplines are used to learn about Earth's history over millions, thousands, and hundreds of years. Observations monitor and explore the Earth today, and models developed from these sciences help predict the future. By learning more about the Earth in the past, and how climates have changed previously, we equip ourselves to better predict and understand changes we are experiencing today, and will experience in the future.
The following lists IPY projects that explore the Changing Earth over a range of timescales. Their webpages contain a huge amount of information, and the full proposals contain contact information at the end.
IPY ID, chart name, and short title:
36 Past Arctic Climate Variability
39 Arctic Paleoclimate APEX
54 Antarctic Climate Evolution
58 Change & Variability of Arctic Systems
67 Gamburtsev Highlands Exploration
77 Plates & Gates
86 USGS Integrated Research
92 Integrating Climate and Ecosystem Dynamics ICED-IPY (media contact info incl)
117 Ice Core Science
120 Northern Climate Variability NORCLIM (media contact info incl)
130 Bipolar Climate Machinery BIPOMAC (media contact info incl)
132 Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean CASO (media contact info incl)
185 Polar Earth Observing Network POLENET (media contact info incl)
256 Continental Margin Drilling ANDRILL (media contact info incl)
Want to know more about IPY Projects? Have a look at this interactive IPY chart (2.5MB) (click on the hexagons while connected to the internet and get transported to the project page) or browse our projects pages and project database.