Contents:

1. Publications Database
2. Satellite Data
3. IPY Celebrations, February 2009
4. APECS information
5. UNEP Children's Conference,- call for material
6. IPO update


Report no. 12, April 2008
From: IPY International Programme Office
To: IPY Project Coordinators
cc: IPY Community Google Groups


1. Publications Database

Already, many researchers prepare publications of their IPY work. As described in the IPY Data Policy, we encourage all IPY researchers to acknowledge IPY and its sponsoring agencies (ICSU, WMO) in all of these publications and to provide bibliographic information for all IPY publications to the IPY Publications Database website. By these two simple steps, we enhance the impact and help ensure the legacy of IPY. A short IPY Scholarly Publications Policy provides guidance, copies of logos, and relevant links.

A direct link can be found on the Participants page on www.IPY.org


2. Satellite Data


An article on Earthzine by Mark R. Drinkwater Coordinating Satellite Observations during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 looks at all the different ways in which satellite remote sensing programs are contributing to our understanding of the poles during IPY. The article includes an overview of the Global Interagency IPY Polar Snapshot Year (GIIPSY), the IPY Space Task Group (STG) and the Integrated Global Observing Strategy Theme on Cryosphere known as IGOS-Cryo. Together, these programs are making possible a global polar snapshot that the article concludes will provide the opportunity to engage a new generation of researchers, experts, educators, policy makers, and polar residents in understanding the polar regions and changes in its environment, as well as the global consequences of these changes.The IPY web site includes links to the GIIPSY web site, from which researchers can then explore the remote sensing resources available from many space agencies.

Satellite Data for IPY Researchers
A direct link can be found on the Participants page on www.IPY.org


2. IPY Celebrations, February 2009

We know that IPY research in many nations will continue beyond March 2009. We also know that many nations, developing plans for the continuation and celebration of their IPY programs, need information about international schedules and activities for the weeks around 1 March 2009. We anticipate that a prominent polar event, coordinated among the Antarctic Treaty system and the Arctic Council, will occur in April 2009, in part to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty. We therefore propose a coordinated series of IPY events in February and March 2009, leading to and taking advantage of the April 2009 meeting. Working with partners in the IPY projects and among the IPY National Committees, we intend to plan events and develop activities to celebrate achievements and to announce future plans and activities, to show IPY accomplishments and to declare the post-IPY era for polar research. We anticipate that the IPY Joint Committee will issue a State of the Poles statement for wide public attention, outlining, in their view, the status and future needs of polar research. We propose that an international event related to the release of this State of the Poles report should occur in Geneva in February in concert with a Joint Committee meeting, and that documents and reports from that meeting will contribute to the substance and declarations of the April 2009 meeting. The IPO will work with the IPY outreach community to organize local, regional and global celebrations in February and March.


3. Association for Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS)

The APECS monthly newsletter will be available April 15th on the website: http://arcticportal.org/apecs
Highlights include:
IPY Polar Youth Forum planned for April 2009
Arctic Ocean Sciences Board announces new program to fund participation of young researchers in science planning
Swedish Committee meeting in May
New Zealand Committee meeting in July
APECS represented at Arctic Science Summit Week


4. UNEP TUNZA Children's Conference,- call for material

IPY has been invited to share a booth at the UNEP Tunza International Children's Conference on the Environment, June 17 - 21st, 2008.
http://www.unep.org/tunza/children/events/icc_2008/
There will be about 1,000 people from over 100 countries, including 700 children age 10- 14. The theme of the event is 'Create Change'.
We would very much like to share and distribute the wide range of multi-lingual, children-focussed IPY material that has been developed around the world. If you have any material, in any language, that you would like distributed or displayed at this event, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .


5. IPO update

In March we had the privilege and pleasure to gather 21 participants representing 14 nations to review the first year of IPY EOC activities, to plan for the next 12 months, to discuss celebratory events, and to identify ways to sustain energy and enthusiasm through and beyond the publication and presentation of IPY science in 2010 and 2012. Their thinking influenced the plans for February 2009 discussed above. The group included young and not-so-young scientists, journalists, teachers from polar and non-polar countries, media officers from polar institutions, television producers, representatives from Arctic and Antarctic university consortia, and assessment specialists - exactly the national and professional diversity that IPY fosters! You will read more about their ideas and plans in future reports. We thank Paul Egerton and the European Science Foundation for hosting and funding this meeting in Strasbourg!

This month, we welcome the return of Nicola Munro to the International Programme Office, from Antarctica. We thank Kathy Salisbury for having helped cover the workload in Nicola's absence.