Fabio Florindo1,*, Antonio Meloni1, Martin Siegert2

1 Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, via di Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Roma, Italy

2 School of GeoSciences, Grant Institute, University of Edinburgh, The King's Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 0651860 383; Fax: +39 0651860 397;

E-mail address: florindo@ingv.it

Abstract

The first three International Polar Years (IPYs; 1882–1883, 1932–1933, 1957–1958) were major periods of intense multidisciplinary polar research, bringing significant new insights into global processes and laying the foundation of knowledge of the polar regions for future decades. The fourth IPY (2007–2009) continues the tradition of international science years and is one of the most ambitious internationally coordinated scientific research programmes ever attempted. In contrast to the three previous IPYs, the new IPY incorporates research within social science and its interface with the natural sciences. The new IPY also includes a wide range of education and outreach activities, and a commitment to excite and train the next generation of polar researchers. We discuss briefly the history of the IPYs, and their contribution to comprehending Antarctic Climate Evolution.

2.1 Introduction

The polar regions play key roles in global climate change and have profoundly affected environments during the Cenozoic, influencing sea levels, atmospheric composition and dynamics, and ocean circulation. Starting from the end of the nineteenth century, several major internationally coordinated explorations of the polar regions have taken place, which have improved our understanding of them and how they influence the world. The most prominent periods of exploration were: the first International Polar Year (IPY) of 1882–1883 (e.g. Heathcote and Armitage, 1959; Wood and Overland, 2006), the so-called Heroic Age of polar exploration, stimulated by the International Geographical Congress of 1895, which had made Antarctica a target, the second IPY (1932–1933) (e.g. Gerson 1958) and the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957–1958 (e.g. Buedeler, 1957; Korsmo, 2007), later extended to include 1959 and which started life as the third IPY. These were major initiatives that involved an intense period of multidisciplinary polar research bringing significant new insights into global processes and laying the foundation of knowledge of the polar regions for future decades.

The first two IPYs and the IGY involved an increasing number of countries and scientists, and produced unprecedented levels of knowledge and understanding in many fields of research. The 12 countries of the first IPY grew to 67 in the IGY, in which some 5,000 scientists and support staff were engaged in Antarctica alone. They not only changed the way science was conducted in the polar regions, from single nation programmes to complex multinational collaborations, they also standardised measurements, made data freely available to all and initiated the system of World Data Centers.

The fourth IPY, 2007–2009 (Allison et al., 2007), is one of the largest collaborative science programs ever attempted. It continues the tradition of international science years, includes multidisciplinary research operating in both polar regions, and involves some 50,000 participants from 63 countries. A wide range of scientific problems will be addressed, including issues related to society. It differs from the three previous IPYs in that it includes all natural science disciplines – not just physics and geophysics, it incorporates the social sciences, and it includes a wide range of education and outreach activities aimed at attracting the next generation of polar scientists and engaging the attention of the public and policy makers. In this chapter, we discuss briefly the history of the polar years, and their contribution to comprehending Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE).

2.2 The First International Polar Year (1882–1883)

In August 1874, Captain Karl Weyprecht (1838–1881) (Figs. 2.1 and 2.2) returned from an Arctic expedition, of which he was leader. The Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition (1871–1874) aimed to explore the northwest of Nowaja Semlja, in the search for the Northeast Passage. During that Arctic expedition on the ice-strengthened schooner ‘Admiral Tegetthoff’, they discovered Franz Joseph Land (890 km from the North Pole) and gathered valuable information about the drift of icebergs and about meteorological and magnetic conditions in the Arctic. Although it was a successful expedition, it occurred to Weyprecht that single nation expeditions of this nature, often having geographical discovery as their primary goal, could only advance the frontiers of scientific knowledge to a limited extent. Knowing that answers to the fundamental questions of meteorology and geophysics were most likely to be found near the Earth's poles, Weyprecht became an avid advocate of internationally coordinated exploration of the polar regions; his views were influential in the formation of the largest coordinated series of scientific expeditions taken in the polar regions during the nineteenth century, namely what is now known as the first IPY of 1882–1883.

During the 48th Meeting of ‘German Naturalists and Physicians’ in Graz (18 September 1875), Weyprecht gave a lecture about the ‘Basic principles of Arctic research’, in which he suggested establishing a network of fixed Arctic observation stations (Baker, 1982).

In 1879, during the second International Meteorological Conference in Rome, these ideas were presented together with those of Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909), first Director of the German Hydrographic Office in Hamburg. Here it was recommended to discuss the erection of a number of observatories in the Arctic and Antarctic for simultaneous hourly meteorological and magnetic observations around the poles.

These ideas generated international interest and, during the first International Polar Conference at the German Hydrographical Office in Hamburg (1–5 October 1879), an organising body called the International Polar Commission, chaired by Neumayer, was established. This commission included Denmark, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Netherlands, France, the United States and Great Britain, with the assistance of the new Dominion of Canada. During that conference, the first IPY was planned for the biennium 1881–1882. The following year, during the second International Polar Conference in Bern (7–9 August 1880) this commission agreed to postpone the IPY and declared that it would be held in 1882–1883 to coincide with a transit of Venus across the face of the Sun, on 6 December 1882. In doing so simultaneous observations from different places on the globe could be made to calculate the astronomical unit (AU=nearly 150 million kilometres; the distance between the Earth and Sun).

Between 1 and 8 August 1881, during the third International Polar Conference, held in St. Petersburg, and 5 months after Weyprecht's death on 29th March 1881 in Michelstadt, the International Polar Commission outlined the details of the first IPY, to last from 1 August 1882 until 1 September 1883 (Heathcote and Armitage, 1959).

In total, 12 countries participated in the first IPY resulting in 15 coordinated expeditions to the poles (13 to the Arctic, and 2 to peri-Antarctic islands). Fourteen research stations were established (Fig. 2.3) where researchers conducted experiments and gathered data (hourly records) over the course of the year that would greatly enhance the basis of then current knowledge of the Earth's magnetic field, surface weather conditions and astronomy. Two of these stations were in the Southern Hemisphere: Orange Bay at the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego (established by France) and Moltke-Hafen at Royal Bay, South Georgia (established by Germany). Another 34 permanent stations were located outside Polar territories (e.g. Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Bombay) bringing the number of stations participating in the IPY to 48. This first IPY was primarily focused on physics – especially meteorology, magnetism and auroral studies, rather than on interdisciplinary work, but its investigations did extend, though locally and in a limited fashion, to other fields like botany, geology and zoology. One of the most significant results of the first IPY was the mapping of the Aurora Borealis – known at the time as the Northern Lights – showing that it often occurs in an almost circular belt centred on the north magnetic pole.