Content:

1. IPO Update
2. ATCM declaration
3. Update from EGU
4. Upcoming meetings
5. Update from APECS
6. Call for stories and blogs for ipy.org
7. Archiving IPY materials
8. Toward a Polar Information Commons


Report no. 25, May 2009
From: IPY International Programme Office
To: IPY Project Coordinators
cc: IPY Community Google Groups

1. IPO Update
Please note that Nicola Munro will take maternity leave as of 1 May 2009. We will introduce the interim replacement person next month. To contact the IPO, please use This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; we will respond, albeit perhaps not as quickly. Please note that This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it serves as point of contact for EOC activities.

2. ATCM Declaration
On the occasion of the first-ever joint session of the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) and the Arctic Council, organised in Washington, DC to recognize the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty and to celebrate IPY, the assembled Ministers, by acclimation, adopted a Ministerial Declaration on the International Polar Year and Polar Science. The IPO thanks many friends of IPY who contributed to this event and to the declaration. For more information see the entry on ipy.org:
http://ipy.arcticportal.org/index.php?option=com_k2&id=2195&view=item.

3. Update from EGU
This year, the European Geophysical Union (EGU) congress in Vienna acknowledged IPY 2007-2008 directly by awarding one of its Union sessions to the topic of "The cryosphere: for how much longer?" chaired by Carmen de Jong, Cynan Ellis-Evans and Marco Tedesco. Despite being scheduled for Friday afternoon, a substantial audience of over 200 assembled to hear invited talks from Dave Carlson (IPY IPO) on building information into prediction for the cryosphere, Wilfred Haeberli (WGMS, Zurich, Switzerland) on accelerated glacier shrinkage worldwide, Larry Hinzman (UAF, Alaska, USA) on evidence and consequences of warming and thawing permafrost and Luke Copland (University of Ottawa, Canada) on accelerated collapse of Arctic ice shelves. These were all excellent talks that clearly illustrated the rapidly changing status of the global cryosphere and the critical need for more data to understand these changes and their consequences. The abstracts can be accessed from
http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2009/meetingprogramme.

4. Upcoming meetings
July 11 to 16, 2009: 14th International Congress on Circumpolar Health - Securing the IPY Legacy: From Research to Action, Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Registration deadline: Monday, 15 June 2009. For further information, please go to: http://www.icch2009.com/

October 2 to 5, 2009: Communities of Change - Building an IPY Legacy, 9th ACUNS International Student Conference on Northern Studies and Polar Regions, Yukon College - Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. See http://www.communitiesofchange.ca

5. Update from APECS
APECS has been working diligently with the Arctic Portal to launch their new and improved website. Check it out at http://www.apecs.is/alive.

Here you can search the membership directory to find new collaborators and potential employees as well as read about all the exciting things that are happening.

APECS is beginning to plan an International Early Career Researcher Symposium together with ArcticNet in Victoria, BC, Canada 4-7 December 2009. Anyone interested in getting involved or planning side meetings around this event should contact Jenny Baeseman at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

APECS, IASC, SCAR, UArctic, and others are working together to create a brochure to help young researchers enhance their polar research careers. If you are interested in contributing with content, pictures, or help in publishing, please contact Jenny.

If you are aware of any conferences or workshops coming up that you would like to have an APECS event included, please let APECS know.

6. Call for stories and blogs for ipy.org
On ipy.org, we continue to track on-going IPY research activities and to feature stories on past, current and future polar issues. If you have IPY research underway, or have an IPY story to share, please contact Dave Carlson, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

7. Archiving materials
Please consider saving IPY documents, media, presentations, videos, emails, and other digital materials. The IPO with the Canadian IPY Secretariat at the University of Alberta and Scott Polar Research Institute have developed a system for storing all these materials. The system supports item-by-item or batch uploads or submissions with an easy catalog process; it now needs contributions! We hope that many individuals and institutions will find this process useful and helpful! To contribute, or for more information, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

More details at: http://ipy.arcticportal.org/index.php?option=com_k2&id=2090&view=item

8. Toward a Polar Information Commons
With planning money from ICSU, a group of IPY data leaders met with partners from the ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) and from Creative Commons, an international collaboration and information sharing organization. We discussed the shape and function of a Polar Information Commons, a system and service to encourage and facilitate data sharing in the polar science community after IPY. The group will produce a short overview and vision paper in the next few weeks. For more information, please contact Dave Carlson This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Mark Parsons This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .