International Polar “Year” - March 1,2007 - March 1, 2009

The IPY Process

•International Level - ICSU planning committee - Bell and Rapley, co-chairswill create a new joint ICSU-WMO planning group in October, 2004

•National Level - US National Committee for the IPY - Mary Albert, chair

-- US National Committee was charged with writing an initial document, the “vision report”, produced by the National Academy

-- A smaller group was convened for an Implementation workshop in July with government agencies -will produce a smaller “workshop report”

The “Vision Report”

• Written by the U.S. National Committee with community input• Released May 19, 2004; Currently being printed

• Main Themes:Understanding Change in Polar RegionsExploring New Scientific Frontiers

• Recommendations call for:“This wide-ranging program of basic research… will help understand major

geological processes such as sea-floor spreading, explore the subglacial topography and bedrock geology of regions important for earth’s climate history, map the structure of the earth’s interior, and explore the links between mantle structure and surface processes….”

“Invest in new capabilities essential to support interdisciplinary research…The IPY field component should aggressively seek to further develop innovative strategies for polar exploration.”

“The IPY should be used as an opportunity to design and implement multidisciplinary polar observing networks that will provide a long-term perspective”

Anomalous Elevation and Uplift History of East Antarctica

Deglaciated Topography

Coupled Climate- Ice Sheet Models

Geology of East Antarctica

From DeConto & Pollard [2003] and Fitzsimmons [2003]

Seismic Velocity at 150 km depth

Velocity model from M. Ritzwoller & N. Shipiro

S wave velocity perturbation (%)

Implementation Workshop Report

• Workshop took place at the National Academy July 8-9

• Purpose was to get agencies involved in IPY planningand foster communication between agencies

• Some of the Agencies involved: NSF, NOAA, USGSDOE, NASA, State Department

• Interesting comments:NSF -- one area of interest is study of large ice sheets

and the bedrock geology beneathUSGS -- priorities are seismology, geodesy, autonomous

observatories, and a seismic observatory atthe south pole.

Outlook

• Arctic program will probably fund SEARCH

(Study of Environmental ARctic CHange)

• Antarctic program there is a lot of emphasis on

multidisciplinary observing systems

• Other items discussed: Science LC-130

Subglacial Lakes

• There is some chance of a special multi-agency

appropriation for IPY

• Need to work with agencies to develop plans

Large Scale Deployments Now Feasible in Antarctica

-- Autonomous sensors deployed for several years -- Continuous recording – broadband sensors -- Use solar and wind power

ANUBIS and TAMSEIS deployments (Penn State and Washington University)

Structure and Evolution of the Antarctic Plate (SEAP) Workshop

March, 2003 in Boulder CO~ 80 participants

Recommendations:

•International Program•Establishment of ~10 permanent seismic stations on the interior •Systematic coverage of Antarctica with a moving array•Focused experiments in key regions

Figure fromB. Kennett, ANU