Exploring Polar Regions

Over the next two years, scientists from around the world will seek a more precise understanding of the changes occurring in the polar regions, including melting of sea and glacial ice, and their environmental and economic implications for the planet.

On Oct. 19, the International Council for Science (ICSU) launched an ambitious global program for polar research. Scientists from more than 50 countries have already submitted about 1,000 research proposals to the program.

The research will be undertaken in conjunction with the International Polar Year (IPY) (2007–08), which is cosponsored by ICSU and the World Meteorological Organization.

“We’ve seen scientists from a wide range of disciplines immediately drawn to the endeavor, because they seem to share a sense that if we don’t pay considerable attention to the poles now, we will have avoided our responsibilities as explorers of the planet,” says David J. Carlson, an oceanographer who directs the IPY International Program Office based at the British Antarctic Survey.

The project, which will be funded with $1 billion to $2 billion from governments around the world, was sparked by changes now occurring at the poles. For example, in late September, the National Snow & Ice Data Center reported that the extent of summer sea ice in the north polar region is declining 8% per decade, and if this trend continues, the Arctic in summer will be completely ice-free before 2100.

The polar research effort will encompass a huge breadth of disciplines, from meteorology, glaciology, and oceanography to anthropology, history, and linguistics, Carlson says. “It is the first time we have actually tried to put geophysical, biological, and human sciences together on a common problem on a large scale,” he explains. And a wide range of technologies, such as polymerase chain reaction DNA sequencing and ultra-trace measurements of rare trace gases in the upper ocean, will be employed for the research.