David Barber (in the white hat) and Alex Langlois are sampling new ice in the Arctic. Dr. Barber is a prominent Arctic researcher and Alex was a graduate student at the University of Manitoba at the time of the photo. This picture was taken by Victoria Razina during a summer cruise in 2005.
Click on image for full size
Image taken by Victoria Razina
International Polar Year - and IPY's of the Past
2007-2008 has been made an International Polar Year or IPY. That means that scientists from over 30 countries will work together to study the Arctic and Antarctic. Would you like to study
penguins in Antarctica or
northern lights in the Arctic? If so, look at the official
IPY page often to see what exciting work is being done by scientists in the field!
Did you know that there have been IPY's in the past? The 1st IPY took place in 1882! Then 12 countries worked together to study the poles of the Earth.
The 2nd IPY took place in 1932. This time 40 countries were working together. They even made 40 permanent stations in the Arctic. Many of these are still manned and working!
In 1957, there was a International Geophysical Year (IGY). In that year, scientists studied polar science and many other Earth sciences too. Many important things were found by working together!
The theory of continental drift was confirmed.
For the first time scientists crossed the Antarctica continent measuring its total size. And permanent stations were made in Antarctica.
This text was adapted from text written by Maria Tsukernik who is a graduate student at University of Colorado-Boulder.
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