International Polar Years

The International Polar Years (IPY) in 1882 to 1883 and 1932 to 1933 generated intense interest in polar research, and triggered the growth of a network of arctic land stations, the establishment of drifting stations on pack ice, and the use of aircraft for ice reconnaissance. Monitoring the Arctic using automatic weather stations, drifting buoys, and eventually satellite remote sensing resulted from this beginning.

First International Polar Year (1882 to 1883)

The first International Polar Year (IPY) was proposed by Austrian scientist Lt. Karl Weyprecht. Weyprecht was a polar explorer who had discovered Franz Josef Land. He felt that the time was right to apply a more coordinated approach to exploring and studying the polar regions. His goal was to gather scientific data about various aspects of the polar regions over the course of a year by conducting identical simultaneous experiments across the region.

His proposal was accepted by the international community and the International Polar Commission was convened to be the coordinating body for the IPY. The commission was charged to ensure the best distribution of stations and the acquisition of standardized measurements.

Twelve arctic stations were established during the first IPY in a fairly regularly spaced circumpolar ring. The major research focus was on meteorology, the aurora, and earth's magnetism. All the stations were synchronized to the time in Göttingen, Germany, and were required to record the following identical observations:

IntervalObservation
once an hour atmospheric pressure
atmospheric temperature
relative humidity
water vapor tension
wind speed
wind direction
every four hours cloud amount
cloud type
direction of cloud movement
type of precipitation
soil temperature
once a day total hours of sunshine
amount of precipitation

Some of the participating expeditions were able to explore and map as well as collect the scientific observations, although many groups did not have enough personnel to do more than make the obligatory observations.

Second International Polar Year (1932 to 1933)

By the time of the second International Polar Year there were 94 meteorological stations operating in the Arctic. Radio communications were now possible and scientists had developed techniques for synoptic weather map analysis. In spite of these advances, the second IPY almost did not happen at all. Just as the final plans were being made, a worldwide economic depression started. This was a deterrent to many countries who wished to participate, but the organizers decided to continue with the plans anyway. The Rockefeller Foundation in New York generously provided a substantial grant to equip countries that could not provide magnetic and electrical measuring equipment for themselves.

The rationale for the second IPY was similar to that for the first IPY, however, the second IPY put more emphasis on augmenting the existing worldwide observational network rather than only focusing on polar regions. Results from the first IPY demonstrated that a better knowledge of arctic meteorological conditions helps to understand processes at lower latitudes. From a practical point of view, it was felt that the observations would be helpful for monitoring and aiding sea and air transport. New discoveries since the first IPY changed the nature of some of the experiments, but for the most part the required observations were the same.

Unfortunately, the organization and publication of data from the second IPY was delayed until after the end of the 2nd World War. The synoptic maps were to be produced in Germany, but when the war started in 1939 the job was not complete, and of course, no further work on the maps or other data was contemplated until after the war ended. After the war, the files were transferred to London and the final map production was completed by 1950.