The Arctic and Southern Oceans at the far ends of our planet have been enormously attractive for explorers and adventurers. It is a brief history of discovery with the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean during 1893-95 by Norse explorer Fridtjof Nansen's Fram Expedition. Until that time, many experts believed there was a central land mass surrounding the North Pole. To the south, the first sighting of the Antarctic continent was made in 1820 by the Russian Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen. Until that sighting, many postulated that there was no land mass there.
Almost all of the pre-World War II explorations of the polar oceans were for commercial purposes (i.e., whaling and sealing), advancing territorial claims, or pure adventure. Systematic scientific research was not emphasized. It was only after the war that fundamental scientific research began to dominate work in these areas. New platforms such as aircraft, satellites, and nuclear-powered submarines helped make these least-known oceans increasingly transparent.
In the past quarter century, it has become apparent that the two polar oceans are critically important to the understanding of global climate change processes. We are learning that the initial evidence of massive, irreversible changes will be first detected here. Understand the polar oceans and you will have a preview of our future world.
Sea level rise has received most of the public attention. Landbound ice in the Antarctic represents 89 percent of the ice on our planet. Greenland has most of the rest. As Earth warms, the ice melts into the oceans. This is happening now.
The difficulty is that contemporary science studying the causes and effects of polar ice melting is only approximate. Large-scale regional investigations are needed that will involve many different projects, large numbers of research personnel, and a variety of scientific platforms. The size and complexity of the investigations are beyond the capacity of any individual nation.
In polar studies, the global scientific community is fortunate. For more than 125 years there have been a series of International Polar Years undertaken by international, interdisciplinary teams of scientists. The first IPY, in 1882, did not include Antarctic research. The second and third programs were in 1932 and 1957. In the 1932 investigations, the emphasis was primarily on atmospheric sciences. The greatly expanded 1957 effort was called the International Geophysical Year and focused mostly on the Antarctic. The fourth and latest International Polar Year began its fieldwork in March 2007. As with past "years," this one will last about two years, with the added time being for data analysis and publication.
National committees in the participating nations have spent the past two years developing their contributions to IPY 07-08. These have been coordinated by the International Council for Science and various national academies of sciences. Similar planning arrangements worked successfully for the IGY of the 1950s. The current program will have more than 200 discrete research projects involving thousands of scientific staff from 60 countries. Investigations will range from geosciences to biology. In addition, there will be projects in social sciences and education.
One of the Russian IPY's more imaginative projects will be a manned submersible dive to the "real"-physical-North Pole at a depth of 13,500 feet. Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences will use two Mir submersibles rated for a maximum depth of 20,000 feet. This is an exploration first.
The previous IPYs have been very productive, producing scientific results that could not have been gained by individual programs. This continuing series of international research projects is generally regarded by the world scientific community as a model for other large international cooperative programs.
Not all of the IPY benefits have related to science. The IGY resulted in the first massive scientific invasion of the Antarctic. Up to that point, seven different nations had made territorial claims of land there. The same land was even claimed by England, Chile, and Argentina. The smooth cooperation of many nations in the 1950s IGY programs, however, convinced the international scientific community that the Antarctic should be put off limits to any territorial claims. The international consensus resulted in the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, an outcome that has worked for nearly a half century.
As the late Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan said, "There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew." We will not be able to reverse global wanning and consequent sea level rise. But we can learn to understand it and forecast its effects to permit mankind to adjust to the "new" world. IPY 2007-2009 will be a critical part of this understanding.
Dr. Walsh, a marine consultant, is a retired naval officer and oceanographer. During his naval career he served at sea In submarines and ashore in ocean-related research and development assignments.