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March 18, 2009. Canada marks "Oceans and Marine Life Polar Day", International Polar Year (the 1st IPY: 1882–1883) webcast event
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OTTAWA, ONTARIO - "Oceans and Marine Life Polar Day", an International Polar Year (IPY) webcast event, took place on March 18, 2009, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., at the theatre of the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Quebec. "Our Government has made a tremendous contribution to Arctic research during International Polar Year. Polar Days are a great opportunity to share the initial findings of this research with the public," said the Honourable Chuck Strahl, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. To learn more about "Oceans and Marine Life Polar Day" events in Canada and around the world, as well as other national and international initiatives related to International Polar Year, we invite you to visit www.ipy.gc.ca.
The First International Polar Year (1882–1883) was proposed by an Austro-Hungarian naval officer, Karl Weyprecht, in 1875 and organized by Georg Neumayer, director of the German Maritime Observatory. Rather than settling for traditional individual and national efforts, they pushed for a coordinated scientific approach to researching Arctic phenomena.
The Second International Polar Year (1932–1933)
The International Meteorological Organization, the predecessor of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), proposed and promoted the second IPY (1932–1933). Shortly after World War I, mysterious behavior in telegraph, radio and electric power and telephone lines convinced engineers and scientists of the fact that the electrical geophysics of the Earth needed more study. The availability of airplanes, motorized sea and land transport and new instruments like radiosondes enabled these phenomena to be investigated.
At an international conference of directors of meteorological services in Copenhagen in 1928 it was decided to undertake another intensive and coordinated international research effort focused on the polar regions during 1932–1933, the 50th anniversary of the First International Polar Year. It was also proposed to explicitly include in the plan for the second IPY the goal to investigate how observations in the polar regions could improve the accuracy of weather forecasts and the safety of air and sea transport.
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Photos courtesy of Tony Worby and Chris Linder / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Original Source: MSNBC