With Canada In Funding Lead, International Polar Year Underway - First Since IGY Of 1957-58 - AFP

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Researchers from some 60 countries will try to better understand the Earth's poles in 2007 and the effect of climate change as part of the first "International Polar Year" since the 1950s. The scientific effort, unlike previous undertakings, will be marked by the specter of global warming and transformed by collaboration with Inuits living in the Arctic.

Experts studying the Arctic and Antarctic are expected to receive a funding boost from the International Polar Year (IPY), an elaborate program that will inject close to 500 million dollars into polar research. This is the fourth IPY to be organized -- the three others took place in 1882-83, 1932-33 and 1957-58 -- but it is the first time that it will be carried out against the backdrop of climate change.

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Most of the planned research projects must still be approved by different countries before launch next March with the work to be carried out over two years. "The two years are standard for a polar year because you need two observing years to collect the information. But in terms of the results they will be coming out in 2009-10," said Kathleen Fischer, executive director of the Canadian IPY program office.

The IPY research should shed light on the state of the climate system now and allow for forecasting over the next five years and beyond, Fortier said.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2006/070101100942.ws7mr00x.html