RSSInternational Polar Year is over, but Arctic research continues
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Thousands of researchers haling from more than 60 different countries took advantage of the International Polar Year to study regions in both the Arctic and the Antarctic. And even though the International Polar Year ended March 31st, that doesn’t mean that scientific research into the Arctic is likely to slow down any. People within the organizations supporting scientific research in the Arctic say that there are even more applications being received to do research in the Arctic.
Senior research officer at the Nunavut Research Institute, Mary Ellen Thomas said, “We’re seeing the same kind of level of activity.” The Research Institute is located in Iqaluit.
The organization that organizes the transportation, equipment and any other logistical services for researchers and scientists in the North, the Polar Continental Shelf Program, provided support for 155 projects during the International Polar Year.
This year the program will be handling close to 160 projects according to program director Marty Bergmann. This years programs are varied, including archeological, zoological and glacier research.
“It is a very much a ‘business as usual’ year,” Bergmann said, “which surprised us because we thought in a post-IPY environment, there would a decrease of some sort.
Thomas says that there in an increased level of interest this year coming from film crews.
“What we are getting [is] more interest in film projects who want to look at everything — from woolly caterpillars to the BBC perhaps doing a program in the North. I think the actual Polar Year woke people up to the science of the Arctic. Now we’re seeing the science education and promotion and outreach, and that’s a new stage.”
Bergmann said that major renovations at the Polar Continental Shelf Program facility is Resolute Bay, Nunavut will help the program support the growing number of research project in the Arctic.
“The office space and living accommodations, basically we’re looking at a 50 per cent increase in the amount of space available for scientists that use Resolute [Bay] as a base of operation during the summer, and also as a point of departure out into the field.”