In March 2007, the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) launched the International Polar Year (IPY). It ended in March 2009 to encompass full year cycles in the Arctic and the Antarctic.
SPARC was actively involved in the IPY programme with its project: The structure and evolution of the stratospheric polar vortices during IPY and its links to the troposphere.
The goal of this SPARC IPY activity (ID No. 807) was to document the dynamics, chemistry and microphysical processes within the polar vortices during the full IPY cycle, with a focus on the stratosphere-troposphere and stratosphere-mesosphere coupling. One of the key outcomes was the collection of analysis products from several operational centres and several research centres, which were archived at the SPARC Data Center. The analysis products cover the period of IPY (March 2007 to March 2009) and represent the best available self-consistent approximations to the state of the atmosphere during this period.
Project leader:
Dr. Norman McFarlane, Director SPARC Office (2005-2011)
Website for further information:
Published results:
SPARC activity reports:
SPARC Newsletter No. 33 (2009), p. 5: SPARC-IPY and beyond, by N. McFarlane et al.
SPARC Newsletter No. 33 (2009), p. 6: Features of the Arctic Stratosphere during IPY, by E. Farahani et al.
SPARC Newsletter No. 33 (2009), p. 14: Studies of the Antarctic Stratosphere during IPY, by A.R. Klekociuk et al.
SPARC Newsletter No. 33 (2009), p. 21: SPARC-IPY Data Archive, by D. Pendlebury
SPARC Newsletter No. 29 (2007), p. 26: SPARC-IPY Update, by S. Polavarapu et al.
Atmospheric chemistry
The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate (AC&C) initiative was endorsed in March 2006 as a joint effort of WCRP and IGBP, with the SPARC and International Global Atmosphere Chemistry (IGAC) projects tasked to take the lead in its implementation. The initiative was discontinued in 2011.
Within the SPARC project, the focus was on modelling activities in the middle atmosphere, with less emphasis on field experiments of chemistry and chemical processes and the troposphere. Within the IGAC project, efforts focused primarily on constraining atmospheric chemistry components and processes through measurements.
Published results:
SPARC activity reports:
SPARC Newsletter No. 32 (2009), p. 27: Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change, by M. Chipperfield and W.J. Randel
SPARC Newsletter No. 29 (2007), p. 5: Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate: A New IGBP-IGAC/WCRP-SPARC Initiative, by Doherty, S., Ravishankara, A.R., and P. Rasch
Websites for further information:
Activity 3 ACC-MIP website