INTERNATIONAL POLAR year

Polar Year

The First International Polar Year of 1882-83, meant a wake-up call for the scientific world about the polar regions, still untouched by science, it was the preamble to the worldwide scientific interest in the knowledge of the polar zones. However, they were the VI International Congress of Geography meeting in London in 1895, which promotes scientific research in the Antarctic, and then the VII International Congress of Geography in Berlin in 1899 that will give rise to the Great International Antarctic Expedition. These expeditions inaugurated a new stage in the history of Antarctic exploration, which has been steadily increasing, and continues today with great momentum.

International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008

The International Polar Year (IPY) is an endeavor aimed at achieving an explosion of internationally coordinated and interdisciplinary research and observations focused on the polar regions of our planet. It arises from a joint initiative of the executive committees of ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions) and the WMO (World Meteorological Organization). Commemorates the 50th anniversary of the IGY International Geophysical Year).

Eco Polar Ushuaia

The Maritime Museum of Ushuaia actively participates in the Eco Polar Ushuaia, the most relevant event in the southern hemisphere in relation to the chapter "Education, Disclosure & Communication" of the International Polar Year 2007 - 2008, focused on familiarizing, internalizing and engaging the participants ( politicians, technicians, interest groups and educators of the national community) and illustrate them in a precise and forceful way about the importance of the investigations that will be developed within the framework of the International Polar Year, as strategic information for decision-making in the process of planning in the medium and long term.

International Geophysical Year (A.G.I.)

An event of great significance for world science began to take shape in the middle of the 20th century. A vast plan of scientific cooperation was developed by specialists in meteorology, geomagnetism, auroras, ionosphere, solar activity, cosmic radiation, glaciology, oceanography, information through satellites and rockets, seismology and gravimetry, communications and logistics. The International Congress of Scientific Unions was in charge of coordinating the tasks through a special committee. Thus, during the years 1957 and 1958, it was programmed to carry out the same observations that had previously been made during the polar years, but now expanding them to all corners of the Earth. Preparatory conferences were held in Rome, Paris, Brussels and Barcelona between 1954 and 1956. Thus the International Geophysical Year was created, with which the stage of coordinated international cooperation for the investigation of the southern polar cap begins, culminating in the political field was the Antarctic Treaty. began in the Antarctic environment at the beginning of 1957, although the date July 1 of that year is officially mentioned, and ended on December 31, 1958. During that period, 55 observatories were in operation in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands, including the of our country, which, like the Chileans and the British, had previously operated in those latitudes. Countries participating in the tasks in the southern region of our planet were: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. All of them were members of the S.C.A.R. (Special Committee on Antarctic Research) and after the A.G.I., in 1959, they signed the Antarctic Treaty. More than 60 countries and 30,000 scientists worked in this scientific endeavor around the world, with research and studies from various observation stations, one of the important contributions of A.G.I. in the Antarctic it was the revelation that under the great blanket of ice and snow the continent is divided into islands, one of them being the Antarctic peninsula. As for the southern polar meteorology, the first census of the same could be completed, which favored the knowledge of the incidents of the Antarctic climate in the southern hemisphere.