International Polar Year, 2007-08

The first international polar year was set up in 1882-83 in order to cordinate efforts from international scientists into the study of the polar environments.   Since then there have been a number of major science initiatives in the polar regions with the most recent occuring in 1957-58.  These initiatives have greatly increased our knowledge of polar geophysics by providing a detailed snap shot of the state of the polar environment. 

The up and comming polar year will run from 2007-08 and should provide a wealth of more information.  The dramatic increase in satellite observation platforms and the recent advances in the techniques of data analysis should greatly build on our current knowledge of the remote regions of the Earth.

The Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Bath has long been a leading institution in the study of the Earth's atmosphere and its effects on the propagation of radio waves.  More recently a number of scientists have been working on a model which aims to  reconstruct the electron density distribution in the global ionosphere using observations from GPS satellites.