International Polar Year, also known as IPY, is a global and collaborative campaign with the focus of researching Polar Regions. The research efforts are intense and seek to discover and gain knowledge about the earth’s Polar Regions, how and why they change, and how the Polar Regions and its changes affect the overall health of the biosphere. The program is planned now by both the international Council for Science (ICSU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Since the First Polar Year, there have been three other Polar Years in 1932-1933 (Second International Polar Year), 1957-1958 (International Geophysical Year), and the most recent in 2007-2009 (Third International Polar Year). 

The campaign was originally inspired by Karl Weyprecht, an Austro-Hungarian naval officer. He was a scientist as well as the co-commander of the Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedition (1872-74Z); however, Weyprecht passed away before seeing the IPY come to life in 1882-1883. The First International Polar Year was proposed by Georg Neumayer, who was inspired by Weyprecht.

The motivation behind this international research collaboration is to research polar areas and the singular phenomena that occur in these regions. IPY seeks information about ‘changing snow and ice’, ‘global linkages’, ‘neighbors in the north’, and ‘discovery.’ Thousands of scientists from over 60 countries come together to research, gather information, seek knowledge, and discover the inner workings of the remote polar regions of the world. Ultimately, because of the amount of money, time, and effort that is put forth for this program, International Polar Year does not occur every year like a holiday.