The decade of t h e 1990's h a s been a decade of change f o r the Severe Environments Technical Committee.T h e Severe Environments I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n c o m m i t t e e evolved f r o m t h e Arctic 1 ns t r u ni e n t a t ion which originally focused on instrumentation a n d d a t a recording in polar regions, p a r t i c u l a r l y a r c t i c acoustics. T h e committee h a s changed names twice s i n c e 1990 as t h e field of i n t e r e s t c o n t i n u e s t o expand.With t h e n a m e change to Polar I n s t r ti menta t io n Tec h n ica I Com m i t t ee , the f i el d of interest was expanded from a r c t i c instrumentation t o include i n s t r u m e n t a t i o n a n d p o l a r oceanography i n both t h e Arctic a n d .4ntarctic. A change to Severe Er?v!FQnl?leDts Instrumentatior! ref!eCted ever? b r o a d e r a r e a of interest, including p o l a r regions, d e e p ocean, n e a r s h o r e surf zones, a n d a r e a s of high waves o r high winds. l'ec hn i cal Coin m i t t ee, S i n c e 1990, tweiity-eight p a p e r s h a v e been published i n OCE kNS conference proceedings r e l a t e d to p o l a r o r o t h e r severe environments. These p a p e r s covered topics s u c h as autonomous d a t a collection systems f o r use in p o l a r regions, i 11s t r U ni e n t a t i o n f o r po I a ro c e a n o g r a p h y a n d high l a t i t u d e physics, a n d buoy design in e x t r e m e wave environments. T h i s p a p e r reviews t h e development of t h e Severe En vi ron men t s r e I a t e d p a p e r s presented at O C E A N S coiifei.ences Troni I990 t o t h e p r e s e n t . a n cl in e as u r e in en t s 'I'ec h n i ca 1 co ni m i t t ee a n d Initially, the focus of Ihe Severe Environments technical committee was Arctic Inslrumentation. Dilta collection in the Arctic required new ins!runients, new methods of data collection and modificalion!: to exisling instruments for use in extreme cold temperatwcs. Recognizing that the same instrumentation concerns csisted in tlic Antiirclic, the focus o f the ~echniciil committer. was broaticncd to include Poliir Instrumentation and P~l i~i .Oceanography. With t,hc increased interest in co;istal regions, the committee has once again expanded its focus tn incl utle instrumentalion for surf' zone and other extreme environments. This p:iper revicnrs the pipers that ha\,e heen presented in sessions rela~ed l o thi.: lcrlinical coniniitIcc since I 090. The papcr is divided inlo Ihrcc sections -Arctic Inslrumcntation, 98058 USA 0-7803-3519-8196 $5.00 0 1996 IEEE 1378 Polar Instrumentation and Polar Oceanography. and, finally, Severe Environments Instrumentation, rellecting the changing nature of the technical committee areas of interest.The Severe Environments Technical Committee was initially the Arctic Instrumentation Technical Committec. The committee focused on instrumentation and data recording in the Arctic, particularly arctic acoustics.During the past decade, several papors were published in the OCEANS Conference Proceedings related to arc...
