Antarctic Glaciology

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Antarctic Glaciology
Antarctic Sciences Section

• Julie Palais
• Program Manager
• NSF/Office of Polar Programs

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Antarctic Glaciology Program

• Paleoclimate from ice cores (WAISCORES, ITASE)
• Ice dynamics and modeling (WAIS)
• Snow/Atmosphere/Ice interactions (ITASE)
• Glacial Geology ( Dry Valleys, Antarctic
  Peninsula)
• Other (Remote Sensing, Iceberg Studies)

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Paleoclimate from Ice Cores

• Taylor Dome Ice Core
• Vostok Ice Core
• Siple Dome Ice Core
• Upcoming WAIS Divide Project
• Byrd Ice Core
• Misc. other cores (e.g. South Pole)
• Shallow cores from ITASE traverses

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Facilities/Support Services

• National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
• NICL-Science Management Office (NICL-SMO)
• Antarctic Glaciological Data Center (AGDC)
• Ice Core Drilling Service (ICDS)

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National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
NSF-USGS Cooperative Agreement Located at the
Denver Federal Center
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National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
Ice Core Storage
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National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
Core Processing Line
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National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
Core Processing Line
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Ice Core Drilling Services (ICDS)University of
Wisconsin-Madison (formerly PICO)

• Design, fabrication and operation of ice drilling
  equipment in both polar regions and high
  altitude ice caps.
• Includes electro-mechanical ice core drills, hot
  water drills for deep access holes, shot holes
  for seismic sounding and sub-ice sampling.
• Notify relevant NSF program manager when you are
  requesting ice coring support.

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Ice Core Drilling Services (ICDS)University of
Wisconsin-Madison
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Ice Core Data Gateway

• 2000 ICWG recommendation
• single point-of-access for ice core data
• Participants
• Antarctic Glaciological Data Center
• World Data Center for Paleoclimatology
• International Ice Core Data Cooperative
• National Ice Core laboratory
• contributing scientists and programs

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Ice Core Data Gateway

• Status
• On the web http//www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icgate.
  html
• Includes data sets distributed globally
• Incorporates metadata records
• Data files via ftp

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West Antarctic Ice Sheet Program (WAIS)
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West Antarctic Ice Sheet Program (WAIS)
Ice Dynamics Studies of the Siple Coast Ice
Streams

• How will the unstable West Antarctic ice sheet
  affect future sea level?
• How do rapid global climate changes occur?
• Future sea-level rise?

Annual WAIS Workshop Sept. 29-Oct. 2,
2004 Algonkian Park, Sterling, Va.
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West Antarctic Ice Sheet Program (WAIS)

• Examples of Currently Funded Projects

• Collaborative Research West Antarctic Ice Sheet
  Stability The Glacial Geologic Record from the
  Ohio Range of the Horlick Mountains in the
  Bottleneck (Borns and Mukhopadhyay)
• Collaborative Research Tidal Modulation of Ice
  Stream Flow (Anandakrishnan and Bindschadler)
• Ice-flow Divide Deduced by a New Analysis of
  Ice-penetrating Radar Data (Raymond)
• Airborne Survey of the Amundsen Sea Embayment,
  Antarctica (Holt et al.)
• Collaborative Research Refining a 500-kyr
  Climate Record from the Moulton Blue Ice Field in
  West Antarctica (Sowers, White, Dunbar)
• Methyl chloride and methyl bromide in Antarctic
  ice cores (Saltzman)

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U.S.- International Trans-Antarctic Scientific
Expedition (U.S.-ITASE)
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U.S.- International Trans-Antarctic Scientific
Expedition
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U.S.- International Trans-Antarctic Scientific
Expedition (U.S.-ITASE)

• To determine the spatial variability of Antarctic
  climate over the last 200 years.
• To determine the environmental variability in
  Antarctica over the last 200 years.

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U.S.- International Trans-Antarctic Scientific
Expedition (U.S.-ITASE)

• Meteorology
• Remote Sensing
• Geophysics
• Surface Glaciology
• Ice Cores

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Icebergs and Ice Shelves
Current Research

• Monitoring an Active Rift System at the Front of
  the Amery Ice Shelf, East Antarctica (Fricker)
• Collaborative Research of Earths Largest
  Icebergs ((MacAyeal, Okal, Stearns)
• Melting and Calving of Antarctic Ice Shelves
  (Jacobs)

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Antarctic Glaciology Program Important Web sites

• WAIS (http//igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wais/)
• WAIS Divide Project (http//www.dri.edu/People/ken
  drick/WDSprojmain.htm)
• US-ITASE (http//www.ume.maine.edu/USITASE/)
• NICL (http//www.nicl-smo.sr.unh.edu/)
• AGDC (http//nsidc.org/NSF/AGDC/)