Australia will lead a scientific mission that goes to the core of climate change knowledge by drilling down into the Antarctic ice over the coming summer as part of an international program.
The ambitious six-week Australian Antarctic Division-led project will take international scientists to Aurora basin in east Antarctica, 550 kilometres inland from Casey Station.
New, highly detailed Antarctic climate records from before and during the industrial era will be revealed for the first time during the major expedition to the southern continent later this year.
Announcing the expedition Environment Minister Greg Hunt revealed Australia was to lead an international team of 15 partner organisations’ scientists from Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany and the United States.
They will drill a 2000 to 3000-year ice core at Aurora Basin, in a bid to fill knowledge gaps in the science community’s climate records.
Over six weeks, between December 2013 and January 2014, 24 scientists working in two field teams will drill a 400 metre-long ice core at the remote site.
Project leader and Australian Antarctic Division senior glaciologist, Dr Mark Curran, said that the ice core will fill a significant gap in an array of 2000-year ice core climate records distributed across Antarctica.
“Additionally, two shorter cores of about 120 m and covering the last 1000 years will also be drilled for further studies on climate and ice properties,” Dr Curran said.
“Air pumped from the borehole of one of the cores and bubbles trapped in the ice cores together will allow us to look at changes in atmospheric composition over this period.
“As well as revealing climate records from the industrial era, the ice core information will also help scientists identify linkages between Antarctic and Australian climate.”
Ice cores provide crucial information on past climate and climate processes that is critical to understanding climate and predicting future change.
Modern techniques will allow the field team to make isotope measurements that reveal past temperatures at the site.
Further laboratory measurements on the returned ice cores will be used to explore past changes in winds, sea-ice, volcanic activity and solar variability.
Antarctic ice cores, in particular, provide information from a region of the planet where we have only short observational records and there is a need for further insight into the role of Antarctica in the global climate system.
The Aurora Basin project has been several years in the planning.
Considerable logistics are required to move accommodation and equipment to support the team, with most of this being transported to the site on an overland traverse by heavy vehicles.
Learn more about the Aurora Basin Project
One Response
The change has already been found by NASA – record ice coverage this year – so no need for them to dig through the earth and make a big mess polluting a pristine environment pretending to be Bear Grylls…..