Research Objectives:
We will operate a science management office for a pilot ice-core drilling and analysis program to test the feasibility of obtaining well-dated, high-resolution isotope and chemistry records from East Antarctica. Shallow ice cores will be obtained from two locations:
+ 100 kilometers from the South Pole toward the Pole of Inaccessibility, as an extension of the Byrd Station-to-South Pole International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) traverse; and
+ Taylor Dome, near the original deep-coring site.
AGO 3 and AGO 4 (automated geophysical observatories) may also be sampled as part of a logistics traverse to these sites.
All of the cores collected will be examined at very high resolution and analyzed for major ions. Results from this calibration work, along with those from another project that is analyzing stable isotopes, will be used to help plan a larger program, with the objective of mapping the spatial expression of climate variability in East Antarctica.
In addition, we will organize a community workshop to coordinate the second phase of U.S. ITASE, as well as one workshop a year, for 2 years, dedicated to writing and preparing scientific papers from phase 1 of U.S. ITASE. Further, we will use satellite image mapping to select routes for the follow-on traverse in East Antarctica. We also will produce a summary that will be made available to the community to help with planning related field programs such as deep ice radar, firn radar profiling, atmospheric chemistry, ice coring, snow surface properties for satellite observations, ice surface elevation, and mass balance.
