Each year numerous groups conduct research throughout the Dry Valleys. Two resident staff will operate the main base camp at Lake Hoare and other groups will operate from small tent camps throughout the region.

Taylor Dome will serve as the initial base for Paul Mayewski's ITASE Traverse (I-153-M). Three staff will support the traverse, scheduled to end the near Beardmore Glacier Basin. Every 100 kilometers, they will perform radar and GPS surveys, as well as drill ice cores. Next season, the traverse will resume and finish at South Pole Station.

Siple Dome with three resident staff will support two science projects: Ginny Catania (I-159-M) and Christine Siddoway (G-088-M) will use Siple Dome as a staging area and travel to an independent, tent camps. Dr. Catania's group will conduct radar and GPS experiments and Dr. Siddoway's team will perform geologic investigations.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide Field Camp with nine resident staff will support eight projects: Kendrick Taylor (I-477-M) will focus on ice-core sampling. The AWS (automatic weather station) project team, O-283-M (Charles Stearns), will service stations from the camp. Eftyhia Zesta's team (A-357-M) will inspect their magnetometer. Charlie Raymond (I-163-M) will conduct radar surveys. Jihong Cole-Dai (I-355-M) will perform detailed chemical analyses of shallow and deep cores. Prasad Gogineni's group (I-189-M) will ground-test and flight-test a remote-controlled air vehicle. Gordon Hamilton's (I-178-M) two team members will use the camp as a base for visiting several remote measurement sties along the ITASE 2002-03 traverse route between Byrd Camp and the South Pole. Ed Waddington's (I-171-M) project will drill shallow firn cores and take ice-penetrating radar measurements in the WAIS Divide region.