Below is an update on some upcoming events for the South Pole ice core project. Please mark your calendars accordingly.
1. 2016 NICL CORE PROCESSING LINE (CPL):
We are planning on starting the 2016 CPL at NICL on June 6 and it will run for 3 weeks, ending on June 24. We will be processing core from ~556-734m and 1078-1477m (~579m total). More information will be forthcoming, and we will be contacting the PIs soon to get a list of requested samples.
2. CPL STAFFING:
All groups receiving samples or analysis from the CPL are expected to provide personnel needed to cover their sampling/analysis needs. As in the past, University of Colorado (CU)-Boulder should be able to provide local student help for PIs, if needed. We do request that each PI has a responsible person at the CPL to make decisions that may arise while processing. If a PI would like to hire a student from CU, they should contact Bruce Vaughn as soon as possible so he can start looking for student help. PIs hiring CU students are responsible for providing salary for the students. This service provided by CU has worked very well in the past and saves per diem costs since the students are local.
3. 2016 SCIENCE MEETING:
We are currently planning on meeting in La Jolla, CA, on September 19-20, 2016 for our annual PI science meeting. More information will be coming out during the summer on the meeting but just wanted to let you "save the date". The meeting will be restricted to funded PIs and their staff and students, and to PIs who have proposals pending at NSF.
This is the first community field update for the 2015/16 field season at South Pole.
We are happy to report that drilling officially started last week.
All 10 members (3 science, 7 drillers) of the group arrived in McMurdo Station, Antarctica, on November 22, 2015 with one extra day of layover in Christchurch, New Zealand, due to weather in McMurdo. Jay Johnson is the lead driller and Murat Aydin is the science field lead. In early January, Murat will head home and Eric Steig will take over the role as science field lead.
The packing of all of the leftover ice from last year (118 meters + 33 meters for a total of 151 meters) is finished. The green netting was kept on the ice as it was cut into 1 m pieces and packed in core tubes. 150 meters of the ice (30 boxes) have been taken out of the trench, banded on wood skids, and netted on an air force pallet. The last meter of ice from last year will stay at the Pole because it will be needed at the start of next year's logging operation for index mark purposes. We received a lot of help from South Pole cargo to get the ice flight ready. The first ice shipment of the season is now ready for delivery to McMurdo.
(Source: The Antarctic Sun)
The South Pole is a very cold place, with an average annual temperature of around minus 50 degrees Celsius. It's become a premiere location for a variety of atmospheric and astrophysical experiments thanks to its cold, clean, stable atmosphere.
Even the ice is especially cold at the bottom of the world – and that's also a good thing for a team of researchers interested in extracting the first deep ice core at the South Pole.
"Ice cores are a great way to look into the past," said T.J. Fudge, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington who was the on-site science lead for the last few weeks of drilling operations during the 2014-15 summer season. Full Story...
This is the first community field update for the 2014/15 field season at South Pole.
We are happy to report that drilling officially started last week.
The 7-person drilling crew (Tanner Kuhl, Josh Goetz, Grant Boeckmann, Elizabeth Morton, Dave Ferris, Shawntel Stapleton and Nick Wipperfurth) arrived at South Pole on November 8, and the 3-person science crew (Murat Aydin, Kimberly Casey and Mindy Nicewonger) arrived at South Pole on November 13. Tanner Kuhl is the lead driller and Murat Aydin is the science field lead. In early January, Murat will head home and TJ Fudge will take over the role as science field lead.
Our planned early season start-up at South Pole experienced some delays due to weather, cargo movements, and site construction issues. However, we are still optimistic at this point that we'll be able to reach our depth goal for the season.
For more information about the paper, visit: http://spicecore.org/publications/
Dear South Pole Ice Core Colleagues -
As a reminder, there are two back-to-back workshops taking place in UC-Irvine on 25-27 February: the South Pole Ice Core Workshop (25-26 Feb), followed by the IDPO Community Workshop on Ice Coring (26-27 Feb). Community members are welcome at both workshops.
REGISTRATION:
If you plan on attending either, or both, workshops we need you to complete the short registration form at http://tinyurl.com/pwnza3q . We need you to complete this registration form even if you have verbally (or via email) told us that you are attending either workshop. While there is no registration fee to attend either workshop, we need you to register so that we know how many people are coming to each workshop so that the meeting room will be sized appropriately.
LODGING:
A block of hotel rooms have been reserved at the Atrium Hotel at Orange County Airport. This room block is for both the South Pole Ice Core Workshop participants and the IDPO Community Workshop on Ice Coring participants.
Atrium Hotel at Orange County Airport
8700 MacArthur Boulevard
Irvine CA 92612
800.854.3012
http://atriumhotel.com
Room Block Name: SPICECore
$95.00 +tax per night
** Cut Off Date: February 8, 2014 **
WORKSHOP LOCATION:
University of California, Irvine
Department of Earth System Science
Croul Hall 3101
Irvine, CA 92697-3100
http://www.ess.uci.edu/
SOUTH POLE ICE CORE WORKSHOP:
A 1.5-day workshop will be held on 25-26 Feb 2014 at UC-Irvine to make plans in advance of the April NSF-PLR Antarctic Research solicitation deadline for proposals aimed at working on the South Pole ice core. The first drilling season for the 1500-m South Pole core is still slated for 2014-2015, so ice will be available for analysis starting in summer 2015. Among items to discuss at the Irvine workshop will be decisions on the proposed core cut plan, so that researchers can plan their projects around realistic allocations of ice volume. We expect the workshop to be light on research presentations, and heavy on time for making concrete plans. Discussions of South Pole will end by noon on 26 Feb.
For more information, visit: http://spicecore.org/meetings/
For questions about the South Pole Ice Core Workshop, email contact@spicecore.org
IDPO COMMUNITY WORKSHOP ON ICE CORING:
Community members interested in identifying the next deep and intermediate-depth drilling sites in Greenland and Antarctica (using the DISC Drill and Intermediate Depth Drill) are invited to participate with the Ice Core Working Group in a short meeting to identify community consensus on the target sites and dates at the upcoming IDPO Community Workshop on Ice Coring at UC-Irvine on 26-27 Feb 2014 (workshop will begin at 1:30pm on 26 Feb). Results from these discussions will form the basis of the drilling sites identified in the Long Range Science Plan for 2014-2024. There is no registration fee for the meeting. An agenda for the workshop will be posted in January.
For more information, visit: http://icedrill.org/2014-community-workshop-ice-coring/
For questions about the IDPO Community Workshop on Ice Coring, email icedrill@dartmouth.edu
Dear Colleagues,
SOUTH POLE ICE CORE WORKSHOP :: 25-26 Feb 2014 (Contact: contact@spicecore.org)
A 1.5-day workshop will be held on 25-26 Feb 2014 at UC-Irvine to make plans in advance of the the April NSF-PLR Antarctic Research solicitation deadline for proposals aimed at working on the South Pole ice core. The first drilling season for the 1500-m South Pole core is still slated for 2014-2015, so ice will be available for analysis starting in summer 2015. Among items to discuss at the Irvine meeting will be decisions on the proposed core cut plan, so that researchers can plan their projects around realistic allocations of ice volume. We expect the meeting to be light on research presentations, and heavy on time for making concrete plans. Discussions of South Pole will end by noon on 26 Feb. For more information about the workshop, visit the SOUTH POLE ICE CORE WORKSHOP WEBSITE.
A reminder that anyone submitting a proposal to work on the South Pole core will need a letter of support from the Steering Committee, demonstrating that the proposed work is consistent with the overall goals of the project and availability of ice.
FUTURE ICE CORING ENDEAVOURS :: 26-27 Feb 2014 (Contact: Mary.R.Albert@Dartmouth.edu)
Starting at 1:30PM on 26 Feb through noon on 27 Feb, the Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) will host a meeting of its Ice Core Working Group (ICWG) and any other interested participants entitled 'IDPO Community Workshop on Ice Coring' to identify locations and timing for the next U.S. deep ice core and community intermediate-depth community cores (after the South Pole ice core project). The DISC drill will be available to ship for the next drilling endeavor in late 2018, and the Intermediate Depth Drill is available for drilling in the Arctic and/or the Antarctic starting in fall 2016. Results of this meeting will be incorporated in this year's update of the IDPO Long Range Science Plan, and IDPO will work with NSF and the logistics providers to ensure that the funding and logistics are planned for this important upcoming research.
Please save the dates, and look for a notification in early January regarding registration for both meetings. Community members are welcome at either or both meetings. IDPO-Dartmouth can reimburse some of the travel expenses for the IDPO-ICWG meeting.
The Fall 2013 issue of In-Depth, the semi-annual newsletter of the National Ice Core Laboratory - Science Management Office, contains a good summary story about the SPICECORE project. To read the story, visit http://www.icecores.org/indepth/2013/fall/
(Source: The Antarctic Sun)
Glaciologists plan to SPICE things up at the South Pole.
Most researchers head to the research station at the bottom of the world for studies related to astro- and particle physics. The South Pole Station has earned a reputation as a world-class facility to learn about everything from subatomic particles like neutrinos to massive structures known as galaxy clusters.
One team of scientists is more interested in the thick ice sheet upon which the station sits. The South Pole Ice Core (SPICE) project aims to retrieve an ice core 1,500 meters long beginning in the 2014-15 austral summer field season. Full Story...
Registration is now open for our spring 2013 planning workshop to be held in Boulder, CO.
The planning workshop is intended to give scientists interested in participating in the South Pole ice core project an opportunity to discuss site selection, science goals, and analytical measurements, as well as an opportunity to coordinate the submission of science proposals to the 2013 NSF Antarctic Research solicitation (note: proposal deadline is April 15, 2013).
We will have web-conferencing capability for the workshop so that people can participate in the workshop remotely, if desired.
There is no registration fee to attend the workshop. However, in order to help us plan for the workshop, we need you to register for the workshop regardless of whether you plan to attend in person or remotely.
DEADLINES
* Wednesday, February 8 - Last day to book a hotel room at the group rate at the Millennium Harvest Hotel
* Wednesday, February 8 - Last day to register for the workshop
Details of the workshop, the hotel, and the online registration can be found at:
http://www.spicecore.org/meetings/2013-planning-workshop.shtml
For information about the 2013 Antarctic Research (13-527) funding opportunity, visit:
http://tinyurl.com/ns7psag
One of the purposes for the spring South Pole Ice Core workshop is to coordinate the submission of science proposals to the next NSF Antarctic Research solicitation. The proposal deadline for this solicitation has typically been in June. However, we recently learned that the target deadline for the 2013 Antarctic Research solicitation will be some time in mid-April. Because of this, we are re-scheduling the March 19 South Pole Ice Core workshop to * Friday, February 22 * to give ourselves more time to prepare for the 2013 Antarctic Research solicitation. Our hope is to have web-conferencing capability for the workshop so that people can participate in the workshop remotely, if desired.
We thank all of you who have already contacted us expressing your intention to attend the workshop, either in person or via web-conferencing. If you plan on attending the Feb 22 workshop and haven't contacted us yet, please send an email ASAP to contact@spicecore.org telling us if you plan on attending in person or via web-conferencing. For those of you who have already responded to us, if this change in date changes your ability to attend the workshop, please let us know. This will help us plan for the workshop.
What: South Pole Ice Core 2013 Workshop
When: Friday, February 22 (* NOTE NEW DATE *)
Where: Millennium Harvest House, Boulder, CO (http://tinyurl.com/pfzwa32)
Why: to give scientists interested in participating in the South Pole ice core project an opportunity to discuss site selection, science goals, and analytical measurements, as well as an opportunity to coordinate the submission of science proposals (to analyze the ice) to the 2013 Antarctic Research solicitation.
How to RSVP: send an email to contact@spicecore.org telling us if you plan to attend the workshop in-person or if you plan to attend via web-conferencing.
We are delighted to be able to inform you that NSF has funded us to obtain a 1500 meter ice core at the South Pole. Drilling is planned for 2014-2015 (~700 m, through the Holocene) and 2015-2016 (to 1500 m / 40,000 years). The drilling will be done with a new intermediate depth drill currently under development by IDDO, based on the Danish Hans Tausen drill design.
The ice core we will obtain will be 9.8 cm in diameter, about 1/2 the volume of the WAIS Divide core, so availability of ice will be less. However, with some advanced planning and creative sampling work we should still be able to accommodate a number of projects.
Proposals to work on this core will need a letter of support from the South Pole Ice Core Executive Committee, currently composed of Eric Saltzman, Eric Steig, Murat Aydin, and Tom Neumann. It will be very helpful for planning purposes if you can let us know if you intend to submit a proposal to work on the South Pole core. In particular, if you have special sampling needs, such as sampling in the field, we need to know about this sooner than later. Planning is already underway for the ice core trench; the intention is to process only minimally in the field.
Also, our first planning workshop is planned for Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder, CO. The workshop is intended to give scientists interested in participating in the South Pole ice core project an opportunity to discuss site selection, science goals, and analytical measurements, as well as an opportunity to coordinate the submission of science proposals (to analyze the ice) in June, 2013. Our hope is to have web-conferencing capability for the workshop so that people can participate in the workshop remotely, if desired. To help us determine how many rooms we should reserve at the Millennium Harvest House in Boulder, please let us know if you are interested in participating in the March 19 workshop, and if so, if you believe you will attend the workshop in person or via web-conferencing.
To summarize, please let us know the following:
1. If you intend to submit a proposal to work on the South Pole ice core; and
2. If you intend on attending the March 19 workshop, and whether you plan to attend in person or via web-conferencing. Please respond about the workshop by * Friday, 2-Nov * to help us plan for it.
* Please send your comments and queries to contact@spicecore.org *