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South Pole Telescope
ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL)
IceCube
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Adélie penguin populations and climate change
Ocean acidification and marine ecosystems
Demonstration ocean-bottom drilling in the James Ross Basin
Seismograph
West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide
International Transantarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE)
Infrared measurement of the atmosphere
Surface carbon dioxide in the Drake Passage
Antarctic Artists and Writers Program
South Pole Telescope
Construction continues for the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT). The SPT Control Room was substantially completed during the 2006 austral winter. The telescope will be constructed in the 2006-2007 austral summer and be operational for observation in the 2007 austral winter. The SPT shield will be erected in the 2007-2008 austral summer. [1]
The SPT will investigate properties of the dark energy that pervades the universe and accelerates its expansion, to constrain the mass of the neutrino, to search for the signature of primordial gravitational waves, and to test models of the origin of the universe.
Back to Top ANtarctic geological DRILLing (ANDRILL)
ANDRILL, a scientific drilling program to investigate Antarctica's role in global climate change over the last 60 million years, integrates geophysical surveys, new drilling technology, multidisciplinary core analysis, and ice-sheet modeling to address four scientific themes:
1) the history of Antarctica's climate and ice sheets;
2) the evolution of polar biota and ecosystems;
3) the timing and nature of major tectonic and volcanic episodes; and
4) the role of Antarctica in the Earth's ocean-climate system.
This long-term program focuses on two previously inaccessible sediment records beneath the McMurdo Ice Shelf and in south McMurdo Sound. These stratigraphic records cover critical periods in the development of Antarctica's major ice sheets.
The McMurdo Ice Shelf site focuses on the Ross Ice Shelf, the size of which is a sensitive indicator of global climate change. The core obtained from this site will offer insight into changes in size of the shelf since the last glacial maximum; sub-ice shelf sedimentary, biologic, and oceanographic processes; the history of Ross Island volcanism; and the flexural response of the lithosphere to volcanic loading, which is important for geophysical and tectonic studies of the region. As a generator of cold bottom water, the shelf may also play a key role in ocean circulation.
The south McMurdo Sound site, adjacent to the Dry Valleys, offers a view into the major ice sheet overlying East Antarctica and the debate regarding the stability of this ice sheet. Evidence from the Dry Valleys supports contradictory conclusions—a stable ice sheet for at least the last 15 million years or an active ice sheet that cycled through expansions and contractions as recently as a few millions of years ago. Constraining this history is critical to global climate change models.
The sediment cores will be used to construct an overall glacial and interglacial history for the region; including documentation of sea-ice coverage, sea level, terrestrial vegetation, and melt-water discharge events. The cores will also provide a general chronostratigraphic framework for regional seismic studies and help unravel the area's complex tectonic history.
Back to Top IceCube
Work continues on the world’s largest neutrino detector, which—after 6 years of work—will occupy a cubic kilometer of ice beneath the South Pole Station on Antarctica, deploying 4,200 photomultiplier tubes into holes that a hot water drill will make in the ice. Neutrinos are hard to detect astronomical messengers that can carry information from violent cosmological events at the edge of the universe or from the hearts of black holes.
Using neutrinos as cosmic messengers, IceCube will open an unexplored window on the Universe and will answer such fundamental questions as what the physical conditions in gamma ray bursts are and whether the photons originating in the Crab supernova remnant and near the super massive black holes of active galaxies are of hadronic (derived from subatomic particles composed of quarks) or electromagnetic origin. The telescope will also examine the nature of dark matter, aid in the quest to observe supersymmetric particles, and search for compactified dimensions.
During the 2006-07 austral summer, participants will drill 14 ice holes, deploy 14 IceCube strings and install 10 Ice-Top Stations and 20 Ice-Top tanks. [2]
Back to Top Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER)
Two sites in Antarctica—the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the marine environment on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula—are among 26 NSF-sponsored LTER sites dedicated to understanding ecological phenomena over long temporal and large spatial scales (most of the other sites are in continental the United States). [3]
Back to Top Adélie penguin populations and climate change
The Adélie penguin is tied to sea ice, a key environmental variable affected by rapid climate change. Researchers will investigate the populations of Adélie penguins on Ross and Beaufort Islands, where colonies have recently expanded, relative to colonies at Cape Crozier that declined during the 1960s and 1970s. The information will be related to sea ice, as quantified by satellite images.
Understanding the mechanisms behind this sensitivity will contribute greatly to predicting the effects of climate change on Antarctic marine organisms. [4]
Back to Top Ocean acidification and marine ecosystems
As global carbon dioxide levels rise, the acidity of the southern ocean will increase. Excessive acidity in the marine environment can negatively affect the metabolism of planktonic marine organisms, including the ability to form shells.
Researchers will evaluate the impact of elevated carbon dioxide on calcification, metabolic physiology, and organismal performance in Antarctic pteropods, an abundant, butterfly-like snail that lives in the southern ocean waters. They will begin to evaluate how impacts on the pteropod population affect the function of the larger marine ecosystem. [5]
Back to Top Demonstration ocean-bottom drilling in the James Ross Basin
Scientists will deploy a drill rig on the research icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer to test the feasibility of ship-based diamond coring along the Antarctic continental margin. If successful, this Shaldril mobile system will be able to explore the “no man's land” between the nearshore (where the fast-ice-based Cape Roberts Project was successful) and the upper slope (where ODP's JOIDES Resolution becomes most efficient). [6]
Back to Top Seismograph
The world’s quietest earthquake detector is 8 kilometers from the South Pole, 300 meters beneath the ice sheet surface. Completed in 2002, the station is detecting vibrations four times smaller than those recorded previously. Other seismographs have been there since 1957, and long-term, high-latitude data have helped to prove that the Earth’s solid inner core spins faster than the rest of the planet.
Also, Antarctica is the continent with the fewest earthquakes, so the new station will record small regional earthquakes, leading to new insights into the Antarctic Plate. [7]
Back to Top West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide
This 5-year science program, involving a dozen research teams, will develop a detailed record of greenhouse gases for the last 100,000 years; determine if changes in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres initiated climate changes over the last 100,000 years; investigate past and future changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet; and study the biology of deep ice.
During the 2005-2006 austral summer, the camp infrastructure to support the drilling program was assembled at a site on the West Antarctic ice sheet divide. Construction crews established a skiway and a camp capable of supporting approximately 45 personnel. This camp is opened for the austral summer seasons only and is supported by LC-130 Hercules aircraft for all heavy cargo loads and fuel deliveries. The entire camp is taken down for winter storage because of the high snow accumulation rates that occur over the austral winter period.
A 184-foot steel arch building that will house the drilling and core processing facilities for the deep drilling project was constructed last season with interior construction continuing during the 2006-07 austral summer. The facility will eventually support the science and drilling teams who will collect a 3,400-meter ice core to bedrock. Drilling is expected to begin during the 2007-08 field (austral summer) season.
As ice cores are produced in the field, the cores will be flown back to McMurdo Station for shipment to the National Ice Core Laboratory in Denver, Colorado (NICL). NICL will then distribute core samples to individual researchers. [8]
Back to Top International Transantarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE)
Researchers will continue studies of the last 200 years of environmental history of East Antarctica by means of ice coring and data collection along a traverse route from Taylor Dome to South Pole. These proxy climate histories will help determine anthropogenic influence on air temperature, atmospheric circulation, and atmospheric chemistry.
This research enables regional comparisons of interannual variability of climate and the records can be extended from the last two decades of satellite and field observations to the last 200 years, through the interpretation of ice core-derived climate and environmental proxies.
Back to Top Infrared measurement of the atmosphere
Winter measurements of atmospheric chemistry are providing data for predicting ozone depletion and climate change. Since most satellites do not sample polar regions in winter, these ground-based measurements are expected to make important contributions. [9]
Back to Top Surface carbon dioxide in the Drake Passage
The Southern Ocean is an important part of the global carbon budget, and the Drake Passage is the narrowest place through which the Antarctic Circumpolar Current goes. This chokepoint is an efficient site to measure the latitudinal gradients of gas exchange, and the research icebreaker Laurence M. Gould will support a project to measure dissolved and total carbon dioxide, providing data that, with satellite images, will enable estimates of the net production and export of carbon by oceanic biota. [10]
Back to Top Antarctic Artists and Writers Program
Five artists will deploy to Antarctica this season. Four of them will deploy to the McMurdo area between August and January. Among them are Anne Aghion a documentary filmmaker, Lita Albuquerque an installation earth artist, Xavier Cortada a painter and installation artist, and Werner Herzog a filmmaker.
One artist will deploy to Palmer Station, glass sculptor, David Ruth. A sixth award was given to installation artist, Dove Bradshaw to receive Antarctic salt from the desalination plant (no travel to Antarctica.)
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