|
NSF PR 01-76 - September 26, 2001
Research Season will Feature Use of Sophisticated
Technologies to Map Antarctica
Researchers plan to map the surface of the vast Antarctic
ice sheet with airborne radar, measure the movement
of the Earth's crust beneath the ice with Global Positioning
System transceivers and deploy buoys to explore the
waters off the Antarctic Peninsula when the U.S. Antarctic
Program's 2001-2002 research season gets underway
next month.
"For almost 50 years, the United States has been engaged
with the community of nations in scientific inquiry
in Antarctica, a continent set aside for peaceful
exploration," said Karl Erb, the director of the National
Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Polar Programs
and the head of the U.S. Antarctic Program. "At the
dawn of a new century, that commitment to research
is stronger than ever."
The research season gets underway in October, when
the New York Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force
will begin bringing about 3,000 researchers and logistics
personnel as well as materiel into McMurdo Station,
NSF's scientific hub on the continent. The flights
will continue over the course of the season, which
ends in February, the onset of fall in Antarctica.
Scientists from across the United States will travel
to Antarctica in the coming months to conduct new
and ongoing and studies in the earth sciences, glaciology,
biology, oceanography, meteorology, astrophysics and
aeronomy, or studies of the upper atmosphere.
In addition to science near McMurdo Station and at
the South Pole, research also is conducted year-round
at Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula and on
the research ships Nathaniel B.Palmer and Laurence
M. Gould.
Among the significant research projects scheduled for
the 2001-2002 season are:
- LAKE VOSTOK: Ice that formed over the last
400,000 years and that had been extracted from
the ice sheet above subglacial Lake Vostok in
an earlier joint Russian, French, and U.S. project,
will be retrieved and analyzed in laboratories
in all three countries. Scientists expect to learn
more about ancient microorganisms trapped in the
ice, and whether they differ from contemporary
organisms. The analyses also are expected to provide
information about the water in this long-buried
lake and the processes that take place on its
shores and in its waters.
- WEST ANTARCTICA GPS NETWORK (WAGN): Researchers
this season will begin to deploy a series of Global
Positioning System transceivers across the interior
of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet -- an area approximately
the size of the contiguous United States from
the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. The
ability to measure the motions of the Earth's
crust in the bedrock surrounding and underlying
the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is critical to understanding
the past, present, and future dynamics of the
ice sheet and its potential role in future global
change scenarios, as well as improving the understanding
of Antarctica's role in global plate motions.
WAGN will complement existing GPS projects by
filling a major gap in coverage among several
discrete crustal blocks that make up West Antarctica
-- a critical area of potential bedrock movements.
- INTERNATIONAL TRANSANTARCTIC SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION
(ITASE): The U.S. component of the multi-year
International Transantarctic Scientific Expedition
(U.S. ITASE) will carry out, this season, the
third in a series of four traverses over the West
Antarctic ice sheet. The broad aim of US ITASE
is to develop an understanding of the last 200
years of past West Antarctic climate and environmental
change. ITASE is a multidisciplinary program that
integrates remote sensing, meteorology, ice coring,
surface glaciology and geophysics. This year researchers
will continue to collect shallow ice core and
snow pit samples for various ice chemical analyses,
shallow and deep radar data to look at internal
layer reflections and bedrock topography, atmospheric
samples, and meteorological readings to understand
the current climate of the ice sheet. These data
will contribute to a better understanding of the
West Antarctic ice sheet both today and in the
recent past.
- KILLER WHALES: Working aboard a U.S. Coast
Guard icebreaker, scientists for the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
will obtain tissue samples from live, free-swimming
killer whales to determine whether a group of
whales, discovered 20 years ago in the vicinity
of McMurdo Station, constitute a new species.
The Antarctic whales generally are smaller than
other killer whales and display a different color
pattern.
- LASER MAPPING: As part of a partnership
with the U.S. Geological Survey, NSF is collaborating
with NASA during the 2001-2002 field-season to
test a scanning laser altimeter system in The
vicinity of McMurdo Station. The data collected
will be used by NSF researchers studying biology,
geology, and glaciology and by NASA's ICESat team
to assist in the calibration of their data.
- SOUTHERN OCEAN GLOBAL ECOSYSTEMS DYNAMICS (SO
GLOBEC): Two U.S. Antarctic Program research
ships - the icebreaking research ship Nathaniel
B. Palmer and the ice-strengthened research
ship Laurence M. Gould -will conduct five
cruises in Marguerite Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula
region. A continuation of research undertaken
in the 2001 research season, the new cruises will
deploy a series of moorings, which will include
current meters, sensors to measure salinity, temperature
and zooplankton concentration, upward-looking
acoustic sounders to track ice motion, and acoustic
Doppler current profilers.
- HISTORIC HUTS: Researchers will study the
biological and non-biological agents responsible
for causing deterioration in a series of historically
significant huts built by Antarctic explorers
in the early 20th century. Over the past 90 years,
the extremes of the polar environment have protected
some of the artifacts in the huts from rapid decay,
but conservators have become concerned about degradation
of these important historical, archaeological
sites. They will study the mechanisms and progressive
sequence of events taking place during decay processes,
test methods to be used to control future deterioration,
determine the extent of environmental pollutants
in soils at the historic sites, and evaluate chemical
spills within the huts.
- SOUTH POLE ASTROPHYSICS: Several telescopes
located at the South Pole will continue their
investigations onto the origins of the universe,
including the Degree Angular Scale Inferometer
(DASI). Results from DASI last spring helped show
scientists evidence of how the universe looked
in its infancy. (See attached fact sheet on
astrophysics at the Pole). In addition to
scientific research, construction of a new elevated
building to replace the existing Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station will continue. The construction
of exteriors of wings that will house station
services, medical facilities and science labs
will begin, with the interiors being completed
during the next austral winter. The station is
scheduled for completion in 2006.
Construction began last season with a wing that houses
dormitory and galley facilities as well as vertical
tower that will provide access to the new station,
which is capable of being raised hydraulically over
the years to keep it above accumulating snow and ice.
Several environmental, safety and telecommunications
upgrades at the station also were completed last season.
Work has continued over the austral winter on the
interior of the new wing with the goal of allowing
a portion of the station's winter personnel to live
in the new building next season.
Biology laboratories at Palmer Station also are slated
for renovation this year. And construction also will
begin approximately eight kilometers (4.9 miles) from
the South Pole station on the South Pole Remote Earth
Science Observatory (SPRESO). Seismic data already
collected at Pole is in high demand among researchers;
the new observatory at its more remote site, however,
will improve the usefulness of the data by reducing
the amount of background noise from the station.
|
|