Links

Below you will find links to sites dealing directly with ice cores, ice sheets, and glaciers.

Data

  • U.S. Antarctic Program Data Center
    - The Center is funded by the NSF GEO Division of Polar Programs to manage data collected by U.S. funded scientists in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. It also serves as a National Antarctic Data Centre (NADC) in the framework of SCAR, and represents the U.S. in the SCAR Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management
  • NSF Arctic Data Center
    - The Arctic Data Center is the primary data and software repository for the Arctic section of NSF Polar Programs
  • Ice Core Data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information
    - The National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) provides the paleoclimatology data and information scientists need to understand natural climate variability and future climate change. NCEI also operates the World Data Service for Paleoclimatology, which archives and distributes data contributed by scientists around the world.
  • National Snow and Ice Data Center
    - The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world’s frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth’s cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.
  • NOAA Paleoclimatology Program
    - Helps the World share scientific data and information related to climate system variability and predictability
  • National Centers for Environmental Information
    - Manages environmental data in the fields of marine geology and geophysics, paleoclimatology, solar-terrestrial physics, solid earth geophysics, and glaciology (snow and ice)
  • Cold Regions Bibliography Project
    - Bibliography Project of American Geological Institute on Cold Regions

Educational Resources

  • NSF Polar Education
    - Opportunities to submit proposals to National Science Foundation (NSF) for Undergraduate, K-12 and Informal STEM education
  • Find a Research Experience for Undergraduates Site
    - The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program.
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
    - The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.
  • Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) K-12 Education Resources
    - K-12 students and teachers are invited to explore the many learning and teaching resources available from CReSIS K-12 education page. You will find lesson ideas, maps, images, and updates about the research our team is doing. Opportunities for talks by scientists and other resources for science teachers will also be found here.
  • U.S. Ice Drilling Program (IDP) Education and Outreach
    - The goal of the IDP Education and Outreach Program is to provide cutting-edge information based on current ice core research for educators, students, and the public. We hope these resources contribute to classrooms or informal science program efforts, and will provide data that is useful to decision-makers of all backgrounds.
  • NASA's Climate Kids
    - NASA's Climate Kids website brings the exciting science of climate change and sustainability to life, providing clear explanations for the big questions in climate science Targeting upper-elementary-aged children, the site includes interactive games, hands-on activities, and engaging articles that make climate science accessible and fun. With a special section for educators, Climate Kids is great for parents and teachers as well.
  • NASA: Global Climate Change - Vital Signs of the Planet
    - The mission of "Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet" is to provide the public with accurate and timely news and information about Earth's changing climate, along with current data and visualizations, presented from the unique perspective of NASA.
  • Antarctic Science with the Australian Antarctic Program
    - This Antarctic resource series provides engaging lesson plans, hands-on activities and detailed booklets for teachers and students. They are all mapped to the science curriculum and teach you all about the amazing science happening by Australians in and around Antarctica. Each resource is specially designed to: incorporate global science issues into your teaching; develop students’ critical thinking skills; raise awareness of STEM careers; demonstrate classroom science in the real world; and much more!
  • About the Cryosphere
    - The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) supports research into our world's frozen realms: the snow, ice, glaciers, frozen ground, and climate interactions that make up Earth's cryosphere. NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data, creates tools for data access, supports data users, performs scientific research, and educates the public about the cryosphere.
  • Warnings from the Ice
    - NOVA's coverage of Antarctic ice core research.
  • Mountain of Ice
    - NOVA follows a group of explorers and scientists as they scale Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak, collecting snowfall data along the way to help determine Antarctic ice flow. Teacher's Guide
  • Willi Dansgaard: Frozen Annals - Greenland Ice Sheet Research
    - Willi Dansgaard has played a pivotal role in developing ice core research into one of the most powerful tools in present studies of past climate changes. In this book (which is available as a FREE pdf download), Willi Dansgaard gives his personal perspective on the history of ice core research from the pioneering years in the early 1950's until the successful termination of the NorthGRIP (Greenland) ice coring in 2004.
  • Chester C. Langway, Jr: The History of Early Polar Ice Cores
    - This report was prepared by Dr. Chester C. Langway, Jr., a former researcher at the Snow, Ice and Permafrost Research Establishment (SIPRE), Wilmette, IL, and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Hanover, NH, (1956-1975) and a former faculty member at the University at Buffalo (State University of New York) (1975-1994). During his years at SIPRE and CRREL, he participated in and was responsible for developing the SIPRE/CRREL field and laboratory ice core research program, the core sample storage responsibilities, and the scientific redistribution of ice core samples for external studies. During his last nine years at CRREL he also served as Chief, Snow and Ice Research Branch.

Institutional Sites

Organizations

  • U.S. Ice Drilling Program
    - The Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) and the Ice Drilling Design and Operations (IDDO) group, together known as IDPO-IDDO, were established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) starting in October 2008 to coordinate long-term and short-term planning in collaboration with the greater U.S ice science community, and to be the principal supplier of ice drilling and ice coring support and expertise for NSF-funded research.
  • National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs
    - The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs promotes creative and innovative scientific research, engineering, and education in and about the polar regions, catalyzing fundamental discovery and understanding of polar systems and their global interactions to inform the nation and advance the welfare of all people.
  • United States Antarctic Program
    - Without interruption since 1956, Americans have been studying the Antarctic and its interactions with the rest of the planet. These investigators and supporting personnel make up the U.S. Antarctic Program, which carries forward the Nation's goals of supporting the Antarctic Treaty, fostering cooperative research with other nations, protecting the Antarctic environment, and developing measures to ensure only equitable and wise use of resources. The program comprises research by scientists selected from universities and other research institutions and operations and support by a contractor and other agencies of the U.S. Government. The National Science Foundation (the U.S. Government agency that promotes the progress of science) funds and manages the program. Approximately, 3,000 Americans are involved each year.
  • US-SCAR
    - United States Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
  • SCAR
    - Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
  • The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States
    - Information and Resources Regarding Research in the Arctic
  • Polar Research Board
    - National Academy of Sciences
  • The International Glaciological Society
    - Scientific society for those who study glaciers.
  • US Global Change Research Program
    - The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was established by Presidential Initiative in 1989 and mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act (GCRA) of 1990 to "assist the Nation and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change."

Projects

The following are links to ice coring projects.

  • U.S. Ice Drilling Program
    - The Ice Drilling Program (IDP) was established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to coordinate long-term and short-term planning in collaboration with the greater US ice science community and to provide polar drilling, borehole logging, and ice coring support and expertise for NSF-funded research.
  • Hercules Dome Ice Core
    - How much ice was lost from the West Antarctic ice sheet during Earth's last prolonged warm period, about 125,000 years ago, when sea level was several meters higher than today? Ice cores from Antarctica can help us to answer this critical question. Over the next several years, a group of U.S. researchers will drill a deep ice core from Hercules Dome, Antarctica to help provide fundamental information about Earth’s climate and to learn more about West Antarctica’s past—and future—contribution to global sea level rise.
  • South Pole 1500 m Ice Core
    - The South Pole Ice Core (SPICE Core) project is a U.S. effort to drill and recover a new ice core from South Pole, Antarctica. The ice core will be drilled to a depth of 1500 meters, providing an environmental record spanning approximately 40,000 years that will be used to investigate the magnitude and timing of changes in climate and climate forcing through time. Drilling is planned for 2014-2015 (~700 m / through the Holocene) and 2015-2016 (to 1500 m / 40,000 years). The core will be recovered with a new intermediate depth drill currently under development by IDDO, based on the Danish Hans Tausen drill design.
  • West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core Project (WAIS Divide)
    - WAIS Divide is a United States deep ice coring project in West Antarctica funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is the second component to the larger WAISCORES initiative. The purpose of the WAIS Divide project is to collect a deep ice core from the flow divide in central West Antarctica in order to develop a unique series of interrelated climate, ice dynamics, and biologic records focused on understanding interactions among global earth systems. The WAIS Divide ice core will provide Antarctic records of environmental change with the highest possible time resolution for the last ~100,000 years and will be the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the Greenland GISP2, GRIP, and North GRIP ice cores.
  • North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM)
    - The North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) is an international ice core research project aimed at retrieving an ice core from Northwest Greenland reaching back through the previous interglacial, the Eemian. The project logistics is managed by the Centre for Ice and Climate, Denmark, and the air support is carried out by US ski-equipped Hercules managed through the US Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation.
  • International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS)
    - With the completion of major projects in Greenland and Antarctica over the last 15 years, the international ice coring community is planning for the next several decades. The costs and scope of future work create the need for coordinated international collaboration. Developing this international collaboration is the charge of IPICS, the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences, a planning group currently composed of ice core scientists, engineers, and drillers from 18 nations.
  • U. S. International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition
    - Scientific traverses across the Antarctic.
  • Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2
    - Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2) penetrated through the ice sheet and 1.55 meters into bedrock recovering an ice core 3053.44 meters in depth, the deepest ice core recovered in the world at the time. This website is the portal to the valuable information obtained during the drilling program.
  • Taylor Dome Ice Core Project
    - Information and data from the Taylor Dome Ice core project, Antarctica
  • West Antarctic Ice Sheet Initiative (WAIS)
    - A Multidisciplinary Study of Rapid Climate Change and Future Sea Level
  • European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA)
    - EPICA is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica. Its main objective is to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts.
  • North Greenland Ice core Project (NGRIP)
    - NGRIP is a multinational research program, funded by participating institutions in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Iceland and the US. The primary sponsor is the Danish Research Council. The research objective to retrieve and analyze a 3080 m long ice core drilled through the Greenland ice sheet.
  • Greenland Icecore Project (GRIP)
    - GRIP has been a multinational European research project, organized through the European Science Foundation (ESF). GRIP successfully drilled a 3028-meter ice core to the bed of the Greenland ice sheet at Summit.
  • Dome Fuji
    - The Japanese deep ice coring project at Dome Fuji, Antarctica