National Ice Core Laboratory — Science Management Office
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NEWSLETTER OF THE NATIONAL ICE CORE LABORATORY — SCIENCE MANAGEMENT OFFICE Vol. 1 Issue 1•March 2003 National Ice Core Laboratory In this issue . THE NATIONAL ICE CORE NICL’s archived collection of ice cores is LABORATORY (NICL), at the Denver kept in the Main Storage area of the lab Upcoming Meetings ...................... 2 Federal Center is a physical plant for which consists of 55,000 cubic feet of NICL Project Summary .................. 2 storing, curating, and studying cores. The freezer space maintained at -36oC. Visiting cores are collected from polar and other scientists prepare and measure samples in Obtaining Ice Cores ...................... 3 glaciers around the world. These cores the 12,000 cubic foot of the Exam Room Ice Core Working Group represent a long-term, unbroken record of which is held at -25oC. A Class-100 HEPA- Members ........................................ 3 material deposited by the earth’s filtered, cold clean room is provided for atmosphere. The Lab provides scientists treatment of environmentally sensitive Currently Funded Projects............. 4 with the capability to conduct samples. A warm ante-room is available for examinations of ice cores without having to suiting-up and taking short breaks. The travel to field sites, and it preserves the Dock serves as a receiving area for incoming integrity of these ice samples in a repository shipments of ice and also acts as a de- Message from for the study of global climate, changes and humidifying buffer for Main Storage. The the Director past environmental conditions. The facility Machine Room houses the computer controlled refrigeration system. GREETINGS and welcome to the houses the world’s most comprehensive ice core collection available to the scientific first In Depth newsletter pub- NICL currently stores over 13,700 meters of community. NICL is a joint program lished by the National Ice Core core collected from 100 different bore holes funded by the U.S. Geological Survey in Antarctica, Greenland, and North Laboratory - Science Manage- (USGS) and the National Science America. Main Storage presently contains ment Office (NICL-SMO). The Foundation (NSF). NICL is overseen by a over 12,700 tubes of ice samples. Among purpose of In Depth is to keep governing board of research scientists, the the most interesting samples are Summit the ice core community informed Ice Core Working Group, which sets and Greenland (~110,000 years old) and Vostok about activities, policies, and approves policies, and approves allocation (~450,000 years old) cores. The collection projects that effect those involved of samples to researchers. in ice core research; those who (continued on page 2) use ice core data; and those who have interest in the science resulting from ice coring and it’s data analysis. This inaugural issue The Ice Core Data Gateway is designed to give background THE ONE STOP GATEWAY to ice core data description. information on the National Ice is held at the Antarctic Glaciological Data The archive is designed to provide access to Center (AGDC), the World Data Center Core Laboratory, Ice Core Data ice core data sets over the long term, thereby for Paleoclimatology, and the Arctic System making them available for comparison with Archive, the Ice Core Working Science Coordination Center (ARCSS). Group, and other items. Future future data, a critical component of change issues will be comprised of The Ice Core Data Gateway archives and detection studies. By facilitating broad data distributes physical and geochemical data access, the center promotes interdisciplinary updates and descriptions about from ice cores collected from across the scientific research. various projects underway. We globe. are looking for short articles from Investigators are encouraged to contribute the community for publishing In Typical data sets include age-depth data sets derived from ice cores to the Ice Depth. Please contact us relationships, oxygen and hydrogen isotope Core Data Gateway. Data center staff will ratios, chemical analysis, accumulation rates work with you to compile data set if you would like to contribute and pollen. Data are, in general, presented documentation prior to making the data an article. as ASCII files with a short text metadata (continued on page 2) NICL Science Management Office THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION (NSF) aND THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (USGS) jointly manage and operate the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) in Denver, In-Depth is published semi-annually by the National Ice Core Laboratory – Colorado. This facility has proven to be vitally important for researchers from the ice core Science Management Office. community. NICL provides a state of the art ice core processing area for investigators to conduct We welcome your comments, sugges- research funded by NSF and the USGS. NICL also maintains the integrity of ice core archives tions and submissions. by providing a safe and controlled environment to preserve ice cores for future researchers. The Mark Twickler, Director University of New Hampshire Scientific Management Office coordinates the Scientific Management of NICL and is located at Institute for the Study of Earth, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire. Oceans, and Space Durham, New Hampshire 03824 The Scientific Management Office for NICL (NICL-SMO) serves as a direct point of contact [email protected] for principal investigators interested in access to ice cores. It also facilitates the Ice Core Working (603) 862-1991 Group (ICWG) which represents ice core researchers and those in related disciplines whose http://nicl-smo.unh.edu research uses ice core data. Established in 1985, the ICWG primary role is to provide guidance to Graphic Design: Kristi Donahue NSF. The ICWG investigates a wide range of topics related to ice core research including NICL Masthead photos courtesy of oversight, sample access and distribution, inventory, policy issues and the development of a plan Lonnie Thompson and Michael Morrison. for future activities. Through yearly meetings and reports, the ICWG provide leadership and direction to the ice core community. Members of the ICWG are nominated by the scientific community and serve on a rotating basis. A Sample Allocation Committee drawn from members of ICWG provide timely recommendations to NSF and USGS on sample allocation and core access for qualified investigators. Upcoming Meetings At NICL, the USGS has the responsibility of maintaining the freezer operations and the day to day operation of the facility. This includes: maintaining current service contracts; assuring that 7-11 April 2003 activities and projects from an Annual Program Plan are carried out; assuring the ability to meet 2003 EGS - AGU - EUG Joint scheduling demands, planning, budgeting and contracting for the operation of NICL; providing Assembly, Nice, France and setting up laboratory and processing space for individual and group sampling teams; assisting http://www.copernicus.org/egsagueug/ index.html investigators in scheduling, sampling, shipping and record keeping; system monitoring and emergency response; and providing outreach activities. 10-11 April 2003 12th Midwest Glaciology Meeting Ice core research and the societally relevant results produced from this research have created a http://www.ume.maine.edu/iceage/ large public interest. The NICL-SMO serves as a primary point of contact for such public Seminar/mgmindex.html inquiries and a conduit for information for researchers, the scientific community, and the public. 21-22 August 2003 InterICE: International Consortium of National Ice Core The Ice Core Data Ice Core Establishments, Milan, Italy Laboratory (continued from page 1) Gateway(continued from page 1) [email protected] includes most of the samples remaining available to users. Contributing scientists are given 25-29 August 2003 from deep-drilling projects funded by the prominent recognition in the documentation. Seventh International Symposium on NSF for more than 40 years. Cores While the data center answers technical questions Antarctic Glaciology (ISAG-7), Milan, recovered from 1958 to the present are about format, citations for usage, etc., it can refer Italy http://meteo.pnra.it/isag7/ stored at the NICL facility located in scientific questions to contributors if requested. 8-12 September 2003 Denver, CO. Contributing your data to the Ice Core Data International Symposium on Antarctic Tours are provided on request, dependant Gateway and associated data centers directly Earth Sciences (ISAES IX), Potsdam, on availability. Due to heavy demand, supports NSF Office of Polar Programs Guidelines Germany [email protected] providing alternate dates is advised. On and Award Conditions for Scientific Data (http:// www.nsf.gov/pubsys/ods/getpub.cfm?opp991). 17-20 September 2003 the day of your tour, please be sure to West Antarctic Ice Sheet Workshop bring a good winter coat along with hat This effort is being coordinated with the West (WAIS), Sterling, VA and gloves. This will ensure comfort in Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Initiative and U.S. http://igloo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wais the colder areas of the tour. To schedule a component of the International Trans Antarctic tour, or to receive a brochure about NICL, Science Expedition (ITASE). 8-12 December 2003 contact the curators at 303-202-4828. AGU - Fall Meeting, San Francisco, The Ice Core Data Gateway is at: CA Dr. Todd Hinkley, NICL Acting Technical Director http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/icgate.html. http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm03 Rob Bauer, National Snow and Ice Data Center 2 March 2003 Obtaining Ice Core Samples from NICL Ice Core Working Group THE NATIONAL ICE CORE Laboratory (NICL) De-Accessed Ice provides the archival repository for ice cores The NICL Facility is currently near full capacity Jeff Severinghaus, Chair collected by the U.S. scientific community. and the Working Group has selected a group of Scripps Institute of Oceanography The Facility’s objectives are (1) insure ice cores that have been placed on a de-accession Eric Saltzman maximum availability of samples to qualified list.