Ice coring 2008-2009 (Law Dome W10k, Mill Island PICO, Totten PICOs)

Metadata record for data from AAS (ASAC) project 3025.PublicAn ice core drilling expedition is proposed for Aurora Basin, between Law Dome and Dome C. This will provide a climate record in excess of 2000 years and will be used to compare coastal and inland Antarctic records. This will improve interpretation of ice core climate records and increase our knowledge of the role of Antarctica in the global climate system.Project objectives:The overall goal for this project is to recover a 2000 year plus climate record from a site ('GC41') in Aurora Basin, inland East Antarctica.The project aims to achieve a number of objectives:1 To provide a new, high resolution accurately dated, ice core climate record (greater than 2000 years) from the sparsely explored Aurora Basin region in the East Antarctic sector;2 To gain an improved synthesis of the regional climate signals through better connection between the Law Dome (coastal) and EDC (inland) climate records in the pre-industrial late Holocene and into the period of anthropogenic climate change;3 To provide better interpretation of ice core records through comparison of deposition and preservation mechanisms from the high accumulation coastal zone through to the low accumulation interior;4 To contribute towards locating a site for drilling a very old record, in excess of 1 million years;5 Finally, although not an objective with immediate scientific return, this project is designed to demonstrate and develop remote ice coring logistical capabilities using Australia's new combined inter-/intra-continental air transport system.Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report:Progress against objectives:Ice core drilling at Aurora Basin (site GC41) was not achieved, however ice cores were recovered from Law Dome (site W10k, 127m; site DSS 10m), Mill Island (site MI 17m) and Totten Glacier (site TOT1 17m; TOT2 15m).(a) Planning changes prior to getting into the field The shortened flying season due to a medical incident at Davis initially led to a clash for limited C212 resources on Casey station between the proposed ABN project and other C212 operational requirements. A modified ABN project was proposed and accepted with the following changes:- No mid-season changeover of personnel (this essentially ended the participation of the international field personnel)- Lighter camp requiring less C212 deployment flights (we removed all field-based ice core processing tasks and consolidated our living arrangements, reducing power requirements and therefore fuel, generators and tents)- Shortened our field season requiring less fuel/food (again removing ice core processing allowed for a faster drilling rate)This proposed modified project would achieve the primary goal of retrieving an ice core, however it lost two very important components:- International field participation (4 persons, Denmark and USA)- Field based ice core processing(b) Planning changes on getting into the field All 8 ABN field personnel arrived at Casey station on 1st December 2008. At Casey a number of reconnaissance flights and a skidrag were undertaken to Aurora Basin, however, we could not access our original GC41 drilling site. The topography at the site was considered too rough to land an aircraft. The surface was very different than that from reconnaissance in 2006/2007 and may have been due to un-seasonal storm activity in the area. Further reconnaissance in the area failed to find a suitable landing site. These operational reasons led to withdrawing of the ABN project for 2008/2009.Taken from the 2009-2010 Progress Report:This year was spent processing and analysing the ice cores collected in the 2008/2009 field season. As stated in last years progress report (AAS 3025), this analysis was reported on in AAS 757, and will also be reported on here. This will result in duplication between this report and progress reported on in AAS 757.Approximately 80% of the core processing and analysis has been achieved, including the handling of just over 19,000 samples.