Collaborative Research: The NEEM Deep Ice Core

The North Eemian (NEEM) Deep Ice Core Project was designed to acquire a new ice core in northern Greenland. NEEM is an international effort, led by the glaciology group at the University of Copenhagen. More than a dozen countries have expressed a desire to participate. The US is a main partner in NEEM and is already providing about one-third of the logistics costs needed to collect the ice core. US scientists will take the lead on gas and gas isotope analyses and studies of the physics of gas incorporation into ice, they will place the modern climate in the context of the past two millennia, and they will help provide the basic temperature records in the ice needed to place all analyses in a climate context. A particular focus of the project will be on high temporal resolution to explore abrupt climate shifts. The most prominent analyses will focus on gas concentrations, in particular carbon monoxide, and stable isotopes of oxygen, hydrogen, argon, krypton, and carbon. A final subproject will focus on the firnification processes in order to understand the advection and diffusion of gases through the snow and ice and the development of ice bubbles that preserve the atmospheric gases. Funding Source: Arctic Natural Sciences (ANS) Sponsor: Dartmouth College - Thayer School of Engineering, 14 Engineering Dr. Hanover, NH 03755 USA