- Ice-Memory is a project from the glaciologists at the LGGE (Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement) in Grenoble, in collaboration with Italian glaciologists from the Ca’Foscari University. It originates from the fact that many key glaciers throughout the world have receded significantly over the last few decades, and are at high risk of disappearing completely in the next century. The glaciologists will sample ice cores from these key glaciers, analyze some of the specimens, and transport the others in a sanctuary in Antarctica, at Concordia station. Currently they plan to drill ice cores from glaciers in the French, Swiss and French Alps, and the Illimani mountain in Bolivia. The ice cores transported to Antarctica will be kept in the tubosider, which guarantees a constant temperature of -50°C. They will be safeguarded for future analyses, in the hope that novel techniques will be developed. Analyzing the content of air bubbles trapped in the ice cores enables to deduce the composition of the atmosphere and make inferences about the past climate at specific times; the deeper the ice core, the further back in time. The evolution of the atmosphere and climate can therefore be precisely mapped out, and predictive models be made. The project instigators have chosen Antarctica both because it is a “natural freezer”, and because it is an international continent, devoted to peace and science.
- The Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice European project started in 2016 and will span over 3 years. The goal is to find the most ancient ice in Antarctica, and drill ice cores in that location in order to go as far back as possible in the study of Earth’s past climate and atmosphere. This would be of tremendous help in developing accurate predictive models. Currently the oldest ice core that has been extracted goes back to 800 000 years. The raid travelled to the Little Dome C site and analyzed ice specimens, physical characteristics of the ice sheet and the topography of the rock bed underneath. Since the ice flows from the core of the continent to the coasts, the thickness of the sheet is not the only factor in determining where the oldest ice might be located. The scientists used techniques like radio-echo sounding, and measured parameters such as vertical velocity of the ice and deep-ice temperature.
- Asuma is a French scientific expedition from the IGE (Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement) in Grenoble, and was deployed in November 2016 in the scope of the ITASE (International Trans Antarctic Scientific Expedition). The raid analyzed a transition zone located between the coastal regions of Antarctica, which get a lot of snow accumulation every year, and the East Antarctica plateau, which at the opposite is very dry and gets little precipitations. The aim was to refine the surface mass balance estimates, or in other words the annual snow accumulation in these regions. This will help us to understand whether Antarctica, which is the world’s greatest reserve of fresh water, is “melting” and likely to contribute to a rise in sea levels or not.
- Subglacior is a French glaciology project, which aims to develop a probe to analyze ice cores in situ, without having to bring the cores back to the surface. This would have obvious advantages, but is technologically very complex.
There are obviously many other projects led during the summer campaign at Concordia, namely in geomagnetism, seismology, chemistry of the atmosphere, solar radiation. The IPEV and Italian Antartide website describe some of these.
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