Effects of Climate Change on Antarctic Peninsula to be Investigated During IPY

National Snow and Ice Data Center, 19 February 2008

NSIDC scientist Ted Scambos is one of a team of international collaborators who have been funded to begin an interdisciplinary study focusing on the rapid effects of climate change now occurring on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Glaciologists, oceanographers, marine geologists, and biologists will collaborate during the course of the four-year International Polar Year study, with special focus on an ambitious field expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula. The group will conduct its fieldwork using a marine research platform, the Research Vessel NB Palmer, and on-board helicopters. The Argentine National Antarctic Program is providing additional logistical support.

Scientists involved in the project will gather a new ice core that will provide a high-resolution paleoclimate record and use it to compare past climate to the modern period; investigate the stability of the remaining Larsen Ice Shelf, exploring rapid post-breakup glacier response; and observe the contribution and response of oceanographic systems to ice shelf disintegration and ice-glacier interactions.

Scambos is one of approximately seventeen Principal Investigators on the project. He said, "Our group will focus an international scientific investigation on one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. We'll incorporate the perspectives of half-a-dozen different scientific disciplines to learn about climate change in a natural polar laboratory."

Learn more online about the International Polar Year at NSIDC and the research of Lead Scientist Ted Scambos. For more details about the Antarctic Peninsula project, contact Stephanie Renfrow at +1 303.492.1497 or srenfrow@nsidc.org.

Link to article: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20080219_IPYProposal.html