Abstract
AbstractFrom its original formulation in 1990 the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) has had as its primary aim the collection and interpretation of a continent-wide array of environmental parameters assembled through the coordinated efforts of scientists from several nations. ITASE offers the ground-based opportunities of traditional-style traverse travel coupled with the modern technology of GPS, crevasse detecting radar, satellite communications and multidisciplinary research. By operating predominantly in the mode of an oversnow traverse, ITASE offers scientists the opportunity to experience the dynamic range of the Antarctic environment. ITASE also offers an important interactive venue for research similar to that afforded by oceanographic research vessels and large polar field camps, without the cost of the former or the lack of mobility of the latter. More importantly, the combination of disciplines represented by ITASE provides a unique, multidimensional (space and time) view of the ice sheet and its history. ITASE has now collected >20 000km of snow radar, recovered more than 240 firn/ice cores (total length 7000 m), remotely penetrated to ~4000m into the ice sheet, and sampled the atmosphere to heights of >20 km.
Highlights
The broad aim of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) is to establish how the modern atmospheric environment is represented in the upper layers of the Antarctic ice sheet
Mayewski and others: ITASE: an overview endorsed as a core program of Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)-GLOCHANT (Global Change and the Antarctic) in 1996
For details concerning national programs, the ITASE Science and Implementation Plan (Mayewski, 1996) and other ITASE information, refer to the SCAR Project Office maintained at the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Summary
The broad aim of the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) is to establish how the modern atmospheric environment (climate and atmospheric composition) is represented in the upper layers of the Antarctic ice sheet. A 200 year time period was chosen for study because it is relatively simple to recover many ice cores covering this interval using oversnow traverse logistics, and to develop a spatial network of cores valuable in understanding geographically constrained differences in climate over Antarctica This time period covers the onset of major anthropogenic involvement in the atmosphere and the immediate pre-anthropogenic atmosphere. Mayewski and others: ITASE: an overview endorsed as a core program of SCAR-GLOCHANT (Global Change and the Antarctic) in 1996. It was formally approved and adopted by the IGBP PAGES (International Geosphere– Biosphere Program Past Global Changes) as a core project within Focus II on Antarctic Paleoenvironments. For details concerning national programs, the ITASE Science and Implementation Plan (Mayewski, 1996) and other ITASE information, refer to the SCAR Project Office maintained at the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine (http://www2.umaine.edu/itase/)
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