Full Proposals for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Proposed IPY Activity Details

1.0 PROPOSER INFORMATION

(Activity ID No: 97)

1.1 Title of Activity
Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate (ICECAP): Internationally coordinated long-range aerogeophysics over Dome A, Dome C and the Aurora Subglacial Basin of East Antarctica

1.2 Short Form Title of Proposed Activity
ICECAP

1.3 Activity Leader Details
Donald Blankenship
Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas
USA

1.4 Lead International Organisation(s) (if applicable)
SCAR Scientific Programme on Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE)
NULL
NULL
NULL

1.5 Other Countries involved in the activity
Australia
NULL
NULL
NULL
Germany
NULL
NULL
NULL
UK
NULL
NULL
NULL
Nations involved in ACE (EoI #37)
NULL
NULL
NULL

1.6 Expression of Intent ID #'s brought together in this proposed activity
256,384,37,876

1.7 Location of Field Activities
Antarctic

1.8 Which IPY themes are addressed
1. Current state of the environment
2. Change in the polar regions
3. Polar-global linkages/tele-connections
4. Exploring new frontiers

1.9 What is the main IPY target addressed by this activity
1. Natural or social science

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2.0 SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITY

The subsurface character and boundary conditions for much of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) remain largely unknown although they are critical to ice sheet modeling and, therefore, our understanding of the EAIS’s role in global climate and sea level change. The lack of existing information in key regions of the EAIS is a consequence of its remoteness and inaccessibility. The acquisition of these essential data can only be accomplished by long-range airborne surveys requiring a level of international collaboration and commitment of resources that has been unavailable to the scientific community for over 25 years.
We propose to coordinate an internationally collaborative program of long-range aero-geophysical survey, during the period of the IPY, over the historically inaccessible subglacial highlands and lowlands of East Antarctica. Our proposed survey will be managed collaboratively by scientists from the US, UK, Germany and Australia with the advice of an International Steering Committee (ISC) implemented via SCAR’s scientific research program named Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE, EoI #37). Funding for this project will be sought from the US National Science Foundation and the UK National Environmental Research Council. The aerogeophysical surveys will be accomplished over two field seasons using a US Naval Research Laboratory P-3 Orion aircraft operating out of McMurdo Station (EoI #256).
The survey targets will be focused on regions critical to understanding contemporary and previous ice sheet dynamics and change and include subglacial highlands and lowlands of Domes A and C beneath the central EAIS. The region of our proposed ice penetrating radar, lidar, gravity and magnetics survey include the enigmatic Aurora Subglacial Basin as well as the majority of the Gamburtsev, Vostok and Belgica subglacial highlands.
The deeply depressed Aurora Subglacial Basin is a region of considerable importance to the form and stability of ice in East Antarctica. It hosts a catchment many times larger than that of the Pine Island/Thwaites Glacier system of West Antarctica and satellite remote sensing has recently revealed dramatic ice surface lowering in the region. It is possible that ice discharge from the Aurora Basin dominates Antarctica's contemporary ice loss to the ocean.
The highlands of the central Antarctic Plate beneath Domes A and C of the EAIS currently support an extensive network of subglacial lakes and have been the nursery for paleo ice sheets at least since the early Oligocene separation of Australia and East Antarctica. It is possible that the Gamburtsev Mountains have been the most intensely and continuously glaciated crustal elements on Earth.
The specific objectives of these internationally coordinated surveys will be: 1) to provide bedrock elevation, ice sheet thickness, surface elevation, surface accumulation, englacial structure, basal melt rates and thermal structure necessary for modeling ice sheet (and subglacial lake) evolution and future change; 2) to constrain geothermal flux and determine the location, properties and connectivity of the subglacial sedimentary and hydrological units critical to understanding ice sheet evolution (and subglacial habitats); 3) to characterize subglacial lithology, identify crustal boundaries and estimate crustal rebound for the central Antarctic Plate; and 4) to identify any ‘preserved’ glacial geomorphology and map fault scarps indicative of Cenozoic (or older) tectonic processes.
These objectives and target areas are of interest to a broad spectrum of disciplines within the international scientific community. The many collaborating investigators in this activity represent a broad sampling of expertise from glaciology, including both remote sensing and ice sheet modeling, as well as geology and geophysics. In addition to its primary focus of understanding the cryospheric evolution of the EAIS through support of ice sheet modeling, this work will contribute substantially to both Antarctic subglacial lake exploration (EoI #876) and knowledge of the enigmatic Gamburtsev Mountains (EoI #384).

2.1 What is the evidence of inter-disciplinarity in this activity?
The experimental and analysis phases of ICECAP closely link geophysics and glaciology in service to the SCAR/ACE ice, climate and ocean modeling communities where results are of critical interest to the broader environmental community concerned about climate and sea level change. Our results and this modeling will also be invaluable to the paleoclimate communities studying both ice cores and the offshore record, as well as to biologists and planetary scientists interested in sub-ice habitats within and near subglacial lakes.

2.2 What will be the significant advances/developments from this activity? What will be the major deliverables? What are the outputs for your peers?
The ICECAP program will provide critical boundary conditions for the ice sheet modeling community over a two million square kilometer region (including Dome A, Dome C and the Aurora Subglacial Basin) where these conditions are either poorly sampled or unknown. These measurements when combined with observations of englacial structures, basal melt rates, gravity and magnetics will be used to constrain the geothermal flux and determine the distribution of sub-ice sediments and water necessary for understanding ice sheet evolution and subglacial lake environments. Additional observations of subglacial geomorphology will shed light on the processes and history of ice sheet nucleation and any coupled lithospheric responses. Perhaps most importantly, observations of the ice sheet base near the margin bounding the Aurora Subglacial Basin will give indication of East Antarctica’s potential contribution to global sea level change.
The deliverables from the two year experiment will include over 100,000 line-kilometers of radio-echo sounding, lidar, gravity and magnetic data collected over three 700,000 square kilometer regions covering Dome A, Dome C and the Aurora Subglacial Basin. Deliverables will also include a web-based digital map series covering ice thickness, surface elevation, bed elevation, free-air gravity and magnetic anomaly distributions. This web-site will also serve as a clearing house for further interpretation of the primary data sets (e.g., surface accumulation, internal layers, hydrologic gradients, etc.) To communicate ICECAP results both to our peers and across disciplines we propose to hold ACE/ICECAP workshops after each season of data collection culminated by a joint SALE/ACE/ICECAP conference on ice sheet, subglacial lake and sub-ice habitat evolution in the fall of 2009.

2.3 Outline the geographical location(s) for the proposed field work (approximate coordinates will be helpful if possible)

2.4 Define the approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities?

2.5 What major logistic support/facilities will be required for this project?
Multi-instrumented platforms
Fixed wing geophysical aircraft
Existing field stations

Further details – Aircraft: Naval Research Laboratory P-3 Orion with ice-penetrating radar, lidar, gravity, magnetics and differential positioning (already US Navy and Department of Defense approved). Facilities: McMurdo Station (already US Navy and Department of Defense approved) with Casey Station (Australia) as an alternate landing site.

2.6 How will the required logistics be supplied? Have operators been approached?

2.7 If working in the Arctic regions, has there been contact with local indigenous groups or relevant authorities regarding access?

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3.0 STRUCTURE OF THE ACTIVITY

3.1 Origin of the activity
This is a new activity developed for the IPY period

3.2 How will the activity be organised and managed? Describe the proposed management structure and means for coordinating across the cluster
A collaborative management structure for the extensive ICECAP data acquisition program using the NRL P-3 Orion has been developed, and will be laid out in parallel proposals to the UK NERC (deadline 1st July 2005) and to the US NSF (IPY deadline in November, 2005). It is anticipated that funding would be in place by August of 2006 leaving one year for instrument integration before the first survey begins in October of 2007. Because no remote field operations are required and wheeled aircraft operations have been extensively discussed, there will be no extensive logistical lead time required. The one year between funding and flight operations should also be consistent to certify Casey Station as an acceptable alternate landing site for the P-3 Orion. By necessity, aircraft operational coordination with the US Antarctic Program is the responsibility of the Principal Investigator at NRL. Science coordination in the field will be the joint responsibility of the lead and second contacts of this proposal. Detailed experiment, analysis and data management planning will be undertaken by a Project Steering Committee (PSC) with seven members; the lead and second contacts as well as five elected members. The PSC will be advised by an International Steering Committee (ISC) appointed by the SCAR/ACE Radio Echo Sounding subcommittee. New investigators may be added to the program at the recommendation of the ISC. Joint meetings of the PSC and ISC will be targeted for the spring meeting of the European Geophysical Society before each field season (i.e., 2007 and 2008). The PSC will appoint one member to act as liaison to each of the IPY subcommittees on Data Management and Education and Outreach. SCAR/ACE will maintain an ICECAP website to aid communication between the PSC, ISC and ICECAP investigators.

3.3 Will the activity leave a legacy of infrastructure and if so in what form?
The infrastructure for long-range aerogeophysical studies of Antarctica’s interior and distant margins will be available for the first time in 25 years. The University of Texas radar and lidar systems will be integrated with the US Naval Research Laboratory gravity and magnetics instruments for the P-3 Orion. The resulting long-range aerogeophysical capacity will be unique and available to the international community as an ICECAP legacy.

3.4 Will the activity involve nations other than traditional polar nations? How will this be addressed?
A particular focus will be made by the consortium of universities to host graduate students from non-traditional polar nations. The institutions listed here have sponsored Antarctic fieldwork for students primarily from Latin America and the Middle East; our objective will be to expand participation to the nations of Southeast Asia and Africa.

3.5 Will this activity be linked with other IPY core activities? If yes please specify
The principle topic for this program is the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is directly linked to the IPY themes of Status, Change and Frontiers and is tied to Global Linkages through its close ties to coupled ice sheet modeling. Beyond ACE(37), SALE(876) and GigaGAP(384), other IPY core programs closely linked with ICECAP include ASAID(351), IDEA(301), ITASE(892) and POLAR GATEWAYS(20).

3.6 How will the activity manage its data? Is there a viable plan and which data management organisations/structures will be involved?
The Project Steering Committee will assure that catalogue metadata is submitted to the central IPY database before each field season. They will also assure that searchable metadata will be made available immediately after data collection and that primary IPY data products of ice thickness, surface/bed elevation, free-air gravity and magnetic anomaly distribution will be made available to the IPY community within one year of their collection. The target is for raw data distribution through world data centers (Boulder Colorado and Cambridge UK) within 18 to 24 months of collection. There are many data centers associated with the various investigators home countries that will want to have subsets of the data (e.g., Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC), National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), …) The PSC will assure common electronic access to these data through the SCAR/ACE data management project; the SCAR sponsored BEDMAP database of Antarctic surface and bed elevation (as well as ADMAP and ADGRV) is considered an appropriate model to build on. All data management will be carefully coordinated through the IPY subcommittee on Data Management by the ICECAP PSC liaison to that subcommittee.

3.7 Data Policy Agreement
Will this activity sign up to the IPY draft Data Policy (see website)
Yes

3.8 How will the activity contribute to developing the next generation of polar scientists, logisticians, etc.?
The majority of the collaborating institutions have very successful graduate programs in Polar Science. Graduate students and post-doctoral researchers will be involved at all levels of experiment development, acquisition, analysis and synthesis. As stated above, a significant effort also will be made to recruit from non-polar nations. This effort will be complemented by ongoing efforts to recruit students from historically under-represented groups in science. In addition, the ICECAP program represents the introduction of very long-range wheeled aircraft as science platforms for Antarctic research. The logistical implications of this capacity will train a generation of technical staff available to leverage these platform capabilities for new science.

3.9 How will this activity address education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
ICECAP will coordinate these activities through a joint SCAR/ACE EPO program and with the IPY subcommittee for Education, Outreach and Communication through its PSC liaison to that subcommittee. More specifically, the US investigators will coordinate primary/secondary school education with international efforts through well-established NSF-funded programs for curriculum development at the collaborating US institutions. Undergraduate introduction to the Polar Sciences will occur through science apprentice programs in the US where carefully selected students will be given primary responsibility for radar data interpretation. ICECAP institutions from all nations will utilize graduate students during many phases of the research. Final interpretations will be presented as graduate theses. The SCAR/ACE/ICECAP data management/dissemination programs will include substantial web-based outreach to the general public and decision makers including real-time communications during field operations. A final important communications component will be a contribution to the historical context of this IPY through ongoing “history of science” programs at the collaborating ICECAP institutions in the UK.

3.10 What are the proposed sources of funding for this activity?
The funding for ICECAP is being requested through parallel proposals to NERC in the UK (due July 1, 2005) and NSF in the US (due November, 2005). Australian and German collaborators will be funded through separate proposals to their national programs. (See additional comments.)

3.11 Additional Comments
A previous NERC request for ICECAP funding was awarded contingent on NSF approval and a previous NSF request was recommended for funding by its peer review panel. NSF did not award funds at that time but requested that ICECAP be submitted to the IPY program announcement for 2005 specifically because of its extensive international collaboration.

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4.0 CONSORTIUM INFORMATION

4.1 Contact Details

Lead Contact
Dr Donald Blankenship
Institute for Geophysics
University of Texas 4412 Spicewood Springs Rd., Bldg. 600 Austin, Texas
78759-8500
USA

Tel:          1 512 471 0489
Mobile:   1 512 809 3755
Fax:         1 512 471 8844
Email:       blank@ig.utexas.edu

Second Contact
Prof Martin Siegert
Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences
University of Bristol University Road Bristol
BS8 1SS
UK

Tel:          +44 (0)117 928 8902
Mobile:   0778 070 3008
Fax:         +44 (0)117 928 7878
Email:      m.j.siegert@bristol.ac.uk

4.2 Other significant consortium members and their affiliation