International Partnerships in Ice Coring Sciences (IPICS) and the IPICS-IPY Initiative

Ice-core studies have revolutionized our view of the Earth system, documenting the recent rise of greenhouse gas concentrations beyond historical norms, the existence of abrupt climate changes, and the tight coupling in the past of climate and greenhouse gas concentrations. International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) is a group of scientists, engineers and logistics experts from the leading laboratories and national operators carrying out ice core science, charged with planning the next decade or more of international ice coring efforts. IPICS has identified four new priority programs: 1. A 1.2+ million year ice core from east Antarctica. This record of climate and greenhouse gases would address the nature and origin of the mid-Pleistocene transition from 41 ka to 100 ka climate cycles, and the role of the atmosphere in that transition. 2. The North Greenland Eemian ice core (NEEM). This core is planned for Northwest Greenland, at a site with a high priority of recovering a full record of the last interglacial period, which is lacking in all other ice cores from Greenland. 3. A network of ice cores from both hemispheres documenting the sequence of events from the last glacial maximum to the present. The few existing cores that span this time period are not sufficient to document spatial variations in the transition. The new network will include existing and new records and provide fingerprints of climate change mechanisms. 4. A network of ice core climate records for the last millennia, also from both hemispheres, and from high and low latitudes. The polar regions are poorly represented in global climate reconstructions for this period. A new network of ice core records covering this time period will provide a more quantitative context with which to view current environmental change in these regions. The IPICS-IPY Initiative has identified key elements of the above programs that can start in IPY, including survey work for the 1.2+ million year record, initiation of NEEM drilling, completion of planned projects in Antarctica that penetrate the last glacial maximum (WAIS Divide, Talos Dome), extension of ITASE to 1000 year records, and SOFIA (Search for Oldest Firn Interstitial Air).