If you are preparing a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal that includes any kind of support from IDP, you must include a Letter of Support from IDP in the proposal. Researchers are asked to provide IDP with a detailed support request six weeks prior to the date the Letter of Support is required. Early submissions are strongly encouraged.
Scientists who seek to include IDP education and outreach activities associated with U.S. ice coring or drilling science projects should contact Louise Huffman at Louise.T.Huffman@Dartmouth.edu during their proposal preparation stage.
2025-2035 Long Range Science and Long Range Drilling Technology Plans Updated
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The NSF Ice Drilling Program (IDP), in collaboration with its Science Advisory Board and with input from the research community, updated the Long Range Science Plan. This plan aims to articulate goals and make recommendations for the direction of U.S. ice coring and drilling science across a wide variety of areas of scientific inquiry and to provide recommendations for the development of drilling technology, infrastructure, and logistical support necessary to enable the science. A companion document, the Long Range Drilling Technology Plan, provides details about drills available through IDP. Both plans are revisited and revised as appropriate each spring. The Long Range Science Plan is available at https://icedrill.org/long-range-science-plan. The Long Range Drilling Technology Plan is available at https://icedrill.org/long-range-drilling-technology-plan.
If you envision the need for ice drilling for your project in the coming decade, please make sure that the high-level articulation of your science is captured in the Long Range Science Plan. If it isn’t, send several sentences to IceDrill@Dartmouth.edu describing the science driver and the envisioned field date and location for your project so that your plans are voiced in this planning document.
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Covers of the Long Range Science Plan (left) and Long Range Drilling Technology Plan (right).
IDP provided field support for two projects during the 2025 spring/summer field season. PIs Joel Harper and Toby Meierbachtol (NSF award numbers 2113391 and 2113392) used an IDDO Hand Auger and Sidewinder at several locations in southwest Greenland for their research, which has established a network of instrumented sites to observe the transformation of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s percolation zone firn layer. Harper’s team utilized the redesigned Sidewinder-V2 (version 2), reporting that it worked very well, is small and lightweight for helicopter transport, and is a game changer in those regards. And in Alaska, PI Christian Andresen (NSF award number 2239038) used a SIPRE Hand Auger for research that aims to characterize the role of Arctic wetland ponds in regional land-atmosphere carbon exchange, estimate the ponds' contributions of methane to the atmosphere, and assess how they have changed over the past 50 years to better anticipate their future role in Arctic carbon cycling.
Over the summer, the IDP team worked to repair and maintain several drill systems, many of which will be deployed during the upcoming 2025/26 Antarctic field season. A penetration drive and a load cell were added to the Blue Ice Drill to provide the operators with finer control and more feedback, and a new steel core barrel was fabricated, along with large quantities of carbide cutter inserts. These modifications are an effort to improve core quality in the challenging ice conditions encountered at Allan Hills and beyond. The team also worked to develop the Shallow Wet Drill, which is not a new, standalone drill per se, but features the combining of several components from existing drills in inventory (e.g. Foro 400 anti-torque sections, Foro 1650 motor sections, 700 Drill winch/tower/tent, etc.) with new core barrel components to assemble a drill for testing shallow wet drilling operations at Allan Hills. IDP also designed and is fabricating several tower lifting fixtures to increase safety during the field operation of raising drill towers. IDP anticipates deploying 8 team members for the upcoming field season. In early September, 26 pallets and 16,000+ pounds of equipment departed Madison for Port Hueneme, CA, where it will travel to either Christchurch, New Zealand, or Punta Arenas, Chile, via ship.
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The Shallow Wet Drill/700 Drill tower lifting fixture is tested outside of the IDP-Wisconsin facility in Madison, Wisconsin. Credit: Krissy Slawny.
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Full truck of drilling equipment departing Madison, Wisconsin, in support of 2025/26 Antarctic projects. Credit: Krissy Slawny.
(1) The Collaborative Research: AON Network for Observing Transformation of the Greenland Ice Sheet Firn Layer project (PIs Joel Harper and Toby Meierbachtol; NSF award numbers 2113391 and 2113392) will establish a network of instrumented sites to observe the transformation of the Greenland Ice sheet’s percolation zone firn layer. Using the IDDO Hand Auger and Sidewinder, repeat cores are being collected over five years to track density and ice content changes, and instrumentation installed in boreholes will monitor firn temperature evolution and compaction of the firn layer. The data from these efforts will be of high value to scientists focused on changes in storage capacity of the firn layer, process details of meltwater infiltration in cold firn, and the influence of firn compaction and melt on satellite-observed ice sheet elevation.
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Map of Greenland (left) and Alaska (right) showing the locations of IDP supported 2025 spring/summer fieldwork. The numbers shown on the maps correspond to the project numbers in the text.
(2) The CAREER: Characterizing Feedbacks in Arctic Ponds while Incorporating Next-Generation Technologies and Arctic Field Experiences in Education project (PI Christian Andresen; NSF award number 2239038) will characterize the role of Arctic wetland ponds in regional land-atmosphere carbon exchange, estimate their contributions of methane to the atmosphere, and assess how they have changed over the past 50 years to better anticipate their future role in Arctic carbon cycling and feedbacks to climate. Wetlands represent a significant portion of the Arctic landscape and are characterized by their numerous polygonal thaw ponds. These Arctic pond habitats are hotspots for biodiversity and carbon cycling. Particularly, ponds are key emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The researchers will use a SIPRE Hand Auger to assist in setting up eddy covariance flux towers that measure methane and carbon dioxide fluxes from tundra ponds, and meteorological information.
IDP Completes Support of 2024-2025 Antarctic Field Season
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At Dome C in East Antarctica, IDP engineer/driller Jay Johnson used the 4-Inch Drill to support the I-159-E project (PI Vas Petrenko). The drilling goal was to complete one 300-meter-deep core near Concordia Station. Drilling began on November 19, 2024, and finished on January 5, 2025. Over the seven weeks, two cores were drilled with the 4-Inch Drill, one to 302.5 meters and a second to 195 meters, surpassing the drilling goal for the season. The drilling was conducted in temperatures that averaged -25°C to - 30°C with -30°C to -40°C wind chills. The project is a collaboration between the US National Science Foundation and the French Polar Institute, who also collected two ice cores using their own drill. The researchers are measuring in situ cosmogenic carbon-14 of carbon monoxide (14CO) and carbon-14 of methane (14CH4).
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(Left) Jay Johnson operates the 4-Inch Drill at Dome C, Antarctica. Credit: Alexander Ihle. (Right) Jay Johnson holds the last core segment from the second borehole drilled with the 4-Inch Drill. Credit: Alexander Ihle.
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(Left) Vas Petrenko loads the onsite melter to extract the air from the ice cores for analyses of carbon monoxide and methane isotopes. Credit. Jay Johnson. (Right) Vas Petrenko fills a sample canister with the extracted air. Credit: Jay Johnson.
At Mount Waesche in West Antarctica, IDP engineer/driller Elliot Moravec and driller Forest Harmon used the Eclipse Drill and Winkie Drill to support the G-065-M project (PIs Matthew Zimmerer, Nelia Dunbar, Bill Mcintosh, and Seth Campbell). Using the Winkie Drill, the team successfully recovered three subglacial porous lava bedrock cores from holes between 50-85 meters deep, the first core being 92 cm long, the second 78 cm long, and the third 57 cm long. The project team will use cosmogenic nuclide inventories and 40Ar/39Ar dating of the subglacial cores to constrain West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) elevation during the last interglacial. Using the Eclipse Drill, the team drilled two ice cores, one to 40 meters and one to 30 meters. The researchers will use the cores to help constrain the age – using isotopic measurements of the overlying and underlying ice – of sub-glacial unconformities in the WAIS adjacent to Mt Waesche that record the downdraw of the ice sheet surface. Lastly, the science team used the Chipmunk Drill to collect over 400 samples of short, vertically oriented ice cores along a 4 km transect across a vertically oriented ash-bearing blue ice sequence.
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Drilling with the Winkie Drill at Mount Waesche, West Antarctica. Credit: Nels Iverson.
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A subglacial porous lava bedrock core recovered with the Winkie Drill. Credit: Elliot Moravec.
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Drilling with the Eclipse Drill at Mount Waesche, West Antarctica. Credit. Nels Iverson.
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Bill Mcintosh holds a short core drilled with the Chipmunk Drill. Credit: Nelia Dunbar.
At Allan Hills in East Antarctica, IDP engineer/driller Andrew Haala and driller Elizabeth Morton used the Blue Ice Drill (BID) and Eclipse Drill to support the I-187-M NSF COLDEX (Center for Oldest Ice Exploration) project (PI Ed Brook). The notoriously strong winds at Allan Hills delayed the setup of the drill tents and drills. Once set up, the science team used the BID to re-enter a borehole started during the 2023/24 field season. After drilling through several rocks, the hole was finished at 192 meters depth. Using the Eclipse Drill, the science team re-entered an Eclipse borehole started during the 2023/24 season. After two days of trying to drill past a rock that halted progress in 2023/24, the borehole was abandoned, and a new hole started. Drilling in the new hole reached 89 meters, and then a “rock” was encountered. This is the same depth that a “rock” was encountered in a nearby borehole last season, so it is possible the drilling may have reached bedrock. The science team also used a hand auger and the new Sidewinder to drill several cores at the cul-de-sac site to help establish drilling goals for the 2025/26 field season.
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Elizabeth Morton (red jacket and sunglasses) and Andrew Haala (orange jacket) operate the Blue Ice Drill (BID) at Allan Hills, Antarctica. The BID cuts the largest diameter cores (241 mm; 9.5 inches) of all the drills in the NSF Ice Drilling Program drill inventory. Credit: Jenna Epifanio/NSF COLDEX.
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A greenish colored BID core recovered from the bottom of the 192 meter deep borehole. Credit: Elizabeth Morton.
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View of the drill tent that housed the Eclipse Drill at Allan Hills, Antarctica. Credit: Andrew Haala.
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Drilling with the Eclipse Drill at Allan Hills, Antarctica. The borehole on the left was started during the 2023/24 field season. The borehole on the right, where the Eclipse Drill is positioned in the photo, is the new borehole from the 2024/25 field season. Credit: Andrew Haala.
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Group photo from the 2024/25 NSF COLDEX field season at Allan Hills, Antarctica. Credit: Jenna Epifanio/ NSF COLDEX.
On the Ross Ice Shelf, the D-550-M science team (PI Pedro Elosegui) used a Kovacs Mark II hand auger to take 3-meter-depth density measurements of the Ross Ice Shelf firn. The density measurements were necessary for the team’s Seismogeodetic Ice Penetrator project, in which two ice penetrators outfitted with seismic and GNSS instrumentation were airdropped 5000 feet via helicopter. The impact force on sensitive payloads and overall impact depth strongly depends on the density of the firn that the penetrator hits. The science team completed two density samples before the airdrops to verify the suitability of the firn per their impact dynamics models and then collected another density sample after each airdrop for model verification.
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Julie Webber (McMurdo Station Crary Lab, left), Parker Steen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, middle) and Stine Ornes (USAP Field Safety, right) use a Kovacs Mark II hand auger on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, to measure the density of the Ross Ice Shelf firn. Credit: Bryan Minnear, Lead Pilot, Pathfinder Systems.
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Julie Webber (McMurdo Station Crary Lab) tests the Kovacs Mark II hand auger on the McMurdo Ice Shelf. Credit: Parker Steen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
The T-940-M (McMurdo Shear Zone) and T-941-M (Leverett Glacier) technical projects (PI Renee Melendy; Field Lead Zoe Courville) used a hand auger to drill short cores (1-4 meters depth) to determine snow density along the South Pole Traverse route, for examining snow bridge properties over crevasses along the Leverett Glacier to update crevasse crossing criteria in the region, to retrieve cores to shallow blue ice layers to validate the depths of ground penetrating radar profiles, to compare snow properties along the South Pole Traverse route, both on and off the route, and to determine the impact of snow compaction from tractor travel over the route.
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(Left) Derek Pickell (Dartmouth College) uses the IDP hand auger to examine crevasse bridge properties at the base of the Leverett Glacier, Antarctica. The pink flag denotes the center of the crevasse bridge as identified by ground penetrating radar. Credit: Zoe Courville. (Right) One of the shallow cores collected from a crevasse bridge at the base of the Leverett Glacier. The team drilled several cores on and off the crevasse bridges they found and used the cores to study stratigraphy, grain sizes, and density. Credit: Zoe Courville.
Ice Drilling Support for NSF Polar Proposals
Article Content:
If you are preparing a National Science Foundation (NSF) proposal that includes any kind of support from IDP, you must include a Letter of Support from IDP in the proposal. Researchers are asked to provide IDP with a detailed support request six weeks prior to the date the Letter of Support is required. Early submissions are strongly encouraged.
Scientists who seek to include IDP education and outreach activities associated with U.S. ice coring or drilling science projects should contact Louise Huffman at Louise.T.Huffman@Dartmouth.edu during their proposal preparation stage.
If you are preparing a NSF proposal that includes any kind of support from IDP, you must include a Letter of Support from IDP in the proposal. Researchers are asked to provide IDP with a detailed support request six weeks prior to the date the Letter of Support is required. Early submissions are strongly encouraged.
The U.S. National Science Foundation Ice Drilling Program (IDP) is a NSF-funded facility. IDP conducts integrated planning for the ice drilling science and technology communities, and provides drilling technology and operational support that enables the community to advance the frontiers of science.
