Ice Core Contributions to Global Change Research: Past Successes and Future Directions

In 1986 an ad hoc committee of the Polar Research Board issued a series of recommendations intended to stimulate U.S. ice coring activities (National Research Council, 1986) in response to the growing need for high quality paleoclimate records that could be used to understand climate change. Their report reviewed the then current status of ice core research in the U.S. and the elements necessary to implement a strong program of ice core collection and analysis. Now, in 1998, the vision set forth for a strong U.S. ice coring program has been achieved. The U.S. ice coring community has, in concert with its international partners, made remarkable strides to advance in our understanding of global change. This new document, assembled by the Ice Core Working Group (ICWG), provides a synthesis of the global change lessons learned thus far, and the requirements and plans for solving new global change questions utilizing future ice coring activities.