10 year plan for Shallow Coring Capabilities (1-400 m deep)

Variability in climate variables such as temperature and precipitation at regional scales is much greater than global or hemispheric averages. This regional variability can be characterized by patterns, such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation and the Indian and South Asian Monsoons, which provide useful measures of both the pattern of unforced and forced climate variability. Variability in the proxy data is used in ice cores to infer past climate varies on similar scales. In addition, atmospheric aerosols, particles, and pollutants, show strong regional gradients related to variable source emissions and atmospheric transport pathways. In order to understand how climate and air quality have changed in the past, and to understand the forcing mechanisms responsible, we must first resolve past changes in climate and pollution at the regional scale. Furthermore, few data exist on the particulate and dissolved biological matter in ice cores. When collected in concert with other parameters, biological data can provide new and corroborative information regarding these regional patterns as well as on the abundance and diversity of microbes in ice.

To address this need, the International Partnership in Ice Core Science (IPICS) and U.S. Ice Drilling Program Office (IDPO) have highlighted a 2000-year ice core array as a key long-term scientific goal for the ice drilling community. The 2000 year interval includes the Little Ice Age and Medieval Climate Anomaly, both natural climate fluctuations with global and regional signatures, as well as the initiation of widespread anthropogenic modification of the climate and atmosphere over the past 100-150 years. Recent studies have demonstrated the value of collecting 200- 2000 year records from alpine, sub-polar glaciers both in the dry snow and percolation zones. Core collection in such regions poses logistical and technological challenges that must be met to increase the spatial density of 200-2000 year-long records beyond the polar ice sheets. These sites often have the added importance of being situated close to population centers where an understanding of regional climate change has broader societal impacts. In addition, emerging research avenues in glacial and sub-glacial microbiology and ultra-trace element ice chemistry, among others, require adaptations and modifications of existing drilling technology.