USAP-DC

Cores drilled through the Antarctic ice sheet provide a remarkable window on the evolution of Earth’s climate and unique samples of the ancient atmosphere. The clear link between greenhouse gases and climate revealed by ice cores underpins much of the scientific understanding of climate change. Unfortunately, the existing data do not extend far enough back in time to reveal key features of climates warmer than today. COLDEX, the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, will solve this problem by exploring Antarctica for sites to collect the oldest possible record of past climate recorded in the ice sheet. COLDEX will provide critical information for understanding how Earth’s near-future climate may evolve and why climate varies over geologic time. New technologies will be developed for exploration and analysis that will have a long legacy for future research. An archive of old ice will stimulate new research for the next generations of polar scientists. COLDEX programs will galvanize that next generation of polar researchers, bring new results to other scientific disciplines and the public, and help to create a more inclusive and diverse scientific community. Knowledge of Earth’s climate history is grounded in the geologic record. This knowledge is gained by measuring chemical, biological and physical properties of geologic materials that reflect elements of climate. Ice cores retrieved from polar ice sheets play a central role in this science and provide the best evidence for a strong link between atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate on geologic timescales. The goal of COLDEX is to extend the ice-core record of past climate to at least 1.5 million years by drilling and analyzing a continuous ice core in East Antarctica, and to much older times using discontinuous ice sections at the base and margin of the ice sheet. COLDEX will develop and deploy novel radar and melt-probe tools to rapidly explore the ice, use ice-sheet models to constrain where old ice is preserved, conduct ice coring, develop new analytical systems, and produce novel paleoclimate records from locations across East Antarctica. The search for Earth’s oldest ice also provides a compelling narrative for disseminating information about past and future climate change and polar science to students, teachers, the media, policy makers and the public. COLDEX will engage and incorporate these groups through targeted professional development workshops, undergraduate research experiences, a comprehensive communication program, annual scientific meetings, scholarships, and broad collaboration nationally and internationally. COLDEX will provide a focal point for efforts to increase diversity in polar science by providing field, laboratory, mentoring and networking experiences for students and early career scientists from groups underrepresented in STEM, and by continuous engagement of the entire COLDEX community in developing a more inclusive scientific culture. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Person	Role
Neff, Peter	Investigator and contact
Brook, Edward J.	Co-Investigator
Epifanio, Jenna	Technical Contact
Young, Duncan A.	Researcher

Antarctic Glaciology	Award # 2019719
Polar Special Initiatives	Award # 2019719

USAP-2019719_1

Deployment	Type
2022-23 Season	general deployment

COLDEX_DataManagement_AsSubmitted.pdf

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
USAP-DC	Allan Hills CMC3 ice core d18Oatm, d15N, dO2/N2, dAr/N2, d40/36Ar, d40/38Ar 2021 & 2022	Excel	exists
USAP-DC	Replicate O-17-excess by continuous flow laser spectroscopy for an ice core section at Summit, Greenland	Excel	exists
USAP-DC	I-165-M GPR Field Report 2019-2020		exists
USAP-DC	Allan Hills 2022-23 Shallow Ice Core Field Report	PDF	exists
USAP-DC	NSF COLDEX Raw MARFA Ice Penetrating Radar data	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	2022-23 Allan Hills Intermediate Ice Core Site Selection Field Report	PDF	exists
USAP-DC	2019-2020 Allan Hills Field Report	Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)	exists
USAP-DC	2023-2024 Allan Hills End-of-Season Science Report	Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)	exists
USAP-DC	Allan Hills I-188 Field Season Report 2022-2023	Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF)	exists
OPR	Airborne Radar Data: 2022-23 (CXA1) flight based HDF5/matlab format data		exists
OPR	Airborne Radar Data: 2023-24 (CXA2) flight based data HDF5/matlab format		exists
USAP-DC	Allan Hills ice water stable isotope record for dD, d18O	Excel	exists
USAP-DC	ALHIC2201 and ALHIC2302 3D ECM and Layer Orientations	ZIP Archive; Not Provided	exists
University Digital Conservancy	Rising Seas: Representations of Antarctica, Climate Change, and Sea Level Rise in U.S. Newspaper Coverage	Excel	exist
Texas Data Repository	Airborne Radar Data: 2022-23 (CXA1) transect based (science organized) unfocused data		exists
USAP-DC	Snapshot record of CO2 and CH4 from the Allan Hills, Antarctica, ranging from 400,000 to 3 million years old		exists
Texas Data Repository	Airborne Radar Data: 2023-24 (CXA2) transect based (science organized) unfocused data		exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2022-23 Riegl Laser Altimeter Level 2 Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets		exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2023-24 Riegl Laser Altimeter Level 2 Geolocated Surface Elevation Triplets		exists
USAP-DC	Heavy noble gases (Ar/Xe/Kr) from ALHIC1901, 1902, and 1903	Open XML Spreadsheet	exists
USAP-DC	MOT data (Xe/Kr) from Allan Hills ice cores ALHIC1901, 1902, and 1903	Open XML Spreadsheet	exists
USAP-DC	CO2 and CH4 from Allan Hills ice cores ALHIC1901, 1902, and 1903	Open XML Spreadsheet	exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2022-23 Level 2 Basal Specularity Content Profiles		exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2023-24 Level 2 Basal Specularity Content Profiles		exists
USAP-DC	Basal Ice Unit Thickness Mapped by the NSF COLDEX MARFA Ice Penetrating Radar	ZIP Archive	exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX Ice Penetrating Radar Derived Grids of the Southern Flank of Dome C		exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX/Open Polar Radar Example Delay Doppler Classification of Englacial Reflectors		exists
Texas Data Repository	COLDEX VHF MARFA Open Polar Radar radargrams		exists
USAP-DC	Strontium and neodymium isotope compositions of ice core dust from ALHIC1903 drilled at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area		exists
UMN University Digital Conservancy	Social network analysis to understand participant engagement in transdisciplinary team science: a large U.S. science and technology center case study	Not Provided	exist
USAP-DC	Concentration and flux of ice core dust from ALHIC1903 drilled at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	Rare earth elemental concentrations of leached ice core dust from ALHIC1903 drilled at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	Oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions and associated d-excess of ice from ALHIC1903 drilled at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	NSF COLDEX 2022-23 GNSS/IMU Level 1 instrument measurements from Dome A, East Antarctica	Rich Text Format (RTF)	exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2022-2023 Airborne Season (CXA1): Level 1 gravimeter instrument measurements	None	exists
Texas Data Repository	NSF COLDEX 2022-2023 Airborne Season (CXA1): Level 1B Serial Instrument Measurements	None	exists

1. Davidge, L., Steig, E. J., & Schauer, A. J. (2022). Improving continuous-flow analysis of triple oxygen isotopes in ice cores: insights from replicate measurements. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 15(24), 7337–7351. (doi:10.5194/amt-15-7337-2022)
2. Davidge, L., Steig, E. J., & Schauer, A. J. (2022). Improving continuous-flow analysis of triple oxygen isotopes in ice cores: insights from replicate measurements. (doi:10.5194/egusphere-2022-60)
3. Ng, J., Severinghaus, J., Bay, R., & Tosi, D. (2023). Evaluating marine dust records as templates for optical dating of Oldest Ice. (doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-1342)
4. Ng, J., Severinghaus, J., Bay, R., & Tosi, D. (2024). Evaluating marine dust records as templates for optical dating of Oldest Ice. Climate of the Past, 20(7), 1437–1449. (doi:10.5194/cp-20-1437-2024)
5. Fudge, T. J., Sauvage, R., Vu, L., Hills, B. H., Severi, M., and Waddington, E. D.: Effective diffusivity of sulfuric acid in Antarctic ice cores, Clim. Past, 20, 297–312, 2024. (doi:10.5194/cp-20-297-2024)
6. Bruns, C. J., & Andersen, I. V. (2023). The worth of nature: Valuations of glaciers in Alaskan and Norwegian media discourse. Environmental Communication, 1-16. (doi:10.1080/17524032.2023.2263655 )
7. Karplus, M.S., T.J. Young, S. Anandakrishnan, J.N. Bassis, E.H. Case, A.J. Crawford, Gold, L. Henry, J. Kingslake, A.A. Lehrmann, P.A. Montano, E.C. Pettit, T.A. Scambos, E.M. Sheffield, E.C. Smith, M. Turrin, and J.S. Wellner. 2023. Strategies to build a positive and inclusive Antarctic field work environment. Annals of Glaciology, 1-7. (doi:10.1017/aog.2023.32)
8. Z. Liu; C. He; M. Yan; C. Buizert; B. Otto-Bliesner; F. Lu; C. Zeng: Reconstruction of past Antarctica temperature using present seasonal d18O-inversion layer temperature: Unified Slope Equations and Applications, Journal of Climate, 36(9), 2933-2957 (doi:10.1175/jcli-d-22-0012.1)
9. Shuai Yan, Donald D. Blankenship, Jamin S. Greenbaum, Duncan A. Young, Lin Li, Anja Rutishauser, Jingxue Guo, Jason L. Roberts, Tas D. van Ommen, Martin J. Siegert, Bo Sun; A newly discovered subglacial lake in East Antarctica likely hosts a valuable sedimentary record of ice and climate change. Geology 2022. (doi:10.1130/G50009.1)