University of Maine

Ice cores provide highly robust, sub-annually resolved, multi-millennial reconstructions of past chemical and physical climate essential to understanding climate change because instrumented climate records barely cover the last 100 years and significantly longer perspective is required to assess current and predict future climate. Researchers at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute have longstanding experience in ice core research and have contributed to major climate science realizations. The team has a vision for the future of climate research that includes: completion of a global array of ice cores before many of these records are destroyed by warming; development of interactive climate data search engines utilizing ice core records as a framework; and, through the proposed work, cutting edge innovations. These innovations require purchase of a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma spectrometer and associated development of an innovative cold stage sampling system to allow unprecedented increase in sample resolution, efficiency, and through flow for over 40 elements. Support is also sought to develop radically new, in situ ice core measuring capability utilizing novel thin film chemical sensors embedded in an ice core drill, and a “disposable” GPS system for remote sampling in extremely hazardous environments needed for ice core site reconnaissance and interpretation.