This award supports the continuation of the Science Management Office (SMO) for the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL). The NICL-SMO is located at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space at the University of New Hampshire and serves as the primary point of contact for scientists interested in access to ice cores. It also facilitates the interactions of the Ice Core Working Group (ICWG), a group of scientists knowledgable about ice cores who provide guidance to funding agencies on topics related to sample access, distribution, inventory, policy issues, operation and maintenance of the NICL facility and future directions for ice core research. NICL-SMO assists the ICWG in polling the scientific community and in developing reports, planning workshops and coordinating educational outreach activities. Increasing public and scientific interest in ice cores and ice core records and the growing demand for information about current and past climate all point to the immense importance of this field and the need for this function. Under this renewal award the NICL-SMO will start to publish a bi-yearly newsletter to inform the science community and the general public about the latest findings from ice cores and other news of interest to people curious about ice cores and the paleoclimate records they provide.
