This is a collaborative proposal among several institutions including the Universities of Colorado and Kansas. The Principal Investigators request funds to support the participation of U.S. scientists in the NEEM Project for the International Polar Year (IPY) to drill new deep ice core in northern Greenland to address past and future environments and climates. Specific goals will include obtaining a record of the climate of last interglacial period, the Eemain. This period was warmer than today and is the best analog for potential future climate. This core and the radar mapping will provide constraints on the size of the Greenland ice sheet when sea level was many meters higher than today. This core should reveal if abrupt climate change occurred in the Eemian period. Such information should offer better future predictive power for abrupt climate shifts and add to the growing knowledge about how alterations of climate and the environment by humans fit within the context of natural climate change. NEEM is an international effort, led by the glaciology group at the University of Copenhagen. Fifteen countries have expressed a desire to participate.
The original proposal was reduced to funding the lead Principal Investigator, Dr. James White for travel and planning meetings as a placeholder" until the NEEM core is drilled. Dr. Claude Laird's radar project will be mainly supported by the NSF's CReSIS (STC) Program. The proposal, as submitted, is premature and will not be funded until the core is retrieved and it is certain that high quality Eemian ice has been drilled, otherwise this will be just another deep Greenland core with nothing new or different from the GISP2 or GRIP cores. The Danes have just received funding for the core, so the earliest the drilling could be staged is in 2007/2008 and the earliest the core could be retrieved through the Eemian is 2009. Dr. Laird will be funded because it is critical that the surface radar be done so that the best site can be chosen for the drilling.
ABSTRACT White OPP-0632222 Laird OPP-0632105
The Principal Investigators request funds to support the participation of U.S. scientists in the NEEM Project for the International Polar Year (IPY) to drill new deep ice core in northern Greenland to address past and future environments and climates. Specific goals will include obtaining a record of the climate of last interglacial period, the Eemain. This period was warmer than today and is the best analog for potential future climate. This core and the radar mapping will provide constraints on the size of the Greenland ice sheet when sea level was many meters higher than today. This core should reveal if abrupt climate change occurred in the warmer Eemian period. Such information should offer better future predictive power for abrupt climate shifts and add to the growing knowledge about how alterations of climate and the environment by humans fit within the context of natural climate change. NEEM is an international effort, led by the glaciology group at the University of Copenhagen. Fifteen countries have expressed a desire to participate.
The original proposal was reduced to funding the lead Principal Investigator, Dr. James White for travel and planning meetings as a "placeholder" until the NEEM core is drilled. Dr. Claude Laird's radar project will be mainly supported by the NSF's CReSIS (STC) Program. This proposal, as submitted, is premature and will not be funded until the core is retrieved and it is certain that high quality Eemian ice has been drilled, otherwise this will be just another deep Greenland core with nothing new or unique from the GISP2 or GRIP cores. The Danes have just received funding for the core, so the earliest the drilling could be staged is in 2007/2008 and the earliest the core could be retrieved through the Eemian is 2009. Dr. Laird will be funded because it is critical that the surface radar be done so that the best site can be chosen for the drilling.
