This award supports a two year continuation of the U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), established in 1993 as a jointly-funded facility for the curation and dissemination of ice cores collected through the programmatic activities of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Office of Polar Programs, and the U.S. Geological Survey, Geology Discipline. The intellectual merit of the National Ice Core Laboratory resides in the service it renders to the ice core research community by providing a safeguarded and controlled environment for the nation's collection of ice cores taken from the polar regions; by making inventory records for the collection easily accessible by clients; and, working in concert with both the NICL Science Management Office at the University of New Hampshire and the Ice Core Working Group, by ensuring that these cores can be secured for research by qualified investigators for testing and measurement either at NICL or at their home institution. The research conducted on these cores provides the scientific basis for a significant proportion of climate change research in the world today. The broader impacts of the activities carried out at NICL are accomplished through outreach activities that encompass a broad segment of student populations from grade school through graduate-level, museum groups, professional groups, international scientists, visiting members of Congress and Congressional staffers, visiting Cabinet-level dignitaries, groups from other federal agencies, and local, national, and international news and science feature producers. In all instances NICL strives to educate the public on the significance of climate change research and the role of ice core research within the broader context of global change while providing students with the opportunity to utilize the facilities and train on instrumentation at the lab for current and future research activities.
