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DCSC Scientific Illustration
Picture: Canada and Greenland, NasaIce and ClimateThe Ice and Climate researchers at the National Danish Research Centre's "Ice and Climate Centre" are among the world's leaders when it comes to boring ice cores through the more than three kilometre thick Greenlandic ice cap. The ice has been formed by snow which year after year lay there and with time was compressed into a thick ice cap. By analysing the ice-cores, the researchers can get an unbelievably detailed knowledge about the past's climate more than 120,000 years back in time - through the whole ice age and back to the last interglacial period, called the Eemian Age. The ice contains air-bubbles and dust, and every single ice layer tells of the climate for the year the snow fell. The oxygen in the air bubbles indicates the temperature for each year. Acid in the ice reveals a large volcanic eruption, and ash particles can identify which volcano on Earth it was that erupted. Analysis of dust particles tell of the powerful ice age winds which blew sand from deserts in China or North America along with them. Together these details paint a picture of the climate of the past. The group has led the deep drillings through the ice cap in Greenland using DYE-3, GRIP and the NorthGRIP projects. They also participate in the ice core drillings of the EPICA Project in Antartica. A new drilling project, NEEM, which stands for 'North Eemian', started in the summer of 2007. The name refers to the purpose of the drilling, which is to bring ice from the last warm or interglacial period, the Eemian age. This is especially interesting for us to study today, as we face global warming, and the Eemian age was about 5 degrees warmer than our current warm period.
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