The National Ice Core Laboratory - Science Management Office (NICL-SMO) is funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs to provide scientific management of the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL).

The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory houses approximately 17,000 meters of ice cores recovered from Greenland and Antarctica that are available for study. Investigators funded by NSF may access the facility's resources. However, investigators must contact the NICL-SMO Scientific Coordinator before submitting a proposal to NSF and must include details of expected usage of the NICL facility in the proposal.

You must contact the NICL-SMO Scientific Coordinator at least three weeks before you submit your proposal if you:
    (a) plan on requesting samples from an ice core stored at NICL; and/or
    (b) plan on collecting a new ice core and would like to store it (even just temporarily) at NICL; and/or
    (c) would like to use the NICL facility for a core processing line or for other labwork.

Personnel from the Sample Allocation Committee will review your request and, if approved, provide a letter of support, which must be included as Supplemental Information with your NSF proposal. Investigators should familiarize themselves with the NICL Use and Ice Core Sample Allocation Policy.

GLOBAL AND REGIONAL CLIMATE SIGNALS FROM ICE CORES SESSION ANNOUNCEMENT

Ice cores provide information about past climate and environmental conditions on time scales from decades to hundreds of millennia, and direct records of the composition of the atmosphere. As such, they are cornerstones of global change research. For example, ice cores play a central role in showing how closely climate and greenhouse gas concentrations were linked in the past, and in demonstrating that very abrupt climate switches can occur. In this session we invite contributions to our understanding of regional and global climate from Antarctic cores, on all time and spatial scales. Presentations on methods of climate reconstruction, and presentations that address the relationship of Antarctic climate with global or large scale regional climate are also welcome.

Meeting Web Site: http://scar2012.geol.pdx.edu/
Abstract Submission: http://www.scar.org/abstracts/submit.html (requires making an account first)
Abstract Deadline: February 15, 2012

IPICS 2012 OPEN SCIENCE CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

The first Open Science Conference of the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) will be held from 1-5 October 2012 at the beautiful setting of the Belembra club, situated on the border of the Mediterranean Sea in one of the best spots of the French Côte d'Azur.

The objective of the conference is to present, discuss and put into perspective the most recent results of past and current ice core drilling projects (deep drillings such as EPICA, WAIS Divide, NEEM, TALDICE,... but also shallow drillings) in Antarctica and Greenland. Other ice core drilling projects conducted in non-polar glaciers or in other Arctic sites are also welcome. For more information, please visit the conference web site at: http://www.ipics2012.org/.