Acquisition Proposal for Cold Chambers and Associated Equipment to Complete a Subzero Science and Engineering Facility at Montana State University

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This award will help support the purchase and installation of five cold chambers and associated equipment to support research and education on subzero environments. The cold chambers will facilitate an expansion of research and education themes that include such topics as (i) the study of engineered structures, (ii) the study of bioremediation by wetlands below the freezing point, (iii) snowmelt hydrology, and (iv) the study of biofilms at subzero temperatures. The proposed facility will serve as a center of education and outreach on avalanche mechanics and safety, climate change, and polar region ecosystem dynamics. Subzero research has escalated rapidly over the past decade, and this facility will be the focal point for research and education on numerous applied and basic research projects related to state, national and international issues. The facility will attract scientists from all parts of the globe, and will strengthen international and external institutional collaborations leading to scientist and student exchanges. The facility will consist of five chambers: Chamber M-1 will provide a Class 100 clean, cold environment for use in decontaminating and sampling pristine ice core samples for biological and geochemical experiments. Chamber M-4 will be used primarily to study subzero environments in which the liquid phase maintains an influential role. This encompasses the study of wetlands, streams and lakes in the Montana winter and Antarctic summer seasons. This chamber will also be used to study highway icing problems. A programmable solar simulation source will be located in the ceiling. Chamber M-6 will be used as precision extreme temperature (-60 oC to +60 oC) environmental test chambers that will be used to support research from diverse disciplines. In addition to programmable solar simulation, these units will have a programmable ceiling-mounted radiant cooling panel to simulate a "cold sky." Chamber M-7A, M-7B is a two-compartment specimen storage and preparation chamber. This chamber will be equipped with redundant compressor/condenser packages to serve as temporary re-locate space should one or more of the other chambers experience malfunction. The chamber facility will provide educational opportunities at the undergraduate and graduate levels that focus on low temperature microbial dynamics, low temperature geochemistry, general transportation, geotechnical engineering, and materials. The facility will be the focal point to bring researchers, educators and students from a variety of backgrounds together in an important synergistic relationship. This relationship will not only benefit the field of subzero science directly, but indirectly through outreach and education focusing on the intricacies and importance of the subzero world. The establishment of a subzero research facility will simultaneously help to secure the advances of the last decade, fill in important missing links in existing research capabilities, and provide a solid foundation for the continued growth and development of cold region research and education.