ITASE Synthesis Workshop

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Mayewski0829227This award supports a workshop to bring together scientists involved in the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE). Since 1999 the US has supported a program of traverses across both East and West Antarctica (US ITASE). US ITASE is part of the ITASE multi-national effort to understand the past 200-1000+ years of climate change over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. ITASE is organized under the auspices of Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research (SCAR) and now comprises twenty-one countries. The international representatives from ITASE have met several times in the past to discuss national traverse plans; coordinate efforts; synthesize results; and develop statistical and other techniques for the interpretation of data. The workshop will provide additional momentum to the process of synthesizing the Antarctic-wide ITASE reconstruction of past climate. An emerging compilation of all ITASE and other ice core sites is available through the Ice READER database sponsored by SCAR and one workshop goal is to update this metadata listing. The workshop will also focus on identifying the characteristics of climate change that have impacted the Antarctic and surrounding ocean in the past 200-1000+ years in order to provide a basis for assessing the dramatic changes expected as a consequence of the ~4-6 degrees C warming projected for this region by the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Results from this workshop will also form the basis for future collaborative efforts between ITASE ice core researchers, meteorologists, oceanographers, and climate modelers stemming from international initiatives such as the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS) and the International Polar Year (IPY). Finally, workshop findings will be included in the forthcoming document: "Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment" initiated by SCAR.