Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) Science Workshop

University Of California-San Diego Scripps Inst Of Oceanography, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Title: Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) Science Workshop Non-technical Summary This workshop will support members of the Geological, Glaciological, and Earth Science communities for a two-day workshop in order to develop a long-term plan for science deployment of the Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) platform and create a planning document that defines the science community?s anticipated use of the facility. The workshop will ensure broad participation by including researchers from many different scientific fields both within and outside of the Antarctic community. The workshop will Include early-career researchers and members of underrepresented groups. Technical Description The Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) was designed to quickly penetrate Antarctic ice sheets in order to create borehole observatories and take cores in deep ice, the glacial bed, and bedrock below. The Rapid Access Ice Drill is a sled-mounted mobile drilling system that will make multiple long, narrow (3.5 inch diameter) boreholes in ice sheets of Antarctica. The Rapid Access Ice Drill (RAID) enabled research will include 1) a better understanding of the climate feedbacks internal to the Earth System that drove ice ages to switch from a 41-kyr periodicity to the irregular 110-kyr periodicity seen today, 2) constraints on future sea level rise from the heat flow and bed material property information obtained, 3) creation of a new interdisciplinary style of Antarctic "Subglacial System Science" that fosters across-discipline synergies, and 4) entrainment of young researchers in polar science via the excitement of discovery of the largely unknown ice sheet interior. The RAID Science Planning Workshop will provide a venue to: 1) bring diverse scientists together to explore science questions and approaches; 2) define science goals to be addressed by the drill; 3) seek synergies between different disciplines interested in the Rapid Access; 4) develop a coherent science plan for the use of the drill; 5) set priorities between the science targets; and 6) engage early-career and underrepresented researchers. The workshop will provide support for a two-day conference with a total attendance of about 60 members of the Antarctic glacial- and subglacial-science communities. The support provided by NSF will cover partial travel costs for 20 key US participants and full travel costs for 12 early-career researchers.