Ice Cores Lead to Progress in Related Research Great progress is being made on more basic science as well. The ability to count annual layers in the cores well into the glacial period and probably through 110,000 years will help to answer questions about the timing of the glacial periods and the usefulness of radiocarbon calibrations. Reconstruction of atmospheric circulation patterns and their changes over time from chemical indicators and dust sources provides new insight into the large, rapid changes documented in the cores. Vigorous work on the air-snow transfer function for chemicals and particulates is clarifying the significance of the paleoclimatic records. Glacier geophysics and flow modeling, coupled with physical and electrical studies of ice cores, are leading to better understanding of the ice cores and ice-sheet behavior, and possible contributions to sea level change.
Many studies are underway to help understand the Greenland record in more detail.
Scientists expect to use the cores to learn more about changes in atmospheric acids, past extraterrestrial impacts, humankind's influence on the chemistry of the atmosphere, and details of Holocene climate variability. I was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 5, 1946. I first became interested in science after seeing pictures of Antarctica in college courses and magazines. I joined the faculty of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of New Hampshire in 1975 and was appointed full professor in 1985. Today my research team provides a primary building block for one of the better-known global change facilities in the world, the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.