ICE3 - Ice Core and climate

Ice Cores, Climate, Chemistry

Team coordinated by Roberto Grilli et Patrick Ginot

Goals of the team

The research carried out by the ICE3 team aim at a better understanding of the past climatic and environmental variations, either of natural origin or due to human activities. It is essential to document and understand climate variability in order to test the models used for predicting the future climate.

The specificity of the ICE3 team within the IGE is to address these issues from observations of ice cores drilled in polar ice caps and high altitude glaciers. They provide precious informations on the history of climate and atmospheric chemical composition (trace gases, including greenhouse gases, aerosols)

Photo credit : Thibaut Vergoz, CNRS / IPEV / IGE photo library

The team’s analyzes of ice cores are coupled with atmospheric studies to better understand the modes of transport and the local physico-chemical specificities. They also include studies of atmospheric-ice transfer, both for physical and chemical aspects, in order to better understand the variables of interest measured in the ice.

The scientific questions addressed by the team cover a wide range of time scales from the past to the present, from the minute to the glacial-interglacial cycles (up to 1,5 million years).

Although the ICE3 team has a strong experimental and field component, the contribution of its personnel to modeling is also important (absolute and relative dating of the glacial archives, snow densification and gas transport and trapping).