Centre for Ice and Climate > About the Centre > Main objectives

Main objectives

The centre work will focus on these main topics:

• Finding the baseline: Northern hemisphere climate during the last 11,700 years will be reconstructed using multi-disciplinary data and global climate models. These studies will lead to a detailed reconstruction of the 1-2 °C interglacial temperature variations and its causes.

• Studying a previous warm period: We aim at reconstructing the 5°C warmer climate during the Eemian period 120,000 years ago and unveil the underlying dynamics. The new insights will supply input data to models of the evolution of the Greenland Ice Sheet (and thus of sea level rise) in a warm world without anthropogenic greenhouse gas emmisions.

• The first CO₂ record from Greenland: CO₂ records from Greenland ice cores are influenced by the high level of chemical impurities in the ice. Modern techniques that simultaneously measure selected chemical components, CO₂ gas and CO₂ gas isotopes make it possible to correct for the interaction of CO₂ with the impurities, and allow us to produce a high resolution CO₂ record for Greenland. The record will be the first Northern Hemisphere record that provides information about the cycling, sources, and sinks of CO₂.

• Understanding the climate: Climate changes are often out of phase in the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Ocean circulation moves energy and carbon between the poles. Better models based on ice core data will advance our knowledge of the relationship between the two hemispheres.

• International platform: The centre is the focal point of the new deep drilling project, NEEM, and for the International Polar Year 2007-2008 activities on the stability of the Greenland ice sheet. This will provide an innovative environment for education and exchange of young researchers.

A comprehensive description of the centre goals and the methods pursued to meet these goals is available in the Centre for Ice and Climate Project Plan.