Research at Centre for Ice and Climate

Ice caps consist of snow depositing during the last many millennia, and ice cores drilled at the right locations contain samples of past precipitation. When analysed, the ice cores reveal climatic information from time periods far back in time, while the individual layers sometimes still show how climate changed from year to year.

At Centre for Ice and Climate, researchers study the ice caps and ice cores using state-of-the-art laboratories and computer models, thereby improving our knowledge of past, present, and future climate.

Choose a topic below to learn more about the work at Centre for Ice and Climate:

Climate change: past, present & future

Climate models and ice core data are used to investigate the mechanisms that governed past climate, thereby improving our ability to predict future climate change. Read more
Flow of ice

The flow of ice determines the reaction of ice sheets to changes in climate, and ice flow models are important tools for dating and for understanding ice dynamics.Read more
Reconstructing past atmospheres

Climate conditions almost a million years back in time are reconstructed from water molecules, air bubbles, and tiny amounts of impurities in polar ice cores. Read more
Stratigraphy and dating

Determining the age of the ice is crucial for interpreting the ice core data. Ice cores are dated by annual layer counting and by applying computer modelsRead more.
Drilling and analysing ice cores

Field work on the Greenland ice cap and 50 years of development of drilling tools and measurement techniques provide the basis for analysis of past climate.Read more
Biology and ice

DNA fragments from past ecosystems are preserved in the basal ice below the Greenland ice cap and other ice sheets.Read more
Ice on other planets and moons

Life as we know it on Earth is closely linked to the presence of water, making it an interesting challenge to study water other placces in the Solar System. Read more