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 improves our ability to predict future climate change.

• Flow of ice

  Ice flow models are important tools for dating and for understanding ice dynamics.Read more.

• Reconstructing past atmospheres

  Water molecules, air bubbles, and tiny amounts of impurities in ice cores help us to reconstruct ancient climate conditions.

• Stratigraphy and dating

  Ice cores are dated by annual layer counting and by applying computer models.

• Drilling and analysing ice cores

  The key to a successful ice core drilling is the highly specialized ice core drill. The ice core drills that are used for the drilling projects today have been developed over decades and build on the knowledge, experience and hard work of many people.

• Biology and ice

  DNA fragments from past ecosystems are preserved in the basal ice below the Greenland ice cap and other ice sheets.

• Ice on other planets and moons

  Life as we know it on Earth is closely linked to the presence of water. How is the presence of water in the Solar System?

Follow the links above to read about the specific research topics or see a sitemap with an overview of all the research web pages.