This journal entry was recorded by CSU atmospheric scientist Glen Liston on December 1, 2007, during a four-month expedition from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole. Liston was in Antarctica to conduct field tests of his climate change model as part of the 2007-09 International Polar Year (IPY).  Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Norwegian Research Council, Liston’s expedition is one of 200 IPY expeditions or projects addressing physical, biological and social issues in the Arctic and Antarctic.

The current International Polar Year, which runs from March 2007 to March 2009, is the fourth time during the past 125 years when scientists from around the world have worked together to improve our understanding of the Polar Regions.  Organized through the International Council for Science and the World Meteorological Organization, IPY is a collaborative effort involving 60 nations and thousands of scientists.

The 2007-09 IPY includes a strong focus on snow and ice changes: reductions in extent and mass of glaciers and ice sheets; reductions in area, timing and duration of snow cover; and reductions in extent and thickness of sea ice and permafrost. Through the associated changes in sea level, fresh-water supplies, and air temperatures, these all have immediate and long-range consequences for people living on Earth. The latest IPY seeks to answer questions about how changes in snow and ice in the Polar Regions relate to climate features and processes in lower latitudes.

“Our expedition’s primary goal is to investigate climate variability and change over the East Antarctic Ice Sheet between now and 1,000 years ago,” said Liston. “This area of Antarctica was last visited by a collection of American traverses in the 1960s, and our expedition will revisit their sites to define possible changes and establish benchmark datasets for future research efforts. In addition, our route takes us through numerous areas that have never been visited before, representing a unique opportunity to make new discoveries and further our understanding of the complexities and variability of East Antarctic climate.” 

The expedition team consists of twelve hand-picked field scientists and technicians from the United States and Norway. They will spend two austral summers traveling between Troll Station, Norway’s main Antarctic research base, and the South Pole, returning home between seasons. During the first year, the team traveled a total distance of 2800 km (1700 miles), a demanding journey where Liston slept outdoors in a tent in temperatures as low as -48oC  (-54 °F). He is used to this; Liston has spent over 500 nights sleeping on the snow as part of over 30 other Arctic and Antarctic field expeditions.

Wearing only thin gloves, they drilled deep into the East Antarctic Ice Sheet where the ice-core temperatures equaled the mean annual air temperature, about minus 55 °C (-67 °F), in order to measure a broad range of chemical and physical properties and characteristics dating back over 1000 years.

The first year’s expedition was successful and the team is preparing for the second year when they plan to drill additional ice cores and make geophysical measurements at the newly-discovered Recovery Lakes, a collection of lakes located at the bottom of the Ice Sheet.