Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse Of East Antarctica

The Norwegian-U.S. Scientific Traverse of East Antarctica is a research program consisting of two overland traverses of East Antarctica: the first from the Norway Troll Station to the South Pole in the 2007/2008 season; and a return traverse via a different route in 2008/2009. The main research focus of the program is climate change, the stated goals being to:

• Investigate climate variability in Dronning Maud Land of East Antarctica on time scales of years to a thousand years.
• Establish spatial and temporal variability in snow accumulation over this area of Antarctica to understand its impact on sea level.
• Investigate the impact of atmospheric and oceanic variability on the chemical composition of firn and ice in the region.
• Revisit areas and sites first explored by traverses in the 1960s, for detection of possible changes and to establish benchmark data sets for future research efforts.^[1]

The program is part of Trans-Antarctic Scientific Traverse Expeditions – Ice Divide of East Antarctica (TASTE-IDEA), and the International Partners in Ice Coring Sciences (IPICS), both of which have ISCU-WMO endorsement for the International Polar Year 2007-2009.

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