ACE ANTARCTIC CLIMATE EVOLUTION

ACE (Antarctic Climate Evolution) is a new international research initiative to study Antarctic climate and glacial history, by linking climate and ice sheet modeling studies with geophysical surveys and geological studies on and around the Antarctic continent. The Antarctic ice sheet has existed for approximately 35 million years, but it has fluctuated considerably throughout the Cenozoic. The spatial scale and temporal pattern of these fluctuations has been the subject of considerable debate. Determining the scale and rapidity of the response of Antarctic ice sheets to climatic forcing is important, because ice-volume variations lead to changing global sea levels on a scale of tens of meters or more. Numerical climate and ice sheet models have been developed to simulate the behavior of the Antarctic ice sheets. Some of these models have been successfully validated against modern conditions. Modeling the past record of ice-sheet behavior in response to climatic forcing is the next step. The ACE program aims to facilitate research in the area of Antarctic climate evolution by linking geophysical surveys and geological studies on and around the Antarctic continent with climate, ocean, and ice-sheet modeling studies. These studies will investigate the evolution and behavior of Antarctic climate and ice sheets over a wide range of time scales throughout the Cenozoic, including times when global temperatures were several degrees warmer than today. The ACE program will 1) encourage and facilitate communication and collaboration between research scientists working on different aspects of Antarctic climate, oceans, and ice sheets; 2) provide assistance on technical issues related to field and laboratory programs and to ice-sheet and paleoclimate modeling studies; 3) promote data access and facilitate data syntheses; and 4) report the results of these efforts to the scientific and wider community on an ongoing basis at workshops, symposia, and in the primary literature. ACE is not yet an official program. A proposal will be presented to the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), with the hope of establishing ACE as a sanctioned, international research initiative, operating under the SCAR umbrella. Additional information on ACE can be found at http://www.geo.umass.edu/ace.