Aurora Basin: ice core science

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The Aurora Basin project is an ice core drilling project where we expect to get an ice core which covers the last 2000 years. This is a very important time in the Earth’s climate history and currently we have a lack of data covering this period from Antarctica.

My name is Dr Mark Curran and I am an ice core research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division.

The Aurora Basin project has been about seven years in planning and it’s the culmination of a lot of efforts by a range of scientists and logistics personnel here in Australia and overseas.

Aurora Basin is situated 550 km inland from Casey station in East Antarctica. We are very excited about the science that will be coming out from the project and there is a level of anticipation to get to this region and establish a remote ice core drilling camp.

The initial party to Aurora Basin will go via traverse from the French station Dumont D’Urville. This will take about 15 days. When they arrive on the site there will be three members of the Australian program and the team will establish a camp at Aurora Basin. A ski way will then be groomed and this will allow the Australian program to bring in their plane and the rest of the people from Casey Station into the Aurora Basin camp.

Two of the biggest challenges that we will face are the altitude and the temperature. It is a high altitude site and therefore once people arrive on site they will have to rest for a couple of days before they start their work. In terms of the temperature on the site we expect average daily temperatures of −25°C which will be very testing for both the people and the equipment that we use.

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Minister's welcome message for Strategic Science in Antarctica conference 2013

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G’day, it’s Tony Burke – the Environment Minister for Australia. I wish I could be with you in Hobart for the Strategic Science in Antarctica conference. I think it’s a great initiative, and I’m really glad we’ve got so many scientists from Australia, but also who’ve come from New Zealand, and some from even further afield.

The work that you do is important, and I think it symbolises everything about the decisions that were made some years ago about Antarctica. The whole concept – and to reflect on it now – to think that decision, we had that moment in time where people said let’s set aside an entire continent for scientific research, is worth reflecting on itself. But what’s made it such a permanent conservation decision isn’t just that everyone got together and made that decision, but the quality of the science that has now come about as a result, is second to none, and doesn’t just inform us about Antarctica – it informs us about the whole world: the rest of our planet.

The work on whales that’s done there, for the full migratory path they have from the southern ocean all the way through north. The work that’s being done now with the protection of some large marine parks through the CCAMLR process and the biodiversity benefits that can come through with that. Those of you who work also in the marine environment in looking at phytoplankton and krill – two foundation species, and the possible impact that we get from changes in the qualities of our ocean – in ocean acidification; in ocean temperature, and how quickly the species are able to adapt to that. Knowing of course the extent to which they then underpin so much more marine life. Probably the most obvious of all examples, those of you who work with ice cores, which have provided and unlocked so many of the secrets of the history of our planet and allowed us to have the understanding of the modern science of climate change to give the warning signs to our nation and to the world; to give governments the opportunity, if they’re smart enough to take it, to act, and take action in time, before it’s too late.

That work is all possible because of those twin decisions. One, the fact that we put aside the Antarctic for science research, conservation and peace. Secondly, because of the quality of the work that then came, has been able to provide so much of a benefit.

So to all of you, I’m glad that you’re there; and I’m terribly glad, sincerely glad of the work that you do. You’re providing answers to some of the most important questions on our planet. There’s no other way of summarising what you do. Congratulations. Enjoy the meeting. Keep doing more of it. Thanks.

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Live the dream! Be an Antarctic station leader.

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Graham Cook, Station Leader at Mawson 2014

Hi, I am Graham Cook. I am the station leader at Mawson Station in Antarctica. I work with the Australian Antarctic Division in what I think is one of the best jobs in the world.

Why do I do it? Because there are so many reasons why I do it!

So many people talk about living the dream. Well with this job I get to do what other people are dreaming about. Every day here is so different. Some days I will be helping the chef in the kitchen, another day I will be working with the plumber outside in minus 20 degrees. I get to spend time with scientists working on programs that I would never be introduced to and learning a lot from that.

Where else in the world would you get to work with such a diverse group of people and such diverse programs? We have flying programs, science programs, building programs, there is just so much that happens down here, that keeps my mind going, and I learn so much from the people that I work with. It is such a pleasure to go to work every day.

In a week or two’s time we will get to watch ten thousand new visitors arrive in the form of emperor penguins as they march across the ice to set up camp and breed for the winter.

When was the last time you looked out your office window, saw a snow-clad mountain range in the distance, a glacier creeping towards the coast, an iceberg on your doorstep?

I just love working here. It’s an amazing place. Friends and family tell me I am so lucky to be here and they are right, I am. But I helped to make this luck. I put an application in for this job. And I managed to get it. You can do it too.

Narelle Campbell, Station Leader at Casey 2014

Hi, I am Narelle Campbell and I am the station leader here at Casey station and it is actually a privilege to be able to come down here and work for the Australian Antarctic Division, supporting the various science and work programs down here.

The best part, as I said, of being down here is being with the team, and the various personalities. They’re people that you don’t know, that you have just first met back in Kingston doing the training. We all come together as a team and learn to live together and share each others’ experiences down here.

Mike Gasson, Macquarie Island Station Leader 2014

Hi, my name is Mark Gasson. I am the station leader at Macquarie Island in the subantarctic. I work for the Australian Antarctic Division. Why do I want to be a station leader? It’s the most amazing job. It’s incredible. You get to be down in this beautiful location - it’s phenomenal - working with the most incredible team of people. You’ve got all kinds of different people here and I like working with people, I get quite a lot of enjoyment. It has been pretty awesome so far, I am loving it. It is a crazy adventure, unlike anything I have ever done before. We are isolated, we are miles away from anywhere, who knows what’s going to happen next? The whole thing is pretty much a mystery and the craziest thing is we’re getting paid to do it. So, it’s pretty awesome, I’m loving it.

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Dr Tas van Ommen – Climate Processes and Change Theme Leader

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Dr Tas van Ommen – Climate Processes and Change Theme Leader

I am a physicist by training. I started my research career as an astronomer and worked overseas for a while, came back to Australia and fell sideways into a position here at the Antarctic Division doing the physics of glaciers, so I have become a glaciologist in my career.

So the Climate Processes and Change theme covers four areas. The first of those is the ice sheet itself, the second area is the ice that floats on the ocean and oceanography all wrapped up into super sub-theme. The third area we look at is the atmosphere above Antarctica and the fourth strand to our research is looking at past climate mainly from looking at ice cores that go back in time.

Looking back in the past is really the only way you can get enough information to test your understanding of the way the climate system works. And we’ve used the really detailed ice cores that we get from Law Dome, which is near Casey station, and they’ve allowed us to look in great detail at climate change and understand it in a way that you can’t do from most ice-cores just because of this high detail.

For example we have looked at changes in snow fall in the area over the last several centuries. We’ve found quite a clear link between rainfall in Western Australia or the drought that has been there and snowfall in East Antarctica. We’ve been able to use the very long records from the ice cores to say that what we are seeing now is unusual and very likely connected to climate change itself.

One of the projects I have been involved in actually was looking with a plane that has radar under the wings, shining the radar through the ice sheet to actually get a map of the bedrock underneath. And that was fascinating because we were flying along looking at the computer traces coming back from the radar and seeing for the first time the way the bedrock had deep valleys and high mountains underneath and for the first time being able to map out large areas of Antarctica.

There are still really important questions to answer about where Antarctica and the climate system is headed. We need to understand better for example how the ice sheets are going to respond in a warming climate because any loss of the ice in the Antarctica translates to sea level rise.

One of the highlights of this career is being able to actually go into the field and do some research. Drilling for an ice core where you might be hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest other party of human beings in extreme environments, experiencing the almost sensory overload of the wind, the cold, and the stunning visual environment that you are in, it’s really invigorating.

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Antarctic blue whale voyage

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