Glaciology
What past and present roles do the Antarctic ice-sheet and sea ice cover play in climate processes?
Glaciologist making measurements
on an inland traverse
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Antarctica's ice sheet and its surrounding sea ice are integral to the global climate system. They influence surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric and oceanic circulation. The ice sheet holds an archive of environmental data, including temperature, that allows present day conditions to be compared with those of the past. It also holds proxy data on climatic forcing factors such as variations in earth's orbit, solar variability, greenhouse gas levels and volcanic activity. For the long-lived atmospheric species in particular, Antarctica is a preferred location for monitoring global behaviour.
The Glaciology program is based at, and part of the Cooperative Research Centre for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (Antarctic CRC) and is divided into three main areas of research:
The Glaciology program also produce Climate Data sets:
Metadata for Glaciology are held at the Australian Antarctic Data Centre
For further information: glacio@aad.gov.au
