The ability of numerical models to predict future change on the planet is severely limited by a lack of real-world data for verification and testing. However, a wealth of data, recording both cause and response, exists in environmental and geological records. For example, in ice cores, there exists a unique and simultaneous record of greenhouse gas forcing and the temperature response. We seek to unlock the history of life, climate and the Earth, focussing exclusively on the proxies and periods that will inform understanding about the future warm world.
Research achievements
- development of proxies of ice-sheet change and ocean forcing on ice-sheet melt
- the location and strength of westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere and their impact on carbon exchange
- a history of thinning and retreat in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and its causes
Polar Archives research projects
Our multidisplinary teams work on a range of programmes and projects including:
- Climate and Ice during the Last Interglacial
- Weddell Sea ice sheet and climate
- Beyond EPICA
- Blowing snow and sea ice
- ABSCISSA Arctic Sea-Ice-Zone Blowing Snow
- SubICE – Sub-Antarctic Ice Coring Expedition
- RAID: Rapid Access Isotope Drill