Meet the NSF COLDEX 2024-2025 Field Season Team!

Hello from US National Science Foundation COLDEX! For Antarctic scientists, the onset of fall in the Northern Hemisphere means one thing: field season is upon us. This year, we at NSF COLDEX are very happy to share that we are embarking on our third field season as part of our mission to explore Antarctica for the oldest possible ice samples and analyze those samples to understand the evolution and future of Earth’s climate system. After two successful field seasons, we are excited to head back down to the White Continent with a hybrid team of first-timers and seasoned staff, and are very much looking forward to sharing their discoveries and scientific advances with you over the next few months and years.

This year, the NSF COLDEX field cohort is split across two groups: the I-187 team and the I-186 team. The I-187 team will focus on drilling shallow ice cores at the Allan Hills on the margin of the East Antarctic Plateau where ice dating to as many as 6 million years old has already been found by NSF COLDEX teams. The I-186 team will be traveling beyond South Pole Station to join the “heavy science traverse” tractor train to conduct ground-based radar observations to explore the depths of the Antarctic ice sheet at promising future ice core drill sites. They will carefully measure ice movement, clarify ice layering at depth, and more.

To give you some insight into the members of this year’s field team, we asked participants to share some of their thoughts and hopes for this field season. Ash Goverman, I-187 Camp Manager, told us that she is “excited to get to know the team, and to begin to discover the season's current unknowns.” Jacob Chalif, a graduate student at Dartmouth College studying ice core chemistry and continuous flow analysis, shared this about his first time going to Antarctica: “After spending so much time thinking about Allan Hills ice in the lab, I'm so excited to finally visit the wild site and to get to know fellow COLDEXers better!” Finally, Jenna Epifanio, NSF COLDEX Data Manager and returning Antarctica visitor, shared that she is “excited about experiencing the insane landscape at the Allan Hills, and having the chance to contribute to the amazing science that's getting done there.”

As team members make their final preparations, which includes health check-ups, finalizing their packing lists (extra warm socks are a must), and reviewing their work plans, we want to give you a chance to get to know the team whose work we’ll be sharing with you in this newsletter. Each of these individuals bring their own unique set of skills, expertise, and knowledge to the NSF COLDEX field teams, and we are so excited to follow along their work this fall and winter.

Here is the NSF COLDEX 2024-2025 field season team:

And that’s it! The field teams head out in early November, and we’ll be updating your throughout the field season via this newsletter and our blog. We’ll also be posting images, videos, and more on our newly created Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, so follow us there if you haven’t done so already! We look forward to sharing more with you soon.

NSF COLDEX thanks the United States Antarctic Program for logistical support, with coordination and support from NSF Office of Polar Programs, NSF Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics Program, the NSF Ice Drilling Program, the NSF Ice Core Facility, and the Antarctic Support Contractor for logistical support.