Science and Engineering at The University of Edinburgh

ICECAP

ICECAP (Investigating the Cryospheric Evolution of the Central Antarctic Plate) will be the first detailed airborne geophysical survey to cover large areas of central East Antarctica. Extensive radio-echo sounding will allow us to measure the ice thickness, englacial structure, subglacial topography, subglacial lakes and basal thermal conditions of the region for the first time. Simultaneous airborne magnetic and gravity surveys will allow a first look at the detailed crustal structure of the central Antarctic Plate and allow the identification of its gross lithology. The collection of this data will fill one of the largest gaps in our knowledge of Antarctica and will represent a significant step forward in our understanding of the past, present and future behaviour of the largest ice sheet on Earth.

ICECAP is a fully endorsed programme of the International Polar Year (IPY) and is possible as a consequence of international collaboration. The results will fundamentally advance our understanding of the ice sheet and the geological history of Antarctica.

Data will be made available to the scientific community from the ICECAP website and, as with previous collaborative UK-US RES in East Antarctica , they will be a vital resource for many years in the future.

You can find more details at the homepage of the ICECAP project

ICECAP will undertake field campaigns in East Antarctica during the Austral summers of 2008/09, 2009/10 and 2010/11. The figure above shows an oblique view of the survey lines flown over the Astrolabe Glacier near Dumont d'Urville during the 2008/09 season.

This shows the lines flown by the ICECAP aircraft during the 2008/09 and 2009/10 Austral summers. Lines in blue are from the first season while those in red are from the second, lines highlighted in yellow follow the tracks of the ICESat satellite as part of the ICEBridge project and were all flown during the second season.