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Understanding Antarctic Ice
Amundsen-Scott South Pole station
South PoleDome
Summer camp
road to work
Amundson-Scott South Pole
Questions about the ice
A. How cold the ice isB. How old the ice isC. How the ice movesD. How clean the ice is
Light traveling through ice
Object is blurred
Object isdimmer
scattering
absorption
What causes light scattering in ice?
1. Bubbles (trapped air) Q: As we go deeper, scattering by bubbles
A.gets stronger (worse)
B.gets weaker (better)
C.does not change
Why?
What causes light scattering in ice?
2. Dust particles
Q: As we go deeper, scattering by dust
Ans. varies wildly
What causes light absorption in ice?
3. Volcanic Ash
How do we know how much dust is in the ice?
Old school approach: take ice cores
How do we know how much dust is in the ice?
Measure twice, melt once
How old is the ice?(We don’t really need to know, but we can measure it.)
Ice flow at the South Pole
“South Pole” is marked every Jan 1
The ice surface moves byone inch per day = 9 m/yr
CNN
Nobody knows (yet) if bottom of ice sheet is dry (frozen) or wet (melted)