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{{short description, Scientific research platform The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) was created in 1990 with the purpose of studying climate change through research conducted in
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
. Antarctica was chosen as the optimal site to study the atmosphere because of its remote location and relatively undisturbed environment. Research in many fields has been conducted in Antarctica through ITASE, including astronomy, atmospheric sciences, biology, earth sciences, environmental science, geology, glaciology, marine biology, oceanography, and geophysics.


History

A 1990 meeting held in
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France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, served as a site of discussion regarding national ice coring efforts and the possibility of international collaboration between the world's top scientists. As a result, nineteen nations worldwide, including
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,
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
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France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
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Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
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Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
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Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
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Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, the
U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, teamed up to study the surface and subsurface record of Antarctica's ice cores. These countries agreed that an understanding of Antarctica's climate and atmospheric composition (gathered through ice core examination) would provide greater insight into the understanding of climate change on a global level. The ITASE Planning Document was formally recommended to XXII SCAR (
Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is an interdisciplinary body of the International Science Council (ISC). SCAR coordinates international scientific research efforts in Antarctica, including the Southern Ocean. SCAR's scien ...
) in a 1992 meeting in
Bariloche San Carlos de Bariloche, usually known as Bariloche (), is a city in the province of Río Negro Province, Río Negro, Argentina, situated in the foothills of the Andes on the southern shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. It is located within the Nahuel ...
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Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, by the Working Group on Glaciology. The SCAR officials approved this preliminary implementation of the ITASE project, naming it “Recommendation Glaciology XXII-5.” SCAR allowed ITASE to contribute to its six main initiatives regarding Antarctica, and further accepted ITASE under one of its primary initiatives, GLOCHANT (Global Change in Antarctica) during the XXIII SCAR meeting in
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
,
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. ITASE was also adopted as a
Past Global Changes The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...
(PAGES) project in 1993. The ITASE project reached its culmination in a workshop in Cambridge, U.K., during August 2–3, 1996. The US ITASE Science and Implementation Plan was published a few months before, in May, following a US ITASE workshop in
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Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
.


Objective

Because Antarctica has played a major role in global systems (i.e. atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, etc.) scientists hoped to expand on the little knowledge of Antarctica's complex climate that was available. This data was collected primarily during the past 30 to 40 years. High resolution ice cores have been recognized, since, as the most direct and reliable record of the “soluble, insoluble and gaseous components of the atmosphere at resolutions as fine as seasonal and, potentially, on time scales as long as a million years” (International). Through ice core analysis, scientists are able to study past environments on earth and, more importantly, predict future environmental trends. Ice cores formed from polar glaciers generally contain the best preserved records of all geographic locations. Substances transported by the atmosphere and trapped within glacial ice reveal factors that cause environmental change as well as global responses to this change. Results from deep ice core studies conducted in
Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
correspond with results of these Antarctic studies. Similar changes in parameters such as temperature, snow accumulation, wind-blown dust, sea-salt loading and methane composition indicate global climatic trends – that conclusions made from studies done in Antarctica may very well apply to the entire globe.


References

International Trans-Antarctic Science Expedition. 1977–1997. University of Maine. 10 Nov. 200

West, Peter. “International Trans-Antarctic Science Expedition (ITASE).” National Science Foundation News. 10 Feb. 2003. 13 Nov. 200

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External links




SCAR (Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research)
Antarctic expeditions