GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) is the first geodetic mission dedicated to the measurement of the time-variations of the Earth’s gravity field, it enables the detection of water mass transfers. The on-going GRACE mission (launched in 03/2002 for a nominal lifetime of 5 years; quasi-polar orbit) provides monthly maps of tiny spatio-temporal variations of gravity due to the redistributions of mass inside the surface fluid envelops of the Earth. These satellite measurements represent vertically-integrated gravity effects of water mass reservoirs (oceans, atmosphere, continental waters and ice sheets) and of the solid Earth that need to be unravelled.

SALE United International Team for Exploration and Discovery;

Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE): A Unifying Phenomenon in Antarctic Earth Science

Beneath Antarctica's ice sheets, water has slowly accumulated over millenia pooling in catchment basins within the continental bedrock. Antarctic subglacial environments are natural macrocosms that, in some instances, trace their origins to more than 35 million years before present, when the continent became encased in ice. Life, especially microbial life, has successfully radiated into most aquatic habitats on Earth. There is little reason to doubt that subglacial environments are exempt from this process.The exploration and study of subglacial environments provides an unparalleled opportunity to advance our understanding of how the expression of life, the environment, climate evolution, and planetary history have combined to produce the world as we know it today.

OASIS will study the chemistry in the air over the Arctic Ocean. The health of mammals and humans is at stake, and a future change in climate will undoubtedly introduce unknown changes. OASIS will make use of a variety of platforms (icebreakers, ice islands, buoys) to obtain year-round information on the behavior of such key chemicals as ozone, mercury, and carbon dioxide. As the nature and extent of snow and ice cover is changing OASIS will assess the associated impact on, and by, climate change, and the human and ecosystem impacts of these chemicals.

Global Warming will have a large impact on glaciers in the Arctic region. Sea level will be affected, and substantial changes can be expected in sediment and fresh water supplies to embayments and fjords. In GLACIODYN we study the dynamics of Arctic glaciers by means of field observations, remote sensing from satellites, and computer modelling. This will deliver tools to make more accurate predictions about future changes.

Inter-discipline Survey along Prydz Bay, Amery Ice Shelf and Dome A The 2000km interconnected Prydz Bay-Amery Ice Shelf-Lambert Basin-Dome A (PANDA) section in Antarctica plays an important role in Antarctic mass balance, sea level and climate change. About thirty observation systems for glaciology, oceanography, geology/geophysics, sun-earth physics, atmospheric science and astronomy will be installed and implemented along the section by the international cooperative expeditions leading by China during IPY2007-2009 and beyond.

The Greenland Ice Sheet is an outstanding archive of information about what the Earth’s climate was like in the past, and the water locked in its ice will have a major impact on sea level rise due to climate change. Because of this, understanding how Greenland will react to global warming is crucially important. By gathering seismic data, ice cores and using radar, laser ranging and echo sounders, this project will shed new light on the Greenland Ice Sheet and improve scientists’ ability to model how it will react to climate change.

"Antarctic Sea Ice in IPY is the coordinated project for the sea ice zone surrounding Antarctica, covering over 20 million sqkm (the size of South America) at maximum extent. Our purpose is to determine, for the first time, the circumpolar year-round sea ice thicknesses in this zone. This effort requires extensive ship investigations, coordinated satellite monitoring and use of underwater technologies such as up looking sonar from moorings and use of unmanned autonomous underwater vehicles. The reflectivity or albedo of the earth's surface represents one of the main determinants of surface temperature and, Antarctic sea ice as one of the most large-scale changeable sources of reflected solar energy therefore represents a major contributor to climate and climate change."

The proposed project focuses the efforts of 20 scientists in 9 countries to produce a series of benchmark data sets for the International Polar Year. Those data sets culminate in the first quantification of the total rate of ice loss by flow from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. This work will be conducted by young scientists mentored by professional scientists to help train the next generation of scientists in the use of remote sensing data of the polar regions. Satellite data include ICESat laser altimetry, Landsat optical imagery and various European and Canadian synthetic aperture radar data.