*å* __ Initiation of Antarctic Geology & Geophysics 'Umbrella' Science Plan Rationale for an AG&G S cience Plan The Antarctic Geology & Geophysics community has organized a series of workshops in the 2001-200 3 time frame aimed at identifying future research directions and future support requirements to carry out such research. These workshops include (see links at: www.geology.ohio-state.edu/agg-group/workshops.html): SHALDRIL - Shallow Drilling system to address Antarctic Climate H istory ANDRILL - Antarctic Stratigraphic Drilling for records of climatic, glacial and tectonic history over past 50 m.y. FASTDRI LL: mobile system to drill through ice sheets for biological, geological, & glaciological objectives ACE: Antarctic Climate Evolution: Link climate & ice sheet modeling studies with geophysical surveys and geological studies around the Antarctic continent OPP-Marine Geology & Geophysics: updated shipboard capabilities for future AG&G science needs discussed at recent workshop. ANTEC - Antarctic Neotectonics: SCAR initiative to improve understanding of the unique neotectonic regime of the Antarctic plate REVEAL: Remote Views of Antarctic Lithosphere: the future of Antarctic airborne geophysical capabilities WAIS - Amundsen Sea Embayment Project: West Antarctic Ice Sheet change, including links between geology and glaciology SEAP: Structure and Evolution of the Antarctic Plate Each of these workshops advocates major data-gathering and data-analysis programs, most requiring substantial funding. Will these initiatives compete for limited resources? Or, can the community coordinate them and, in so doing, optimize the science output? If a broad program can be developed (i.e., such that the community of AG&G scientists sees wide opportunity for participation), then most would see the benefit in a coordinated _ science plan. A compelling science plan_ c an potentially be used to argue for an a 1. ugmented budget so we can push forward a major program, possibly over a shorter time span, as well as to argue for the requisite increase in logistical support to carry out a major program. The goal would be to leverage funding and logistics such that larger-scale science programs could be initiated at the same time that science projects conceived by individuals and small groups of investigators continued to be implemented. Strategy for Initiating AG&G Science Plan This work will proceed in two stages: Workshop 'Mining' The recommendations and requir_ements for future research identifie_d in A. AG&G workshop reports over approximately the last decade will be summarized in the following steps: The Executive Summaries, and any additional lists of recommendations, priorities and requirements will be compiled from each workshop report. These will be poste B. d on a new 'planning' web site, linked through the Antarctic Geology & Geophysics Working Group web site currently hosted at Ohio State University (). Correlation matrices will be developed, showing the research questions and priorities, the logistic needs, etc., that are common to multiple workshops and those that are unique to individual research strands. These will also be posted on the 'planning' web site. Based on these correlation matrices, a summary of research topics that are of interest to a broad cross section of the AG&G community will be summarized. A meeting of an initial 'steering committee' will be held. Starting from the summary of research themes identified in the 'workshop mining' phase, this group will consider the possibilities for developing an overarching science plan that will allow key elements identified in individual workshops to be integrated in a synergistic way to maximize progress in understanding Antarctic earth science problems. Following this 'brainstorming' session, a 'strawperson' science plan will be post COMM Sridhar Geophysics; Glaciology REVEAL, SEAP, WAIS Robin Bell Airborne geophysics IPY Planning Group; PRB Rob DeConto Paleoclimate modeling ACE Wshop convener Carol Finn Airborne geophysic ed on the web. This will serve as the basis for web-based discussion and comments from the community. In addition, discussion will take place at 'town meetings' convened at national and international meetings frequented by the AG&G community. If substantial community interest and support is generated, then the next phase of science planning, including formalizing a science and implementation plan, will proceed. This latter phase would constitute a new activity requiring a separate funding proposal. NAME UNITIES Anandakrishnan s ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Document converted from word 8 by MSWordView (mswordview 0.5.1) MSWordView written by Caolan McNamara