Little Dome C's isolated camp recommences its operations as the austral summer approaches. A multinational crew of 15 individuals will spend two months at a height of more than 3200 meters on the Antarctic plateau, braving typical summer temperatures of -35 ° C, to start the deep drilling phase of the European project Beyond Epica Oldest Ice. In the following years, by analyzing ice from a depth of up to 2.7 kilometers, the project will rebuild the earth's climatic history by going back 1.5 million years to determine the temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations of the past: a vital effort for paleoclimatology research. The project, managed by Carlo Barbante, head of the Institute of Polar Science (ISP) of the National Research Council and professor at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice, is funded by the European Commission with 11 million euros, and it hopes to finish the core drilling in the coming years. Twelve partner research institutions, from ten European and non-European nations: for Italy, in addition to the Italian National Research council and the Ca' Foscari University, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) is responsible, along with the French Polar Institute (IPEV), for the logistics work module. Beyond Epica Oldest Ice project operations benefit from synergy with the National Antarctic Research, financed by the MUR, directed by the National Research Council for scientific activities and by ENEA for the practical implementation of expeditions.
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