ITASE

The International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE) was created in 1990 with the purpose of studying climate change through research conducted in Antarctica. 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.

A 1990 meeting held in Grenoble, France, 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 Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the United States, 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) in a 1992 meeting in Bariloche, Argentina, 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, England. ITASE was also adopted as a Past Global Changes(PAGES) project in 1993.

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