Science and exploration in the high interior of East Antarctica in the twentieth century
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 22:32authored byGan, I, Drewry, D, Ian AllisonIan Allison, Kotlyakov, V
The highest part of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, more than 4000 m above sea level, has been an area that has seen a considerable scientific research effort undertaken by the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition, and its international collaborators, since January 2005. That includes the establishment of the most remote of the Chinese Antarctic stations, Kunlun, at Dome A in 2009. However, the exploration and mapping of this region had been commenced many decades earlier, most notably by inland traverses of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year (IGY) and later; and the extensive surveys of Antarctic surface and sub-ice topography by airborne radio-echo sounding made by the US National Science Foundation–Scott Polar Research Institute–Technical University of Denmark (NSF-SPRI-TUD) in the late-1960s and the 1970s. Here we provide a history of the activities and achievements of these earlier programs. Recent topographic maps of the ice sheet surface in the Dome A region, produced using Chinese GPS data and satellite altimetry, have shown the maps compiled from the earlier data were remarkably accurate.
History
Publication title
Advances in Polar Science
Volume
27
Pagination
1-13
ISSN
1674-9928
Department/School
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
Publisher
Zhongguo Jidi Yanjiusuo, Polar Research Institute
Place of publication
China
Rights statement
Copyright 2016 Advances in Polar Science
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Understanding climate change not elsewhere classified