ICE CORE SCIENCE

This course will cover the principles of ice core science and how this new research field has been born. We will examine how the ice cores from both polar and non-polar regions allowed us to understand the climate of the past and the role of greenhouse gases in the climate system.
The course will provide an extensive overview of:
- How the climate of the past may be reconstructed from this unique natural archive;
- How the climate records from the two hemispheres can be synchronized;
- How the coupling between climate and greenhouse gases can be studied.

Knowledge about how the past climate can be reconstructed from the glacial archives, represented by polar ice caps and mid-latitude glaciers, and on the coupling between climate and greenhouse gases for a better understanding of the past, present and future high-latitude climate system functioning.

Basics of climate of the past and glaciology

Lesson plan
- A history of Ice Core Science. Where, why and how we use ice cores. An introduction.
- Basics of stable isotope geochemistry and methods.
- Climate proxies in the ice matrix and in the gas phase to reconstruct the past climate from ice cores.
- Ice core dating.
- Temperature reconstructions from ice cores.
- The deep Antarctic ice cores and future plans to go beyond.
- Mineral dust records (seminario: Barbara Delmonte).
- The Greenland ice cores.
- Synchronizing the two hemispheres.
- Low-mid latitudes / high elevations ice cores.
- Past interglacials in the ice core records.
- PAGES2k and the last 2000 years in Antarctica.
- Integrating ice core, marine records. Data – model comparisons.
- pptx presentations by students.

Reading assignments will be given in class and include textbook chapters and scientific papers. The frontal lessons and supplementary materials will be available in pdf format in the Moodle platform.

For a positive achievement of the exam the following is requested: an active participation at the lessons, the reading and summary of scientific articles that will be made available and assigned to the students during the lessons. The students will have to prepare an oral presentation (pptx) that will be discussed in class.
The grade breakdown is approximately:
class participation 20%
student reports (pptx presentation) 40%
program discussion (oral examination) 40%

The course format will be a blend of lecturing, journal article discussion, and student reports.
Class assignments will be given. Students will be lead discussions of journal articles.

Inglese

orale

Questo insegnamento tratta argomenti connessi alla macroarea "Cambiamento climatico e energia" e concorre alla realizzazione dei relativi obiettivi ONU dell'Agenda 2030 per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile