Science Support

	National Science Foundation Funding for this project is provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs (OPP). NSF is responsible for both scientific and technical guidance and the continuous oversight of all participating organizations. For further information about NSF-OPP please visit these sites: OPP home page: http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=OPP About OPP: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/about.jsp Antarctic Sciences (ANT) home page: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=ANT About ANT: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/ant/about.jsp Antarctic Infrastructure and Logistics home page: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/ail/
	United States Antarctic Program Funded by the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) supports scientific research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. All Antarctic support and logistics for the WAIS Divide Ice Core Project are provided by the USAP. Raytheon Polar Services (RPS) has been contracted by the NSF to provide support to the USAP. RPS provides project management and project controls for the Antarctic effort as required by the NSF through OPP. The NSF has provided funding to RPS to design, construct, and operate the deep field camp at the WAIS Divide core site in West Antarctica. For further information about the USAP please visit these sites: USAP home page: http://www.usap.gov About USAP participants: http://www.usap.gov/aboutUSAPParticipants/ Science Support: http://www.usap.gov/scienceSupport/
	Ice Coring and Drilling Services Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS) provides support for NSF-sponsored cold-regions research in both polar regions and at high altitudes. ICDS maintains and operates existing equipment, and develops new systems with two principal foci: to provide high quality ice cores, and to produce boreholes that provide access to the interior and beds of ice sheets and glaciers for such purposes as embedding instruments, collecting gas samples, setting seismic charges, and studying subglacial processes. ICDS is responsible for the design, fabrication, testing, and operation of the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) Drill used for the WAIS Divide Ice Core project. The DISC Drill is an electromechanical drill designed to take 122 mm diameter ice cores to depths of 4000 meters.
	National Ice Core Laboratory The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) is a facility for storing, curating, and studying ice cores recovered from the polar regions of the world. It provides scientists with the capability to conduct examinations and measurements on ice cores, and it preserves the integrity of these ice cores in a long-term repository for current and future investigations. NICL is responsible for the fabrication of all core handling and core processing supplies used at WAIS Divide, the design of the core handling process plan, and also for the long-term storage of the core when it is brought back to the U.S. NICL is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the core processing at WAIS Divide. In addition, NICL is responsible for maintaining a database on core quality and sampling history. The main sampling of the WAIS Divide Ice Core will be done at the NICL facilities in Denver, Colorado. The SCO oversees the WAIS Divide efforts of NICL.
	VECO Polar Resources VECO Polar Resources (VECO) is the Arctic logistics provider for the NSF and will provide the logistical support for the summer 2006 drill test at Summit, Greenland. VECO's responsibilities include construction of the drilling trench and shelter, providing electrical power, and suppling general camp support and logistics. VECO will also provide additional support and trench space for NICL to participate on the WAIS team and to begin integrating their core handling processes with the drilling operations. The 109th Airlift Wing, New York Air National Guard (109th) airlift mobility will be utilized to provide cargo transportation for ICDS, NICL, and other WAIS Divide participants from Scotia, New York to Summit, Greenland. All Greenland related logistics associated with the 109th will be handled by VECO.