ATHENA: Advancing TecHnologies and ENvironmental stewardship in Antarctica

SCAR Open Science Conference, Portland, 15th July

Co-chairs: Peter Doran (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA: Co-chair), Jemma Wadham (University of Bristol, UK: Co-chair),

Background and Rationale•SRP - Subglacial Antarctic Lake

Environments (SALE) formed 10 years ago to help guide new science

•Disbanding, having met goals•Continued communication needed to help

funded and planned SAE programmes meet environmental and technological challenges

ATHENA Objectives•Provide an independent and international

forum for sharing of information in the run up to funded lake drilling campaigns

•Work with SCAR to promote interdisciplinary science on Antarctic aquatic subglacial environments

•Define critical infrastructure/protocols (environmental and technologies)

ATHENA Membership• *Jemma Wadham (UK) and *Peter Doran (US): co-chairs• Christoph Mayer (Germany)• Carlo Barbante (Italy)• *Warwick Vincent (Canada)• *Irina Alekhina (Russia – link to Vostok drilling programme)• Matt Mowlem (UK – link to Lake Ellsworth Exploration

Programme)• Alberto Behar (US – link to WISSARD drilling programme)• Alex Pyne (New Zealand – link to ANDRILL)• Satoshi Imura (Japan)*also on AG-CCR-SAE (Code of Conduct for the Exploration and

Research of Subglacial Aquatic Environments

Three funded Subglacial Lake Drilling campaigns

• Lake Vostok – December 2011 (lake ice)• Lake Ellsworth – December 2012• Lake Whillans – December 2012

Lake Ellsworth consortium

Lake Vostok, NASA

1. Provision of independent forum• Steering Committee members drawn from 7 nations• Four steering committee meetings for communication with

major national groups (see website for minutes)• Website as central portal for all environmental protection

data on subglacial lake access, information portal (Ellsworth, Vostok, Vida)

Reactive news coverage of lake access - Vostok

2.Promote inter-discipilinary science• SCAR Open Science Conference – two sessions• Session #29 “Advancing clean technologies for exploration

of aquatic ecosystems” (Wadham, Doran, Vincent)• Session #17 “Subglacial aquatic environments” (Vincent,

Alekhina, Bell)• Edited volume to follow later in 2012• Members standing on international bodies:

▫ Vostok Implementation Study (5yrs) – International Task Group (Siegert et al – EU application, Doran + Wadham)

▫ Ice Drilling Design and Operations Group (IDDOG) Technical Advisory Committee (TAB), a member of WISSARD (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) advisory committee (Doran)

▫ Lake Ellsworth Steering Committee (Wadham, Mowlem)

3. Infrastructure: Environmental Protection

• Current environmental protocols based on limited data and no lake samples

• There will be a need to have an independent science body track protocols against new knowledge

• Ongoing map of where subglacial sites have been accessed in Antarctica

• New Code of Conduct? -2013 National academies press –

Polar Research Board

Technologies• Limited sensor toolkit: few suitable COTS/marine

sensors (low temperature, low levels of analytes)• Currently no autonomous devices that can be

deployed to SAEs: communications through ice, limited sensors, EP concerns Spatially and

temporally limited data from SAEs

Need carefully coordinated international effort and information exchange Lake Ellsworth probe (NOCS)

Plan for 2012• Steering Committee Meeting – SCAR OSC• Two SCAR-OSC sessions• Improve the present knowledge on clean

access and sample retrieval for chemical/biological analysis (collaboration with the AG-CCR-SAE, detailed protocols)

• Edited volume on “Clean Technologies for Exploring Subglacial Aquatic Environments”