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Antarctic Research Primary Sponsor: National Science Foundation Deadline: 6/1/2001 KEYWORDS Program Announcement NSF 01-81 OFFICE OF POLAR PROGRAMS Aeronomy & Astrophysics, Biology & Medicine, Environmental Research, Geology & Geophysics, Glaciology, Ocean & Climate Sciences FULL PROPOSAL DEADLINE(S): June 1, 2001 I. INTRODUCTION The National Science Foundation invites scientists at U.S. institutions to submit proposals - - to perform research in Antarctica - to perform related research and data analysis in the United States For field work in the Antarctic, successful candidates will be provided laboratory support and operational support in addition to award of funding through home institutions. This document - - summarizes antarctic research opportunities - describes support available in Antarctica - explains how to prepare a proposal for research project support - connects to an online system (the Electronic Support Planner) to be used in preparing an operational support package if your proposed project would involve field work in Antarctica - links to further information Use this document with NSF's Grant Proposal Guide. II. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION RESEARCH AREAS Scientific research, and operational support of that research, are the principal activities supported by the United States Government in Antarctica. The goals are to expand fundamental knowledge of the region, to foster research on global and regional problems of current scientific importance, and to utilize the region as a platform from which to support research. The U.S. Antarctic Program supports only that research that can be done exclusively in Antarctica or that can be done best from Antarctica. The research is performed by investigators from universities and, to a lesser extent, from Federal agencies and other organizations. In the U.S. Antarctic Program, three year-round research stations, additional research facilities and camps, airplanes, helicopters, various types of surface vehicles, and ice-capable ships support approximately 130 research projects each year at numerous locations throughout the continent and the Southern Ocean. See the section below titled "Facilities, Logistics, and Support." The program has been in continuous operation since the 1957-1958 International Geophysical Year. U.S. activities in Antarctica support the Nation's adherence to the Antarctic Treaty, which reserves the region for peaceful purposes and encourages international cooperation in scientific research. At present, 44 nations adhere to the treaty, and about 27 of them participate in antarctic field activities. The United States cooperates scientifically and operationally with many of the Antarctic Treaty nations. The National Science Foundation funds and manages the U.S. Antarctic Program. The Foundation's antarctic proposal to the Congress for FY 2001 is discussed in the OPP budget request and the NSF budget request. The Foundation supports antarctic research in these areas: Aeronomy and astrophysics The polar regions have been called Earth's window to outer space. This term originally applied to study of aurora and other phenomena related to interaction of solar plasmas and fields. In this context the polar upper atmosphere is a screen on which the results of such interactions can be viewed and through which other evidence of space physics processes can pass. Today, this concept of Earth's polar atmosphere as a window includes research in other fields as well. With discovery of polar stratospheric ozone depletions, a window previously thought "closed" (the ultraviolet window) is now known to "open" in certain seasons. In astronomy and astrophysics, favorable atmospheric conditions and the unique location of the South Pole enable scientists to use this window to probe the structure of the Sun and the universe with unprecedented precision. The aeronomy and astrophysics program supports studies of three regions: - the stratosphere and the mesosphere. Current research focuses on stratospheric chemistry and aerosols, particularly in the context of the ozone hole. The polar stratosphere is expected to be a field of continued interest and growth. - the thermosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere. These regions derive many of their characteristics from the interplay of ionized plasmas and energetic charged particles with geomagnetic and geoelectric fields. The upper atmosphere, particularly the ionospheric portion of it, is the ultimate sink of solar wind energy that is transported into the magnetosphere. Energy dissipates in the ionosphere because of particle precipitation, which is the result in part of resonant wave- particle interactions, and because of the Joule heating that is a result of currents driven by electric fields. - astronomy and astrophysical studies of the regions of the universe outside the magnetosphere, including solar astronomy and cosmic ray physics. Astrophysical studies are primarily conducted at South Pole station or on long-duration balloon flights launched from McMurdo. Major goals are to sponsor research that requires or would benefit from the unique conditions of the Antarctic, to contribute to understanding of the role of the Antarctic in global environmental change, to participate in interdisciplinary studies of geosphere-biosphere interactions in the middle and upper atmosphere, and to improve understanding of the coupling of the Earth's polar atmosphere with the magnetosphere and of the ways in which both are affected by solar activity. Biology and medical research The goal of antarctic biology and medical research is to improve understanding of life phenomena and processes. The program supports projects directed at all levels of organization from molecular, cellular, and organismal to communities, ecosystems, and global processes. Investigators should apply recent theory and technology to understanding how organisms, including humans, adapt and live in high latitude environments and how ecosystems may respond to global change. Support is focused on these areas: - Marine ecosystem dynamics. Understanding the natural variability of marine ecosystems is the goal. An important direction is toward correlating the structure and function of the marginal ice-zone ecosystem with oceanic and atmospheric processes. Of particular interest is the influence of nutrient limitations on primary production and the role of marine phytoplankton in carbon dioxide cycling. Proposals to develop data collection technologies such as satellite remote sensing are encouraged. - Terrestrial and limnetic ecosystems. Organisms in ice-free areas and in perennially ice-covered lakes show remarkable adaptations. The presence of relatively few species eases study of ecosystem dynamics and interpretation of experiments. Research is needed on adaptive mechanisms and evolutionary processes. Studies that include molecular biological approaches are encouraged. The McMurdo Dry Valleys of southern Victoria Land are of particular interest. - Population biology and physiological ecology. Research is supported in population dynamics, especially metabolic, physiological, and behavioral adaptations of krill and other zooplankton and fish species. Marine mammals and birds have been the object of much research and merit further attention in some areas. Mechanisms necessary for maintenance of cell function in fishes and their feeding behavior are important topics. Long-term observations are needed to improve understanding of manmade or natural changes. - Adaptation. The extremes of light, temperature, and moisture have resulted in unusual adaptations. Research topics include low temperature photosynthesis and respiration, enzymatic adaptations, adaptive strategies such as development of antifreeze compounds and modifications to circulation systems, and the response of organisms to increased UV-B from the ozone hole. Biotechnology offers unique approaches to addressing questions involving adaptation, and such applications are of special interest. - Human behavior and medical research. Antarctica's extreme climate can induce social, psychological, and physiological stresses, particularly during the winter isolation, which can exceed 8 months. Research has applications to human health and performance both in the Antarctic and in other isolated environments such as space. Studies can focus on topics such as epidemiology, thermal regulation, immune system function, individual behavior, and group dynamics. Geology and geophysics Antarctica represents about 9 percent of Earth's continental crust and has been in a near-polar position for more than 100 million years. It is covered by a continental ice sheet with an average thickness of 3 km. There is unequivocal evidence that for a long period after the continent arrived at its high-latitude position, extensive continental ice sheets did not exist there. The ice sheets, through their interaction with and effect on oceanic and atmospheric circulation, play a key role in modulating global climate. Some important program goals include: - determining the tectonic evolution of Antarctica and its relationship to the evolution of the continents from Precambrian time to the present - determining Antarctica's crustal structure - determining the effect of the dispersal of antarctic continental fragments on the paleocirculation of the world oceans, on the evolution of life, and on global paleoclimates and present climate - reconstructing a more detailed history of the ice sheets, identifying geological controls to ice sheet behavior, and defining geological responses to the ice sheets on regional and global scales - determining the evolution of sedimentary basins within the continent and along continental margins All of these problems involve the need for an improved understanding of where, when, and how Antarctica and its surrounding ocean basins were accommodated in the interplate movements inferred from studies of global plate kinematics. In short, the program encourages investigation of the relationships between the geological evolution of the antarctic plate and paleocirculation, paleoclimate, and the evolution of high- latitude biota. In geophysics, the continent and its environs have a central role in the geodynamic processes that have shaped the present global environment. The tectonic role of the antarctic continent in the breakup of Gondwanaland, the close interaction of the antarctic crust and ice sheet with their attendant effects on the planet's fluid systems, and Antarctica's present-day seismically quiescent role defines the important thrusts of geophysical research in the high southern latitudes. Ocean and climate systems Antarctic oceanic and tropospheric studies focus on the structure and processes of the ocean-atmosphere environment and their relationships with the global ocean, the atmosphere, and the marine biosphere. As part of the global heat engine, the Antarctic has a major role in the world's transfer of energy. Its ocean/atmosphere system is known to be both an indicator and a component of climate change. Research sponsored by the ocean and climate systems program is intended to improve understanding of the oceanic environment at high latitudes, including global exchange of heat, salt, water, and trace elements, sea-ice dynamics, and tropospheric chemistry and dynamics. Major program elements include- - Physical oceanography, concerned with understanding the dynamics and kinematics of the polar oceans, the effects of interface driving forces such as wind, solar radiation, and heat exchange, water mass production and modification processes, ocean dynamics at the pack ice edge, and the effect of polynyas on ventilation. - Chemical oceanography, concerned with chemical composition of sea water and its global speciation, reactions among chemical elements and compounds in the ocean, fluxes of material within ocean basins and at their boundaries, and the use of chemical tracers to study time and space scales of oceanic processes. - Sea ice dynamics, including study of the material characteristics of sea ice down to the individual crystal level and the large-scale patterns of freezing, deformation, and melting. These processes have implications for both atmospheric and oceanic "climates." Advances in instrumentation, including remote sensing or telemetering of ice type, thickness, motion, and growth, should enable large scale dynamics of sea ice to be monitored over long periods. - Meteorology, concerned with atmospheric circulation systems and dynamics. Research areas include the energy budget; atmospheric chemistry; transport of atmospheric contaminants to the Antarctic; and the role of large and mesoscale systems in global exchange of heat, momentum, and trace constituents. Glaciology Snow and ice are pervasive elements of high latitude environmental systems and have an active role in the global environment. The glaciology program is concerned with the study of the history and dynamics of all naturally occurring forms of snow and ice, including floating ice, seasonal snow, glaciers, and continental and marine ice sheets. Program emphases include paleoenvironments from ice cores, ice dynamics, numerical modeling, glacial geology, and remote sensing of ice sheets. Some specific objectives are: - Correlation of climatic fluctuations evident in antarctic ice cores with data from arctic and lower-latitude ice cores, and integration of the ice record with the terrestrial and marine record. - Documentation of the geographic extent of climatic events noted in paleoclimatic records; and the extension of the ice core time series to provide information on astronomical forcing of climate. - Establishment of more precise dating methodologies for deep ice cores. - Determination of the Cenozoic history of antarctic ice sheets and their interaction with global climate and uplift of the Transantarctic Mountains; response of the antarctic ice sheets to the Pliocene warming. - Investigation of the physics of fast glacier flow with emphasis on processes at glacier beds. - Investigation of ice-shelf stability. - Identification and quantification of the feedback between ice dynamics and climate change. Environmental research Environmental research is integrated into the disciplinary programs described above. An emphasis is research to help reduce the environmental impact of activities in Antarctica. Areas of inquiry might include effects of past practices, materials and waste management, current impacts, resilience of ecosystems, and promising technologies. The goal is to foster and maintain Antarctica's natural conditions while supporting the range of scientific research that can be done best in Antarctica. Education Placing research and learning hand in hand is NSF's highest priority. A strategy is to foster integration of research and education through the activities NSF supports at academic and research institutions. Antarctica presents exceptional opportunities to integrate educational outreach into research projects. Scientists preparing research proposals have a rich variety of ways to respond to NSF's proposal evaluation criterion that asks how well the proposed activity will advance understanding while promoting teaching and learning; how well it will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups; to what extent it will enhance the research and education infrastructure (facilities, instruments, networks, partnerships, etc.); how well the results will be disseminated broadly to enhance scientific and technological understanding; and what may be the benefits to society of the proposed activity. The NSF-supported Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic -- itself an opportunity for investigators to put motivated K-12 teachers on their field teams -- has a web site with two topics that may help a proposal respond effectively to these newer NSF objectives: a list of Current Polar Research Community Outreach Projects and a tutorial, Educational Outreach and the Polar Research Community, intended to help polar scientists identify and leverage opportunities for integrating educational outreach into their research. FACILITIES, LOGISTICS, AND SUPPORT Facilities for research in Antarctica include year-round research stations with scientific equipment and laboratories, helicopters, ski-equipped airplanes, surface vehicles, a wide array of temporary camps, an ice-strengthened research ship, a research icebreaker, and a logistics icebreaker. These facilities are operated under the guidance of NSF's Polar Research Support Section (703-292-8032) by a prime antarctic support contractor, its subcontractors, and other contractors, by military units of the Department of Defense, and by the U.S. Coast Guard. Construction associated with the South Pole Modernization Project will constrain some logistics-intense research, particularly that dependent on heavy-lift LC-130 airplane support, until around 2004. McMurdo Station (77ø53'S 166ø40'E) McMurdo, on Ross Island, is the hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program. Persons en route to South Pole and field camps pass through McMurdo. In the U.S. program, only Palmer Station is operationally separate. McMurdo is the largest station in Antarctica, accommodating up to 1,200 people in summer and 250 in winter. McMurdo is the globe's farthest south land accessible by ship. It has a natural harbor, Winter Quarters Bay, accessed by a freighter and a tanker with Coast Guard icebreaker escort once a year in late summer. U.S. antarctic air operations are centered at McMurdo. Nearby sea ice supports a runway for large transport planes between late September and early December, when flights are made between New Zealand and McMurdo several times per week. A second runway on groomed glacial ice can operate in most months; flights from New Zealand are made to it over several days in mid-August and again near the end of the summer season in February. A skiway on the adjacent Ross Ice Shelf can be used at any time of year by LC- 130s _ ski-equipped, four-engine transports. LC-130s operated by the New York Air National Guard are stationed at McMurdo throughout the austral summer. In winter the station historically has been isolated except for emergencies. However, scientific interest led to an NSF-sponsored workshop in 1999 that could result in increased winter access. The workshop report, Year-Round Access to the McMurdo Region: Opportunities for Science and Education, discusses the winter potential. It is intended to stimulate further consideration by the community, but does not have specific Foundation endorsement. Research might include extending summer measurements into the dark months; winter "access" may include virtual access through remote instrumentation as well as transportation improvements and likely would extend to the McMurdo Dry Valleys. Communications between McMurdo and the rest of the world, available year-round, 24 hours a day, include telephone, electronic mail, and the Internet. Regular U.S. mail service is provided in the austral summer. McMurdo is a major research center. Science facilities include the Albert P. Crary Science and Engineering Center (more familiarly, the Crary lab), opened in 1991. The laboratory is a large, state-of-the-art facility that enables sophisticated procedures in the disciplines appropriate to Antarctica. The lab's five wings total 4,320 square meters of working area for information, computing, and telecommunications including Internet; biology; earth sciences; atmospheric sciences; and an aquarium and wet lab. The lab has flexible-use laboratory space, environmental rooms, equipment rooms, microscope rooms, offices, facilities for handling hazardous chemicals including radioisotopes, and conference rooms. Most lab spaces have single- pass air and fume hoods. The facility has specialized benchtop equipment for use both in the building and remotely. It is stocked with scientific supplies, chemicals, and other consumables. It also supports environmental and ecological investigations, bioassays, industrial hygiene surveys, chemical analyses, and snow and ice mechanics and engineering. A meteorology center has AVHRR, HRPT, DMSP, and other data archives and an interactive data access system. Additional McMurdo facilities provide direct support to science involving diving, balloon launches, field party training and outfitting, upper atmosphere investigations, etc. In summer, portable shelters and equipment aid research on and under the sea ice of adjacent McMurdo Sound. Helicopters support projects and camps within 150 kilometers of the station; and surface vehicles provide local transportation and support for traverses. The McMurdo region has been the object of vigorous scientific attention. An abundant literature presents questions for further study in marine biology, earth sciences, and other areas. A McMurdo-Based Research Support Prospectus contains text and visual descriptions of capabilities for U.S. Antarctic Program researchers based out of McMurdo Station. Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station (90øS) Opened in 1957, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station was rebuilt in 1975 as a research facility under a geodesic dome and steel arches. In recent years it has undergone substantial renovation and improvement to handle increased research needs. The station is undergoing a far-reaching modernization that by 2005 will substantially improve or replace existing structures and systems (see New South Pole Station Power Plant, Satellite Link Go Online). South Pole Station is at an elevation of 2,835 meters on the continental ice sheet and has a mean temperature of minus 49.3øC. Flights between McMurdo and South Pole are frequent from late October to mid-February; the station is isolated at other times. February-to-October (austral winter) population is about 50, but more than 200 can be accommodated in the summer; these numbers include construction personnel for the modernization program. The station has an Atmospheric Research Observatory, the Martin A. Pomerantz Observatory for astrophysics, and computer systems for research and communication including Internet access. It has collected the longest continuous set of meteorological data from Antarctica's vast interior ice plateau, and it is well located for studies of the cusp region of the magnetosphere. Astronomy and astrophysics have flourished in recent years, taking advantage of excellent optical properties of the atmosphere (resulting from its high elevation, low temperature, and low humidity) and, for neutrino detection, the extremely clear and homogeneous thick ice below. A small biomedical research facility is present. Other areas of interest include geophysics, upper atmosphere sciences, and glaciology. Palmer Station (64ø46'S 64ø03'W) Palmer, on Anvers Island near the Antarctic Peninsula, has been in operation since 1965. It is operated in conjunction with the icebreaking research ship Laurence M. Gould. Small boats are available for sampling in the sea and at nearby islands. Access to Palmer, which is year-round, generally is by ship from the southern tip of South America. The climate at Palmer is less severe than that at the other U.S. stations, and the fauna and flora are diverse. There are many opportunities for biology at or near the station; other disciplines (e.g., meteorology, upper atmosphere physics) also are represented. Palmer has extensive biology laboratories, including wet lab areas and sea water aquaria. Palmer's population has ranged from 8 to 12 in winter to 43 in summer. The Palmer Station area since 1990 has been a National Science Foundation Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. For information contact the biology program manager at OPP. Temporary camps In the austral summer, aircraft from McMurdo can place scientific parties almost anywhere on the continent. Tents or heated shelters and snowmobiles can be provided. Helicopters sometimes are deployed to remote locations for close support of research parties. Substantial camps remote from McMurdo Station can be established for large research groups. Camps can be placed by ship in the Antarctic Peninsula area. CONTACTS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION General inquiries regarding ANTARCTIC RESEARCH should be made to: - See Office of Polar Programs roster on the NSF web site.. For questions related to the use of FastLane, contact: - Desiree Marshall, Lead Program Assistant, Antarctic Sciences Section, 755, telephone: 703-292-8033, e-mail: Ant2001@nsf.gov.