Carrier Refrigeration

10 Preserving the Past to Predict the Future A man-made "cave" shelters drilling operations on glacier-covered Roosevelt Island, an ice-locked dome jutting out of the Ross Ice Shelf in western Antarctica. (Photos courtesy GNS Science.) Stowed in insulated chests, ice core samples are flown from drilling operations for later analysis in the lab. When an international team of climate scientists needed a solution to protect ice cores drilled from the Antarctic, they turned to Carrier Transicold's NaturaLINE ® container refrigeration system. Among other choices available to them, only the NaturaLINE unit offered the unique combination of a minus 40 degree Celsius capability and use of the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide (CO 2) that provided a natural fit for their application. ContainerLINE May 2019 | NaturaLINE ® Unit An international collaboration, the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) project has probed into Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf nearly a half mile deep to bedrock to unlock secrets about the Earth's climate dating back an estimated 70,000 years. By studying the gases, particulates and geochemistry trapped within ice over millennia, researchers hope to gain a better understanding of the past to better predict future climate change events. The cylindrical rods drilled from the ice were transported to the New Zealand National Ice Core Research Laboratory at GNS Science in Wellington for processing and analysis. Inside a freezer building at the complex, research technicians worked in -18 C conditions using specialized equipment to meticulously slice and study the ice through a variety of techniques, including electric conductivity tests to determine age, followed by processing through a precision melting device to separate and identify components within. The RICE analysis stage began in 2012 and will be a treasure trove for scientists for decades to come, according to Rebecca Pyne, senior technician and coordinator, Ice Core Facility, GNS Science. "The main goal is to determine how fast the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse and contribute up to 5 meters of global sea level rise to the world's oceans," she said. Protecting the Past It is hard to put a price on the value of an ice core. Considering the investment and effort that goes into extracting them, the precious historical climate information they contain and the implications for

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