About ICDS

Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS), a unit of the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (UW), provides support for NSF-sponsored cold-regions research in both polar regions and at high altitude. ICDS maintains and operates existing equipment, and develops new systems when needed, to provide high quality ice core and 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.

Oversight of the ICDS program by the NSF Office of Polar Programs (OPP) rests with the Contracting Officer and two Contracting Officer's Technical Representatives (COTRs). One of the current COTRs is the Research Support Manager and the other is Program Manager for Glaciology.

Since UW was awarded the ice drilling and coring services contract in June 2000, ICDS has supported a number of research projects and developed several drill systems including:

• Coring for US-ITASE on several traverses in Antarctica
• Drilling holes for the emplacement of seismometers for the South Pole Remote Earth Science and Seismic Observatory (SPRESSO)
• Development of the Rapid Air Movement Drill capable of rapidly drilling deep shot holes for seismic work, followed by drilling of 226 shot holes for seismic work on Bindschadler Ice Stream in Antarctica
• Coring in Greenland
• Some of the initial design work for the Enhanced Hot Water Drill to be used for the IceCube project
• Continuing development of the Deep Ice Sheet Coring (DISC) Drill

In addition, during the 2004-2005 austral summer, ICDS will provide equipment and personnel for seven projects in Antarctica. These projects range from coring at South Pole to coring on several glaciers of the Dry Valleys to installing a conduit through the Ross Ice Shelf for wiring to allow images to be broadcast from an undersea camera.