Dr. Peter Neff
@icy-pete
Assistant Prof U Minnesota. Antarctic history from ice cores. Antarctic science. Views mine.
Proposed WH OMB changes to federal grant making would be a horror movie for US science. NSF research funds, awarded based on merit to teams at US public universities, are what brought me—a kid from Brush Prairie, Washington and the first PhD in my family—into international #Antarctic research.
Friday science update. Gophers in Antarctica. Ocean instruments removed while working. White House wants to override experts for federal grants. Thwaites Glacier ice shelf may collapse soon (don’t freak!) in Antarctica, as @newscientist.com reports & @adrianluckman.bsky.social illustrated here.
Federally funded research conducted at US universities has no profit margin. Thought I’d mention. No reason.
Greenland: the Louisiana angle captured well in this Reuters article via Honolulu Star Advertiser. Special envoy / governor with billionaire shipbuilder / operator Chouest (maker-operator of former NSF Antarctic icebreakers, newest USCG breaker Aiviq/Storis) with interest in Arctic maritime…
How do we know old Antarctic ice is old? Got a few minutes? Atmospheric argon isotope dating: a process discovered last century here at UMN (Al Nier) & perfected by scientists at Princeton (Bender). This is COLDEX science funded by NSF and conducted in university communities nationwide.
Like Antarctic ice cores & the climate perspective they provide? They only happen with the 7 decades of sustained support we’ve given to the National Science Foundation, United States Antarctic Program, and Operation Deep Freeze. My two cents (or 180 seconds):
But 👀 🧐 🤔. That US Antarctic Program photo archive that was archived last year sure could come in handy. Those aren’t real ships…
Per office hours today, NSF Office of Polar Programs now in Office of the Director. Arctic and Antarctic Sciences sections now one Polar Science. Doing more with less vibes. Administration priorities heavily feature in slide deck, as does AI content in slides which conveys a lot between the lines…
👀 A $900M (and much needed) future #Antarctic Research Vessel has found its way to the top of the 2027 NSF president’s budget request… making up a scary fraction of a very small budget for our critical federal R&D funding, another attempted 54% reduction.
US #Antarctic scientists have no research #icebreaker. In a world where #polar regions are changing and increasingly tense, this is a big blind spot limiting progression of human knowledge and preservation of Antarctica for peace, international cooperation, and science.
US McMurdo Station, #Antarctica on departure. Largest research station on the continent, operated by the United States Antarctic Program of the National Science Foundation. Supported by Operation Deep Freeze. Jan 2023.
Take a break to touch grass if you can. Or in Minnesota, a crisp walk on snow in the woods. Keep leading the way through these unprecedented abuses, Twin Cities.
Minnesota knows ice. Minnesota is stronger than ICE. Neighborhood vigils all across the Twin Cities. -7 degrees F.
Take a journey through time down a new NSF COLDEX ice core borehole just completed by the team in #Antarctica! If you’re at #AGU25 stop by the COLDEX booth in the Exhibit Hall to talk to COLDEX team members from across the 15-institution center funded by NSF! @agu.org Follow us on IG @ coldex_stc
Find me at #AGU25 this week & have a chance to win $100 through Cryosphere BINGO! I’m giving a talk Tuesday 11am in C22B ice cores session & will be at many Cryo sessions/posters through Thursday morning! @agucryo.bsky.social @agu.org 🙏 @glacierdoc.bsky.social for posting & reminding me…
Timeline cleanse: Antarctic sun dogs/halo version. January 2024, RAICA ice core project at Canisteo Peninsula, West Antarctica supported by Korea Polar Research Institute and US National Science Foundation. 🌞 ❄️
I’ll be with @pbsnews.org tomorrow from 11am for a live online AMA on science communication! Join in. Details below.
NSF terminated NB Palmer’ lease early presumably due to flat funding + budget uncertainty going forward. American dominance in #Antarctica wanes, & our polar workforce falters despite how critical polar knowledge is to national security. Follow @ EidsonAerial (IG) for drone 📸 in #Louisiana.
RV NB Palmer back in Louisiana. Was our US #Antarctic research vessel for NSF / US Antarctic Program science & ops, the US now has no Antarctic RV & is pulling from Arctic fleet. Not a dominant stance in Antarctica, where science, capability are geopolitical currency. Eidson Aerial Photog.
Two miles of ice core on the shelf at our national ice core facility in Lakewood, Colorado. The WAIS Divide core from West Antarctica is a 3400m long (deepest US core, 2nd deepest ice core ever) 68,000 year old record of high resolution climate.
The US ice core research community, with international partners, has recovered valuable records of past climate from the Arctic & Antarctic since the 1950s. Here is a sampling of cores—including 6,000,000 year old ice via NSF Center for Oldest Ice Exploration—at the NSF Ice Core Facility.
US Antarctic research vessel strategy 2025: pull an Arctic RV because we have no Antarctic RV. RV Sikuliaq headed south from Dutch Harbor, Alaska. That’s a long way! @ rvsikuliaq on IG
Happy Veterans Day! We don’t get Antarctic ice cores w/o skillful military air- & sea-lift. Operation Deep Freeze is important for US science & national security, world-leading in polar ops for 70 years. 📸 Ice cores loaded into an LC-130H at WAIS Divide, West Antarctica, 2009-10 season.
6,000,000 year old ice & plenty of wind and cold! What folks go through for old ice. Team is headed back to Allan Hills now, follow more at COLDEX.org Support via the incredible National Science Foundation and US Antarctic Program. PNAS 6Myr results: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
6,000,000 year old ice snapshots or 1,200,000 year old continuous ice core? www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS: Six-million-year-old ice discovered in Antarctica offers unprecedented window into a warmer Earth via our NSF COLDEX & US Antarctic Program. ❄️ www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...