Supplies Land on Ice in Search of a Million Years of Climate History

Deep within the ice of Antarctica, tiny air bubbles preserve samples of the ancient atmosphere. To access a record spanning more than a million years, scientists require equipment and supplies that traverse vast distances to reach isolated sites amid freezing temperatures.

The Australian Department of Defence has announced the start of support for the Australian Antarctic Program’s 2026 and 2027 summer seasons under Operation Southern Discovery, which is now in its tenth year.

The plan includes delivering priority cargo via C-17A aircraft to Casey Station to support the Million-Year Ice Core Project, along with five cargo flights carrying fresh food, scientific equipment, and infrastructure supplies.

The project aims to extract ice cores from deep within the polar ice sheet and analyze the gases and materials preserved within them. As snow accumulates and compresses, air becomes trapped in bubbles, enabling researchers to track atmospheric composition and climate changes over time.

One of the key questions the team seeks to understand is: Why did the rhythm of ice ages shift approximately a million years ago, from cycles of about 41,000 years to cycles of roughly 100,000 years?

The announcement of supply missions does not mean that scientists have already extracted ice of that age; accessing such a record remains a goal for future seasons, according to the Australian Antarctic Program.