European Project for Ice Coring in Antartica (EPICA) is a long-term European deep ice-core drilling project in Antartica to derive high resolution records of climate and atmospheric composition through several glacial-interglacial cycles.
Fully collaborative programme designed to be the European contribution to studies of these global problems.
The aim of this programme, launched in 1996, is to obtain a high resolution analysis of climate variations, of chemical changes and of gases trapped in layers of ice over time. Evaluation of these records will provide information about the natural climate variability and mechanisms of rapid climatic changes during the last glacial epoch.
This is the first " Grand Challenge" identified by former ESF/EU European Committee for Ocean and Polar Sciences (ECOPS).