Science and exploration in the high interior of East Antarctica in the twentieth century

• Main Authors: Gan, I, Drewry, D, Allison, I, Kotlyakov, V
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Zhongguo Jidi Yanjiusuo, Polar Research Institute 2016
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Physical geography and environmental geoscience; Glaciology; Antarctic; East Antarctic Ice Sheet; East Antarctica; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet; Polar Science
• Online Access: http://journal.polar.org.cn/EN/volumn/current.shtml; https://doi.org/10.13679/j.advps.2016.2.00065; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/111597

The highest part of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, more than 4000 m above sea level, has been an area that has seen a considerable scientific research effort undertaken by the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition, and its international collaborators, since January 2005. That includes the establishment of the most remote of the Chinese Antarctic stations, Kunlun, at Dome A in 2009. However, the exploration and mapping of this region had been commenced many decades earlier, most notably by inland traverses of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the 19571958 International Geophysical Year (IGY) and later; and the extensive surveys of Antarctic surface and sub-ice topography by airborne radio-echo sounding made by the US National Science FoundationScott Polar Research InstituteTechnical University of Denmark (NSF-SPRI-TUD) in the late-1960s and the 1970s. Here we provide a history of the activities and achievements of these earlier programs. Recent topographic maps of the ice sheet surface in the Dome A region, produced using Chinese GPS data and satellite altimetry, have shown the maps compiled from the earlier data were remarkably accurate.