New Spectroscopy Instrument to Advance UMaine Glacial Ice Core Analysis

Researchers at the University of Maine Climate Change Institute’s Keck Laser Ice Facility laboratory have installed and calibrated a new, state-of-the-art Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy instrument that will change the way isotopes in glacial ice are measured for reconstructing and understanding ancient climate change. Researchers Andrei Kurbatov, a Climate Change Institute (CCI) assistant research professor, CCI Director Paul Mayewski and Douglas Introne, CCI stable isotope technician, received funding from the National Science Foundation for the instrument. It will enable the characterization of past abrupt climate change events at extremely high resolution and in unprecedented detail in order to better understand the driving forces of climate change.