Greenland Summit Ice Cores

From 1989 to 1994, the U.S. and European scientific communities supported a bold undertaking to acquire an extensive paleoclimate record for the Northern Hemisphere. These efforts, termed the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP) and Greenland Ice Sheet Project Two (GISP2), acquired deep ice cores from sites on and near the Greenland summit. The GISP2 (US) site was located at 72 degrees 36 minutes N, 38 degrees 30 minutes W. The GRIP (European) site was located at 72 degrees 35 minutes N, 37 degrees 38 minutes W. A wide range of environmental and physical parameters were recorded from the cores. The data types are listed below:

- Air Mass Trajectories (GISP2)
- Chemistry (GISP2, GRIP)
- Climatological Data (GISP2)
- Cosmogenic Isotopes (GISP2)
- Dust (GISP2)
- Electrical Conductivity (GISP2, GRIP)
- Gas Concentrations in Air Bubbles (GISP2, GRIP)
- Physical Properties and Ice Core Stratigraphy (GISP2, GRIP)
- Stable Isotopes (GISP2, GRIP)
- Time scales (GISP2, GRIP)

The GRIP and GISP2 data presented on this site were acquired as a part of a multi-institutional effort involving the GISP2 Science Management Office (SMO) at the University of New Hampshire, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado, the International Ice Core Data Cooperative (IICDC) at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), and the World Data Center (WDC) for Paleoclimatology, Boulder at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC).

Documentation and data format were carried out jointly by NSIDC and the WDC for Paleoclimatology. All GISP2 and GRIP data are jointly archived at the Arctic System Science (ARCSS) data archive at NCAR and at the WDC for Paleoclimatology, NOAA-NGDC.

The datafiles were extracted from a CD and are now in a single tar.gz file available for download. See the readme for important corrections to the data.