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APPENDIX A
Statement of Task
U
nder the auspices of the National Research Council (NRC), the Committee on
Future Science Opportunities in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean will identify
and summarize the changes to important science conducted on Antarctica
and the surrounding Southern Ocean that will demand attention over the next two
decades. The committee will assess the anticipated types and scope of future U.S.
scientific endeavors and international scientific collaborations over a ~20-year period
in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Membership should include leading polar
scientists that span a wide range of expertise who actively participated in Antarctic
research in recent years, and scientists with broad experience in global and interna-
tional research. The committee should identify and summarize likely future science
requirements of the U.S. research community, including the needs of the federal mis-
sion agencies that depend on U.S. Antarctic Program infrastructure and logistics. At
present, those agencies are NASA, NOAA, USGS, DOE, EPA, the Smithsonian Institution
and the Department of State, which relies on infrastructure support from the Program
for official inspections of foreign facilities in Antarctica. The committee should
• build upon the work of other organizations (e.g., ICSU, SCAR, etc.), draw upon
recent scientific achievements in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean includ-
ing those reported during the 2007-2008 International Polar Year (IPY), and
utilize previous workshops and reports (e.g., those from the NSF and NRC that
pertain to future research directions in Antarctica);
• identify changes to anticipated types and scope of scientific programs for
the United States in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean over the next two
decades;
• examine appropriate opportunities for international Antarctic scientific col-
laborations based on recent U.S. experiences from the IPY and other antici-
pated activities;
• report any new emerging technologies should they be found while reviewing
the scientific achievements that enhance the U.S. ability to realize important
future opportunities or the application of new technologies that enable the
collection of scientific data in more effective or efficient ways; and
• comment on the broad logistical capabilities and technologies that, from a
science delivery perspective, would need to be improved or require major
changes to enable the anticipated types and scope of future U.S. scientific
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APPENDIX A
programs, with the intent of informing the concurrent FACA Blue Ribbon
Panel that will examine and have a central focus on logistical operations in
Antarctica.
In carrying out its work, the committee is expected to draw on existing reports, results
of national and international workshops, strategic plans of involved federal agencies,
recommendations of professional scientific societies and other organizations, and
any other sources it might find useful. The committee is not expected to set priori-
ties among scientific research areas, nor is the committee to discuss budgetary issues.
The primary goals are to identify important future research directions in the Antarctic
and to inform the companion review looking at logistical planning and operations.
Together these two studies are intended to help ensure that logistical operations are
capable of supporting important forefront scientific research in Antarctica over the
coming decades.
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