23 April, 2003

In late February, I flew to Reno, Nevada to visit Dr. McConnel at Desert Research Institute. The purpose of my visit was the acquainted with Dr. McConnell, Desert Research Institute (DRI) www.dri.edu his colleagues and to answer any questions that I may have prior to leaving for Greenland.

At that time, analysis of ice cores from previous research had been completed or was set aside until the new technology was up and running. Dr. McConnell had written and received a grant from the National Science Foundation to improve ice core analysis by using a spectrometer. A spectrometer is able to analyze anything that would be imbedded in the ice. A grant is an award of money or equipment that is given to someone who has written or applied. The National Science Foundation awards many grants to scientists to study everything from Black bears in Wisconsin to Ice Core Analysis in Greenland and the Antarctic. This spectrometer was not designed specifically for ice core analysis, however, Dr. McConnell thought it could be used to analyze parcticles down to parts per trillion.

The amount of information that could be collected would be more than anyone has done prior to his research.

Greg and Ryan are two of the researchers that I will be working with while in Greenland. Greg is a researcher for DRI and Ryan is Dr. McConnell's graduate assistant.