Explanatory Notes for the ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound Project, Antarctica: SMS Science Team 2008

Abstract

This Explanatory Notes section complements and supports four other documents, which collectively describe the process and procedures of scientific investigations employed during the ANDRILL SMS Project: (1) ANDRILL Southern McMurdo Sound Project - Scientific Prospectus (ANDRILL contribution 5 - Harwood et al., 2005); (2) a Science Plan summary of SMS Project research compiled from research proposals of Science Team menbers (available on the SMS Project ‘Science Drive’ – Harwood et al., 2007); (3) SMS Project Science Logistics Implementation Plan (SLIP) - draft documents developed and distributed to SMS team members prior to deployment; (4) Operations overview – Falconer et al., this volume). These five documents, and information presented (also available on the SMS Project ‘Science Drive’) at McMurdo Station during the initial morning meetings by co-chief scientists, staff scientist, media coordinator, curator and discipline team leaders, represent the essential elements of the full Science Logistics Implementation Plan (SLIP) for the SMS Project. Please also refer to the McMurdo Ice Shelf Project SLIP available at www.andrill.org (ANDRILL contribution 7 – Naish et al., 2005) for additional background information related to SMS science logistics and operations. These explanatory notes provide important background information on the nature of data present on the SMS Project ‘Science Drive’, including the on-ice report, other core characterization data, and documents and data that record the activities of the SMS Project Science Team.