SCAR focuses its science efforts on high priority topical areas through its Scientific Research Programmes (SRPs). Details of former SRPs can be found through the links below.
Programmes 2012-2020
Antarctic Climate Change in the 21st Century - AntClim21
Aimed to deliver improved regional projections of key elements of the Antarctic atmosphere, ocean and cryosphere for the next 20 to 200 years, and to understand the responses of the physical and biological systems (through multi-disciplinary collaboration) to natural and anthropogenic climate drivers.
State of the Antarctic Ecosystem - AntEco
Aimed to increase the scientific knowledge of biodiversity, from genes to ecosystems that, coupled with increased knowledge of species biology, could be used for the conservation and management of Antarctic ecosystems.
Antarctic Thresholds - Ecosystem Resilience and Adaptation - AnT-ERA
Aimed to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and for the support of research on biological processes at ecological time scales especially related to environmental change.
Past Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics - PAIS
Aimed to improve understanding of the sensitivity of East, West, and Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheets to a broad range of climatic and oceanic conditions and to improve confidence in predictions of ice sheet and sea level response to future climate change and ocean warming.
Solid Earth Responses and influences on Cryospheric Evolution - SERCE
Aimed to advance understanding of the interactions between the solid earth and the cryosphere to better constrain ice mass balance, ice dynamics and sea level change in a warming world.
Programme 2010-2018
Astronomy and Astrophysics from Antarctica - AAA
This was a Scientific Research Programme until 2018, when it became an Expert Group directly under the Executive Committe. It aims to coordinate astronomical activities in Antarctica in a way that ensures the best possible outcomes from international investment in Antarctic astronomy, and maximizes the opportunities for productive interaction with other disciplines.
Details of the process for establishing this suite of SRPs in 2012 can be found on the archived SCAR website.
The First Scientific Research Programmes
Scientific Research Programmes were initiated following SCAR's restructuring in 2004. The first programmes were:
- Antarctic Climate Evolution (ACE) (ended 2012)
- Antarctica and the Global Climate System (AGCS) (ended 2012)
- Evolution and Biodiversity in the Antarctic (EBA) (ended 2013)
- Interhemispheric Conjugacy Effects in Solar-Terrestrial and Aeronomy Research (ICESTAR) (ended 2010)
- Subglacial Antarctic Lake Environments (SALE) (ended 2010)
Limited information on this first generation of SRPs can be found on the Science page of the archived SCAR website or in the pdf SRP Presentation (474 KB) .