Welcome to UK IMAGES
This
website is intended entirely for UK-relevant communication that will not,
or only partially, be incorporated in the website
of the international IMAGES office. For example: annual reports, briefing
about meetings, contact details for UK participants, etc.
The
UK participation to IMAGES is funded through the Natural Environment Research
Council (NERC)
The UK IMAGES representative is Prof. Eelco J.
Rohling at the Southampton Oceanography Centre
Context
IMAGES has been initiated to respond to
the challenge of understanding the mechanisms and consequences of climatic
changes using oceanic sedimentary records. Climatic mechanisms must be
studied at global scale using sophisticated models based on high quality
data that represent the variability of surface and deep ocean physical
and chemical characteristics during key periods of recent earth history.
Individual research is no longer sufficient to resolve this problem because
the acquisition of the required, long sediment cores in high sedimentation
rate areas is expensive, and the proper study of such cores demands the
use of multiple tools and large numbers of measurements.
IMAGES has been built as an international effort for the marine sediment research of PAGES-IGBP, with the support of SCOR. The major goal of IMAGES is to foster co-ordination, at the international level, of scientific programs that address the scientific goals outlined in the IMAGES "Science and Implementation Plan". Operational support, based on specific scientific proposals, is sought from national or international scientific agencies.
The overriding IMAGES science issue is
to quantify climate and chemical variability of the ocean on time scales
of oceanic and cryospheric processes; to determine its sensitivity to identified
internal and external forcings, and to determine its role in controlling
atmospheric CO2. back