EPICA is another ESF Research Networking Programme. It is a multinational European project for deep ice core drilling in Antarctica.  Althought EPICA is now finished, its main objective was to obtain full documentation of the climatic and atmospheric record archived in Antarctic ice by drilling and analyzing two ice cores and comparing these with their Greenland counterparts.

Ice core studies have revolutionised our view of the Earth and its climate. They have shown us that the recent rise in greenhouse gas concentration is beyond any historical comparison, something which is leading to our climate changing at an unprecedented rate. If we are to understand the state our climate is in now, we need to understand the cyclic nature of the climate in the past. Ice core studies can allow us to do this. At the moment, it is possible to look 800,000 years into the past. This has shown that warm interglacial periods occur every 100,000 years in between colder glacial periods. Knowing this is fine, but the key to understanding climate change is understanding why the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases changes according to these cycles. This is still a mystery to ice cores scientists. Read more about EPICA.