- Analytical platforms:
- PANDA: a platform for ice core analysis, with three modules covering the isotopic analysis of nitrogen and sulphur, the chemical composition of the air trapped in the ice and the chemical composition of the meltwater
- AirOSol: air quality, environmental chemistry, environmental microbiology and soil physics analyses on different media and matrices (water, air and soil)
- French Ice Drilling Platform (F2G)
- 9 cold-rooms at -20 ° C: Dedicated to research on climatology (ice cores), ice and snow mechanics, the cold chambers make it possible to work on all types of cold samples (ice, snow, frost). They house instruments and specific equipment (cutting, analysis), as well as short or long research experiments initiated by our staff and our institutional and private partners.
The Institute of Environmental Geosciences (IGE), created on the 1st of January 2017 as a joint research unit (CNRS, IRD, UGA, Grenoble INP) that brings together about 270 people. The IGE conducts research on climate and the anthropization of our planet by combining glaciology, hydrology, oceanography, atmospheric and environmental sciences, inter and transdisciplinary sciences conducted with the SHS and/or socio-economic actors.
The IGE is positioned where societal and environmental issues are the most pressing: Polar regions where warming is twice as fast as in our latitudes and where the ice caps are witnesses and actors of the changes; the intertropical zone where climate change, urban and demographic pressures accentuate the already strong tensions on land use and access to water resources, and are worrying sources of conflicts and political instabilities; or the mountain areas (Andes, Himalayas and the Alps) where glaciers are both vital water resources but also at the origin of potential natural risks.
With the unique know-how that has made its reputation: glacial drilling, long-term observations in difficult contexts (high mountains, West Africa, Antarctica), the IGE deploys innovative tools and autonomous and/or on-board multi-sensors, spatialize its measurements, and develops new methods of rapid and sensitive physico-chemical analysis, which are necessary for understanding the Earth system. In addition, the IGE is expected to pursue high-level numerical developments: international community codes, original synergistic methods, products exploiting space-based remote sensing measurements, and strategies for accompanying space observation missions.