Report of the 2007/2008 Japanese-Swedish joint Antarctic traverse:I. Planning, preparations, and outline of scientific achievements

In the seventh five-year plan of the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition, a group of Japanese scientists (led by the National Institute of Polar Research) together with a group of Swedish scientists, conducted field surveys to better understand the glaciology of the ice sheet in Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, during the 2007/2008 austral summer season. This paper reports on the planning and field preparations, and outlines the scientific achievements of the field expedition. We have gained numerous new scientific insights on the spatio-temporal distribution of the ice sheet environment in the inland plateau. Here, we provide an overview of the new knowledge gained.