Lonnie G Thompson, Ohio State University Main Campus, School of Earth Sciences, Columbus, OH, United States, Tandong Yao, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, Mary E Davis, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States, Jeffrey P Severinghaus, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States and Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Ohio State University Main Campus, Department of Geography, Columbus, OH, United States