The oldest ice core now extends over 0.8 Ma years into the past indicating that we are currently living in a relatively mild interglacial phase within a series of warm/cold oscillations occurring every 100 ka.However,from marine sediments,we know that just before this time the pattern of climate variability was different,with cycles of only 40 ka length.If we are to understand the state our climate is in now,we need to understand what caused the length of the cycles to change.Therefore,the search for ice core climate record extending at least 1.2 Ma and preferably 1.5 Ma,into the past is an active and key question for the Quaternary science community.One of the most promising area for retrieving the longest possible Antarctic ice core climate record is Dome A,the highest plateau of Antarctic Ice Sheet.