Further down the micro-structures are recorded in order to investigate the dynamical behaviour of ice caps and track micro-inclusions. As ice is a highly anisotropic material due to its hexagonal crystal system, various processes on atomic scale (e.g. dislocation climb and glide, diffusional processes etc.) are always competing in deformation and keep the question on the dynamical behaviour alive in research. These processes are acting on the atomic scale and are therefore difficult to observe directly in deforming polycrystalline samples. However, they leave behind certain structures on the microscopic scale indicating deformation mechanisms. The single mechanisms, such as grain rotation or grain boundary sliding, can be observed by the study of c-axes evolution, grain size evolution and other microstructural observations. The processes, which should be dominant along the creep history of polycrystalline ice should be known to interpret the deformation history of an ice core.

The micro-structure mapping system (µSM) records features with about 3 µm resolution on planes of 100x100 mm that are visible by an optical microscope in reflected and transmitted light. Important detected features are grain boundaries, sub-grain boundaries, slip bands, micro-inclusions, micro bubbles and air clathrates (Fig µSM).
The optical linescanner records features with a much lower resolution of only 100 µm in transmitted light. The features are continuously measured on 10 mm thick sections of up to 100 cm length and 10 cm width. The grey value images are mainly used to visualize the stratigraphy and potential disturbances of the layering along the whole ice core.
The fabric analyzer measures crystal orientation fabrics and textural parameters such as crystal size, crystal elongation. In addition, by image processing techniques the individual crystals are recognized automatically and other parameters, such as grain size and grain shape, can be estimated simultaneously.