Ice cores provide a wealth of information on past climate and environmental changes at time scales greatly surpassing those of instrumental records. In particular, ice cores provide an ideal means to examine atmospheric transport, temperature and precipitation variability, and surface environmental changes. The proposed research will utilize ice cores from the continental interior of Asia to quantify climate and surface environmental changes over the past 2,000 years or more. Sulfate is of special interest due its climate forcing effect. Opposite to greenhouse gasses and black carbon, sulfate aerosols may cause climate cooling although uncertainties exist about the regional strength and variability. Ice cores from the western and eastern Pamir Mountains, where no previous long-term record exist, will be analyzed for sulfate concentrations in order to determine natural and anthropogenic sulfate sources and their relationships to climate and surface processes. The sulfate record will also provide a 2,000 year archive of explosive volcanism. The long-term ice core record will be validated using ground-based aerosol and climate data in order to determine the modern processes responsible for sulfate concentrations preserved in glacier ice. The long-term ice core record will result in an improved understanding of westerly circulation in relation to climate and surface environmental changes. Results will be significant at both regional and global scales, will enable the comparison of a mid-latitude record with similar records from the polar regions, and may be used for improving atmospheric chemistry and transport models.