Ice cores serve as critical paleoclimate archives, providing high-resolution proxy records that are indispensable for atmospheric sciences, glaciology, and environmental research. There is a growing requirement to rapidly obtain ice core samples from key stratigraphic intervals. Conventional methods require drilling new boreholes, entailing substantial economic and logistical burdens. Therefore, replicate ice-coring technology has emerged as a promising solution, enabling efficient, targeted extraction of additional ice-core samples from specific depth intervals in existing boreholes at low cost. This study evaluates the working principles, performance, and limitations of the field-proven systems, including the whipstock-based system and the dual-actuator replicate system, as well as the laboratory-validated Thermal Sidewall Ice Corer (TSIC). The feasibility of adapting sidewall coring systems from petroleum engineering to glacial environments is also discussed, offering valuable insights for developing new replicate ice-coring systems. Two innovative systems are further proposed: the Sidewall Thermal Replicator (SWTR) and the Sidewall Mechanical Replicator (SWMR), and validated in laboratory tests. Both systems can retrieve vertically aligned ice cores parallel to the main borehole axis without the need for hole enlargement or auxiliary systems. Designed for standard borehole diameters, these systems are simple and easy to operate, substantially reducing the nonproductive time.
cao et al. (Sun,) studied this question.