Cryospheric Research Roundup
May 2013
GROVER: An Earth-Bound (Ice-Bound?) NASA Rover
NASA’s latest scientific rover is currently undergoing testing in Greenland’s highest spot. The new robot, known as GROVER (which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research), carries a ground-penetrating radar that allows scientists to study the layering of the ice sheet. Glaciologist Lora Koenig and two students from Boise State University accompanied GROVER in early May to Summit Camp, Greenland. The GROVER team will test how the robot performs throughout May in the gelid Arctic environment, and how it can be remotely controlled through a satellite link.
GROVER was developed in 2010 and 2011 by teams of students participating in summer engineering boot camps at Goddard, and is currently being fine-tuned at Boise State University. It's trial in Greenland will also serve as a test for using rovers in harsh polar regions to gather data.
To learn more about GROVER, check out this feature.
March - April 2013
Greenland Aquifer Team Blog
Glaciologist Lora Koenig is leading an expedition to southeast Greenland in April to investigate an aquifer trapped within the ice sheet. The team, which includes lab member Ludovic Brucker, will drill several holes in the ice sheet to analyze snow density and structure. They will also leave instrumentation in the drilled holes to record temperatures over a year.
Read Lora Koenig’s field blog on NASA’s Earth Observatory website.
Google + Hangout on Sea Level Rise
Ice sheet modeler Sophie Nowicki participated in a Google + Hangout on sea level rise with three other scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey on April 2. The hour-long Hangout, which covered topics ranging from uncertainties in sea level rise modeling to potential impacts on coastal communities, was the kick-off event for NASA’s Earth Month celebrations.
Watch a recording of the Hangout on NASA Goddard’s YouTube Channel.
2013 Artic Sea Ice Maximum is 5th Lowest on Record
A NASA analysis led by Joey Comiso determined that the annual maximum Arctic sea ice extent was reached on Feb. 28 and it was the fifth lowest sea ice winter extent in the past 35 years. The new maximum —5.82 million square miles (15.09 million square kilometers)— is in line with a continuing trend in declining winter Arctic sea ice extent: nine of the ten smallest recorded maximums have occurred during the last decade. The 2013 winter extent is 144,402 square miles (374,000 square kilometers) below the average annual maximum extent for the last three decades.
Read more about the 2013 Arctic sea ice maximum and watch an animation of sea ice in this web feature.
Cryospheric Scientists Featured on “Know Your Earth” Campaign
Lab members Claire Parkinson and Nathan Kurtz are profiled in NASA’s “Know Your Earth 3.0, Local Connections” campaign. Many of the participants of this educational project will be speaking about their work at NASA to schools, youth groups and other organizations in their hometowns.
Find out more about Parkinson’s and Kurtz’s work on the “Know your Earth” website.
Operation IceBridge and ICESat-2: Now on Facebook
Operation IceBridge, currently carrying its 2013 Arctic campaign, has a new Facebook page for their frequent updates and photos from the field.
ICESat-2, scheduled to launch in 2016, is also on social media: you can follow it on Twitter and Facebook.
January – February 2013
Thirteen middle school, high school and college teachers, education students, museum educators and state park environmental education specialists from four states, plus a hydrology student from the Czech Republic, participated in this year’s edition of History of Winter at Northwood School, Lake Placid, New York. Divided in three teams led by ice scientists from NASA Goddard and from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab in Hanover, New Hampshire, the winter camp participants learned about research tools and techniques polar scientists use in field studies of snow and ice. Lab chief Thorsten Markus and lab member Lora Koenig gave lectures on the study of sea ice and the ice sheets and on the upcoming ICESat-2 mission. Applications for the 2014 workshop will open this summer at: how.gsfc.nasa.gov
The cryospheric sciences laboratory hosted the Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) meeting and the IceBridge Science Team Meeting on January 29-31, 2013. This year’s PARCA meeting emphasized the integration of multiple data types for a broader understanding of the changes across the Arctic, ongoing progress in characterizing the processes that are driving the observations and the impact of particular data (or lack of thereof) on numerical models. The IceBridge science team, a group of polar scientists from a variety of institutions that guides the mission toward meeting its science requirements, discussed research and plans for the upcoming IceBridge 2013 Arctic campaign, including flight lines, and future collaborations with various other groups outside of NASA.October – November 2012
NASA Goddard’s Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory is now the main sponsor of “History of Winter”, a successful NASA education program that has been giving teachers the opportunity to experience cryospheric science field research firsthand for over a decade. The participating educators attend a week-long workshop in Lake Placid, NY that focuses on field experiments and data collection frequently used for ground validation of NASA satellites.“This is a well established program and I am hoping that it will become an integral part of NASA’s cryosphere education efforts”, said Thorsten Markus, chief of the cryospheric sciences lab.
> Learn more about History of Winter on its YouTube channel
Thorsten Markus and Lora Koenig participated in the inaugural episode of Science Uncut, a new NASA TV program. Along with NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati, they discussed recent changes in Earth’s poles. The conversation, led by NASA Cryospheric Science Program Manager Tom Wagner, also covered the researchers’ fieldwork in Greenland and Antarctica, their career paths, and their early motivations to study polar sciences. The episode, titled “Arctic on the edge?”, will be aired on NASA TV in December.> Watch Science Uncut: Arctic on the Edge?
Operation IceBridge concluded its fourth Antarctic campaign on Nov. 8. Over five weeks, IceBridge researchers gathered information on land and sea ice during its 16 flights over Antarctica. During this year's Antarctic campaign, IceBridge scientists added on to existing sea ice elevation data, surveyed new areas of the Antarctic ice sheet and reached out to students, teachers and the public.> Visit Operation IceBridge’s blog (also available in Spanish!) to learn more about the 2012 Antarctic campaign.
Read more research news in our Research Roundup Archives.
Cryospheric Sciences at NASA Goddard
Cryospheric research at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center addresses the physics of ice sheets and glaciers, sea ice, snow on ice and land, and their roles in the global climate system.
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