Friday, January 15, 2010
Four members of the KU Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, or CReSIS, will return this month after surveying glaciers in Antarctica since mid-November.
In ideal weather, the team would make two, four-hour flights each day to map the volume and depth of glaciers in the area from aboard a small Twin Otter aircraft using radar equipment developed by University of Kansas engineers.
Unlike maps made from satellite images, the team’s radar is able to pinpoint how far beneath the ice the glacier’s bedrock sits. This information is critical for researchers drilling for ice core samples, as well as those trying to model the effects that diminishing glaciers may have on the planet.
Logan Smith, a graduate student from Lawrence and CReSIS member, is one of the four KU researchers working on the project. He said the team’s main success was finding the depth of the bedrock in about 90 percent of the surveyed areas, which were mostly uncharted by previous researchers.
“We can now take this data and hand it off to the scientific community, specifically the ice sheet modelers, whose work can measure how ice sheets will react to climate change,” Smith said.
When the data is brought back to the University, CReSIS will do a more advanced processing of the findings before publishing them in scientific journals.
William Blake, a doctoral student from Olathe, said scientists fear that a deteriorating glacier might cause a large chunk of the ice sheet to slide off into the ocean, making sea levels rise dramatically and displacing tens to hundreds of millions along the world’s coasts.
“We’re not saying that it’s going to happen tomorrow, but if we can’t model it, then we can’t predict it,” Blake said. “Our goal is to collect as much new data as we can to feed into these models — we’re only one piece of the puzzle.”
The research done by CReSIS will eventually be used to educate policy makers around the world on the effects of climate change.
“It’s always easier to ignore than to act,” Blake said. “All we can do is present the data and then it’s up to people’s free will.”
Along with the University researchers, the team included two scientists from the Indiana University, as well as Gary Wesche, a middle school science teacher at St. John Francis Regis Catholic School in Kansas City, Mo.
Wesche got onboard as a part of PolarTREC, an organization that sends K-12 teachers to work closely with polar researchers as part of an effort to improve science education.
Wesche kept an online journal and hosted live presentations over the Web to share his experiences with thousands of students across the country. His journals and talks allowed students to get a close look at the living conditions on Byrd Camp.
“It’s a great platform to get a lot of information out and get students interested in science in general,” Wesche said.
— Edited by Kirsten Hudson
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