This is the first installment of a series of reports on the 2009/2010 research season in Antarctica by polar scientist Nick Frearson.
Traveling to the poles is nothing new to me. I have been to both polar regions several times and with each trip I am struck by their solitude, expansiveness and beauty. But things at the poles are changing and with this trip my job will be to help measure and understand this change.
My name is Nick Frearson and I am an engineer traveling to Antarctica with the ICE Bridge Mission organized by NASA and including my home institution Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and the University of Kansas.
The ice sheets at both the north and south pole are undergoing rapid change – shrinking at rates that are much faster than scientists had predicted. Scientists have used satellites to measure ice sheet change from space, but the satellite’s short life and their limitations in measuring beneath the ice, means we are missing critical information. The ICE Bridge mission provides us the first opportunity to acquire a time series of ice surface and bottom measurements in places where the ice sheets are undergoing rapid change, helping us to understand the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of ice sheet change and sea level rise.
ICE Bridge is a new type of field season for me. Our ‘field camp’ is not on the continent of Antarctica. We are operating out of Punta Arenas, Chile using large DC8 airplanes as our ‘field vehicles’ setting out for daily flights of 10-11 hours.
Measurements are collected from the air as it allows us to cover more territory, and because of the poor conditions in this area of the continent with surfaces riddled with crevasses, broken ice and calving icebergs. My job is to oversee one of the instruments fitted to the DC-8. We will rotate time on the flights in order to minimize the extra weight on the plane. Extra weight means extra fuel, and we are using all our fuel to make the lengthy flights to the continent.
In the weeks we are on this mission we will be flying over the fasting changing sections of the Antarctic ice sheet.
With each flight we hope to learn more about the mechanisms and processes that are driving this rapid transformation along the coastal regions of the Antarctic peninsula, and the Western Antarctic ice sheet.
More to come in the weeks ahead …
Nick Frearson is a senior engineer at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory specializing in providing and maintaining airborne geophysics installations for use in both the Arctic and Antarctica. Nick has spent several seasons in the field in both the north and south polar regions, most recently as part of the International Polar Year AGAP team that mapped the large mountain range hidden under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. Nick will be working as part of the ICE Bridge project.
“The ice sheets at both the north and south pole are undergoing rapid change – shrinking at rates that are much faster than scientists had predicted.”
While there has been an increase in Arctic sea ice extent over the past two years (recovery from the 2007 low), I am in agreement that the trend has been negative overall. However, nothing I’ve found in quality controlled data supports the notion that there are rapid changes taking place in the Antarctic. The NSIDC Southern Hemisphere Anomaly Extent data, current to October, 2009, clearly documents an overall increase of ice volume at a fairly consistent rate of +.8% per decade across the entire satellite record. In fact 2006 hit an all time record for ice extent:
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/s_plot_hires.png
I fail to understand how a growing Antarctic ice extent translates into “shrinking much faster than scientists predicted?”
I agree with Hank’s comment above. As a scientist the object should be to MEASURE, first of all, any change. Then try and understand it. To approach this INVESTIGATION with a preconception or prejudgement of the outcome is not scientific in my opinion. Measure first of all then see where the evidence lies. And after you have measured fairly and honestly publish the results for analysis of other experts.
PS while on the subject of measurement may I ask what the instrument is that you are in charge of and what it measures? Also what are the other instruments and what exactly will they measure? I also note that Punta Arenas is close to the Antarctic Peninsula which is said to be melting rapidly. What areas of Antarctica will you be covering? – Thanks
The ice Hank refers to is floating sea ice which is a major concern in the Arctic. In the Antarctic the sea ice story is a bit more confusing (see interview with Thorsten Markus principal sea ice investigator for the mission – http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/icebridge/posts/post_1255623781994.html). In Antarctica scientists are very concerned about the ice sheet that is resting on the ground. This continental ice sheet is several kilometers thick in places, and if it melts or is transported into the ocean, will influence sea level on a global scale. Scientists have been studying the Antarctic peninsula area and in the last decade have watched the Larsen B ice shelf disintegrate in a matter of weeks, and ice in the Pine Island Region and elsewhere dropping in excess of 15 feet a year. Scientific measurements that have been gathered continuously for the last 5-6 years from a NASA satellite – ICESAT 1 – which has measured these dropping surface elevations. ICE Bridge will continue to measure the change using geophysical measurements from a DC-8 airplane.
There are several instruments onboard – lasers to measure the ice surface, radar to penetrate through the ice to measure changes in ice thickness, and Nick is running the gravity meter that will allow them to measure pockets of water underneath the ice that may be contributing to their accelerated melting.
These measures will supplement the satellite measures. In addition to the ice sheet edges dropping, the ice streams that move ice from the interior of the continent to the edges are speeding up, moving towards the ocean more quickly. These are both indications of change.
The survey area is focused on the Antarctica Peninsula, the Amundsen Coast region, which includes the Pine Island, Thwaites, Smith and Kohler glaciers, the Devicq Glacier and the Getz Ice Shelf. A map of the peninsula and the adjacent ice shelf areas can be seen at http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/icebridge/posts/post_1255816727896.html
Excellent ideas here, have emailed my mum so expect a big reply!!
Excellent ideas here, have emailed my mum so expect a big reply!!
Amazing post, I hope to see a lot more posts similar to this going forward