Although my bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in mathematics, I have a deep fascination with climate, wildlife and the environment, and I really like to apply my math knowledge and skills to study climate dynamics in the real world. I hope the research I’m doing will give some insight into the changes that are going on right now in our Earth’s climate, and I’m happy I work in a field that gives me the feeling I’m doing something good for the world.
Currently I am a graduate student in the Climate Dynamics PhD Program at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia (USA). Under the supervision of Prof. Edwin K. Schneider, my dissertation investigates several aspects associated with the 20th century variability of the North Atlantic (both forced and natural variability). Using climate model experiments, we study how temperature oscillations in the North Atlantic (on multi-decade time scales) are affected by the interaction between external forcing sources (like the Sun or human effects) and internally generated weather noise (anything that appears in climate models or observations that can’t be predicted).
Our work is important because when you make weather predictions, you want to know how much you can predict, and how much is due to “noise,” therefore can’t be predicted. Also, recent studies show the North Atlantic Ocean and Arctic Ocean are linked, via water exchanges through the Fram Strait, and through atmospheric transport from middle to high latitudes. Therefore, the work we’re doing is also important in order to better understand the link between the Arctic and North Atlantic, as well as to gain insight into the future of the Arctic.
Last but not least – last night at 2am, when the sun was low in the sky, somewhere in the Arctic Ocean, unexpectedly from the grey thick fog I saw a shining white rainbow and a field of icebergs. As it grew stronger and brighter I realized that this encompasses really how amazing the process of doing research is for me – you have never seen it before, it is beautiful, magical, and unexpected, and it keeps you curious and intrigued about what you see, and least but not last – although sometimes it might make no sense for others (like a white rainbow in the middle of a foggy day/night), it gives you a beautiful feeling of accomplishment because it is unique and brings unexpected results!
– Ioana Colfescu
Hey ‘ I’m Antwanique & I wanted to know ‘ Why arctic ice not a good indicator of climate change ?
Dear Antwanique, the amount of sea ice, and the extent of melting, is actually a good indicator of what is going on with the global climate. The polar regions are the first to show impacts of warming, which we can see in satellite data from the last few decades, as the ice extent has, for the most part, decreased annually.
why is artic ice more thick and stronger than just the other regular ice
Dear Jonathan, Arctic ice is thick and strong, just like ice from Antarctica or Greenland or the freezer in your kitchen. But all of that ice can also be fragile in some ways too. Think about what might to the ice in your freezer if you raised the temperature in there by a couple degrees. The same thing happens with the ice in the Arctic. The climate is getting warmer overall, so the extent of the Arctic sea ice has been for the most part decreasing annually over the last few decades (since we have been observing it with satellites). But Arctic sea ice can also be naturally thin and fragile, because every year, more ice develops during the cold winter, and some of that ice melts over the relatively warmer summer. And when new ice forms, it starts out as thin sheets, then can grow throughout winter. Some thick ice (closer to the north pole) stays all year round, and can even gets thick enough to survive summer and grow more in the next winter – either from new ice growth, or from ice cracking and “rafting” on top of each other.