Uncategorized – Lindsay in the Arctic

Until the Next Ice…

It seems like yesterday that we all came together from all over the world for this International Summer School in Glaciology. The village of McCarthy and the Wrangell Mountains Center have been gracious and amazing hosts, and many thanks go to the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute and International Arctic Research Center, in particular Regine Hock and Vladimir Alexeev, for organizing such an unforgettable learning experience. Throughout this course, which was funded and supported by the National Science Foundation, I know that all participants taught and learned from each other, and met new friends and potential future collaborators. I am honored to have been invited to join this experience along with the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science – I have met amazing people and learned so much from them, and I hope in return I have imparted knowledge and inspiration to them about how important it is to effectively communicate scientific research to the public. And I hope you have enjoyed following along with all of us on this blog! We have now officially had our closing banquet on our last night here in McCarthy (which included quite the entertaining competition for best and funniest photo and video taken during the summer school), and then joined together for a bonfire at the campsite (“glaciology terminology jeopardy” may have been played around the fire). A fitting end to a fantastic experience.

mini-SAM_3200crop — A celebratory bonfire on our last night together in McCarthy

mini-summer-school-group — Our group on the glacier (photo: Andy Aschwanden)

Mini-Conference: Student Presentations

This Glaciology Summer School is an immersive experience if there ever was one. It’s “hands-on” (activities), “feet on” (glaciers), and “brains on” (lectures and projects). Students have been challenged with projects that have been guided by glaciology instructors and designed to give students further experience and understanding of glaciology research, data, and techniques. As the end of the course approaches, we had a “mini-conference” session to allow students time to present their work and their findings.

mini-SAM_3002 — Mini-Conference at The Porphyry

Interpreting GPS data from moving ice to work out glacier velocities and how it varies…

Using computer models to derive conditions at the base of a glacier, from glacier surface data…

Combining observations and simulations of Greenland’s Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier to gain a better understanding of how seasonal changes affect glacier flow speeds and more…

Gaining experience with the FEniCS Project to investigate how this tool can assist in glaciology research…

Building a computer model of the hydrology and sliding of the Kennicott glacier during summer conditions, especially considering the sliding generated by annual floods…

Building numerical schemes to describe the dynamics of Antarctic ice shelves and ice streams, and comparing the model to observations…

Aalyzing the seasonal surface mass balance of the Austfonna Ice Cap in Svalbard, Norway, using stake data…

Calculating the energy balance at the glacier surface, exploring the sensitivity of melt to meteorological variables…

Using airborne remote-sensing data to measure area and elevation changes of glaciers in Svalbard, and calculating long-term changes in the context of on-site glacier and meteorological measurements…

Analyzing time-series images of temperature and microwave data from the Antarctic Peninsula to investigate snow melt dynamics and compare to regional climate models…

Using a UAS (unmanned aircraft system, or drone) to collect new imagery of Kennicott Glacier and compare to existing data, to calculate changes over time and compare with predictions of glacier melt and motion…

It’s amazing what they accomplished in 10 days… and trust me, there are a LOT more details, so if you want to know more, just ask!

Activities for the Public

Communicating science effectively to the public is definitely a skill. Scientific research can be complex and very specific. Part of the skill of getting the public engaged in science is taking that information and making connections – connections between ideas, and connections between the scientist and the public. During the second in my series of science communication workshops that I am leading as a part of this Glaciology Summer School, students participated in some activities that illustrated some strategies for engaging non-scientists in science. Things like… how to build a common perspective (aka get on the same page), make meaningful experiences, use thoughtful question sequencing, while also remembering that learning is personal and connected to each person’s own background and experiences. I then challenged students to conceptuallly develop “hands-on” activities related to their research that could be done in a museum or classroom – anything from a demonstration to a game-style challenge to a more structured hands-on activity.

mini-SAM_2538 — Some of the students working on their activity concepts, outside the old McCarthy hardware store

All 27 students came up with a fantastic range of ideas – it’s just too bad they all can’t physically build their activities and come to Miami to show them off! (But hopefully it’s an idea they may build for later in their own home town or country…)

mini-SAM_2739 — Simulate an atmosphere & then test weather conditions like rain (spray bottle), sun (light bulb), wind (a fan) and cloud cover, to see how weather and heat affect glaciers (icy surface)

mini-SAM_2740 — Racing glaciers – model different glacier conditions using flubber (which deforms like ice as it flows) and water (to lubricate “glacier bed” surface), to “race” glaciers down a slope

mini-SAM_2742 — Learn science and measurement techniques in person, and then go home and take your own measurements of weather conditions like snow depth, to digitally contribute data from more places not previously studied

Projects: The Home Stretch

The environment here in Alaska is stunning, but students in this Glaciology Summer School course are not only here to enjoy the environment, they are here to better their understanding of it. Everyone is working on group projects as assigned and guided by one of the course instructors, and it will be the students’ turn to give presentations on the last day of the course. This is what evenings in McCarthy, Alaska look like these days for us. Lines of computers and tangles of cables in the Wrangell Mountains Center, aka “the old hardware store.” Can’t wait to see the results!

Project! Glacier Heat

Glaciers are ice, and ice is cold. But heat plays an important a role in glacier dynamics. In our project for this Glaciology Summer School, we are looking at all the ways that heat flows in and out of the glacier surface, starting with how weather conditions affect glacier flow. We are developing a computer program in which we can input weather data recorded from a weather station placed on the glacier surface, that we can use to see how weather conditions correlate with the melting rate of the glacier. Programs like this that can accurately relate weather conditions to glacier conditions will be a key tool in helping us understand – as well as predict – how a warming climate affects icy glaciers.

– Noel, Shaun, Andy, Kathrin

mini-Noel project_Nordic_station — A weather station similar to that which took the data used in this project. The station in this photo, involved in one of the students’ research, is based on Nordic Glacier in British Columbia, Canada.

Flying!

mini-flight_group — Me and my fellow flyers

The little town of McCarthy, Alaska has a few lovely buildings, some dirt roads, and spectacular vistas. It also has an airstrip, and some friendly and knowledgeable pilots who will take you up in a plane for a tour of this magnificent place from above. This was a touristy opportunity that several of us decided to take advantage of, but it was definitely a learning experience as well, getting to see the glaciers that we have been talking about, walking on, and learning about, from above! Eleven of us started off from this cabin in McCarthy and headed off to the airstrip with Wrangell Mountain Air, ready to go up in two airplanes. I went up with four others with Austin, who took us up in a Cessna-206. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let these pictures speak to you. (But I’ll include a few words to you can learn about this awesome place too.)

mini-SAM_2727 — Downtown McCarthy to catch van to airstrip

mini-SAM_2635 — Our Cessna-206 (the only plane that can carry its own weight in passengers/cargo)

mini-SAM_2639 — Our pilot Austin, taking us about 2500 feet above the ground

mini-SAM_2638 — 5 passengers and a pilot

mini-SAM_2651 — A “braided river,” formed when sediment periodically gets blocked when being pushed along by a glacier and then changes direction to keep flowing

mini-SAM_2655 — A rock glacier (I had never heard of that before, but that rock is moving like a glacier)

mini-SAM_2672 — Multiple glaciers meeting at the bottom of the mountain

mini-SAM_2680 — Austin took us in close, only about 500 feet from the glacier (it was like you could reach out and almost touch it)

mini-SAM_2684 — These stripes are “ogives” or waves which form seasonally below icefalls. Dark troughs are markers of summer, while the lighter crests are markers of winter.

mini-SAM_2690 — The dark stripes along the path of the glacier are moraines (accumulations of sediment) have gotten pushed between two glacier flows

mini-SAM_2691 — Zooming in from above, spectacular blue melt ponds on the glacier surface

mini-SAM_2714 — The heroes successfully returning from flight

Project! Glacier By Drone

Imagine seeing something the size of your cell phone clearly from the top of a 15-story building. This is the resolution we can get of the glacier surface using a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, aka drone). For our Glaciology Summer School project, we are investigating mass loss near the Kennicott Glacier terminus (the lowest part of the glacier). UAVs are an inexpensive but effective method for studying changes on the Earth surface. With a simple point-and-shoot camera, we are able to get images with a resolution in the ten centimeter range, from a height of 150 meters. We flew the drone over the Kennicott glacier, and are using the images to build a 3D model of the glacier in its current state. Using that, we can then compare to historical data to see how the glacier changes over time. (And it’s so much fun.)

– Denis, Alex, Jenna

The Jokulhlaup

If there is one take-away from this Glaciology Summer School that I would want everyone to know (of those who hadn’t already known), it’s that glaciers themselves are a force of nature. Their presence can alter an environment, and their disappearance can affect the environment. We went on a different trek to the glacier front, led by Mike Loso of Alaska Pacific University Anchorage, and saw the glacier’s effects everywhere, from the rocky riverbed left behind as the glacier retreated, to the layers of the mountainside sloping down to the glacier bed below, to the white rock that had been scourged by the glacier…

Here is the Kennicott rive flowing towards us. The treeline/ridge is the terminal moraine (the accumulated soil at the edge of the glacier) during the last little ice age. The riverbank on the left is eroded most years by the annual Hidden Creek Lake flood, aka the “jokulhlaup”, (there’s a new word for most of us) and that boulder was still in that bank as of just a couple of years ago).

Mike showed us this plant, called Dryas drummondii (in the photo is the plant’s seed head). The cool thing about this plant is that it is one of the early species to colonize newly un-glaciated terrain. And it’s a “nitrogen-fixing” plant, which means it takes atmospheric nitrogen and turns it into nutrients, which then benefits the soil for other plants.

There may not be white in front of us, but there is a glacier. Here we are looking out at debris-covered glacier ice. This meltwater pond is next to where Kennicott River is coming out of the ice, and on the right is Bonanza Ridge, home to the old copper mines that used to dot this landscape.

We climbed this beautiful glacier-scoured bedrock which lies near the toe of the Kennicott Glacier. The exposed sediment at the top among the trees is also glacier till (unsorted, unlayered sediment) that was deposited sometime during the last ice age.

This tree has seen it all. This spruce stump, still in growth position, grew in front of the Kennicott Glacier in the late 1500s. It was overrun by advancing glacier ice in the 1600s, where it remained until the late 1900s, when it was exposed in this river channel as the Kennicott Glacier retreated. And it’s still here.

Crampons: A Glaciologist’s Best Friend

When I think of hiking or climbing, the thought of going up instinctively sounds harder than going down. And I would think I’d be much more likely to slip and fall walking on ice as opposed to walking on rock. Not true. Glaciers are ice, which of course is slippery. But then there are the moraines which may be on the edges of the glacier, or on the glacier surface itself. Moraines are accumulations of rock and soil that have been formed into mounds by the movement or melting of a glacier. Now think about a steep mound of ice, covered in a layer of loose rocks and gravel. Trying to get down the slope without injury may involve any manner of trying to “surf” down the gravel, or taking baby steps as quickly as possible, to keep your feet moving faster than the gravel can slide. Even if you’re successful, once you’re down, there is the small matter of getting back up a steep slope of slippery rocks, now with gravity working against you. (Yes, I may have slipped and fell once or twice…)

All of that made me appreciate even more the “tool” that help glaciologists move more safely as they conduct their research on the ice. Crampons kind of look like a weapon, but these spikes can be lifesavers, literally and figuratively, as they dig into the ice, making each step more stable. A few suggestions for wearing crampons: walk like an old movie cowboy, bowlegged and lifting your knee as you take each step. Because nicking your pants or boot on the spikes, or catching the toe spike in the ice as you step, can take you down. (Yes, my nice ski pants may have a tear in the ankle…) It’s just too bad that crampons and rocks don’t mix.

Fun in McCarthy

Students in this Glaciology Summer School course consistently have their noses to the grindstone, so to speak, with lectures and project work each day, but in the evenings, there is a little time to relax (and it stays light outside very late). McCarthy, for being a tiny town with a population only in the double digits, offers a fine variety of ways to take a break. Sometimes it might be more along the lines of what you might have in a bigger city (like live music), and sometimes you have to be creative and make your own fun (like swimming in a chilly glacier-fed lake). My personal favorite is the fact that McCarthy had a town softball game on Friday night, when everyone in town is there to either play or watch, all within sight of a glacier looming in the mountains above. That’s not something you do every day. Neither is a “Zombie Prom,” currently advertised on a white board outside the town saloon for next Friday. All in good fun in McCarthy.

mini-P1000728 — Swimming in the glacier-fed lake…

mini-SAM_2498 — Amazing live music (Deep Chatham) with upright bass, steel guitar, fiddle, and accordian…

mini-SAM_2153 — Playing softball with the whole town…

mini-SAM_2172crop — Watching the softball game with locals, complete with beautiful music…

mini-SAM_2149 — …all with a glacier watching over us.