field work

Research that I've been involved in on the Greenland Ice Sheet was featured in NASA's Earth Observatory this week. The story provides an overview of recent melting on the ice sheet, the warming that is causing it, and the projected resulting sea-level rise. Photos highlight some of the magnificent and also daunting conditions that we face on the ice sheet.

Read the article here.

A group of 12 scientists from around the world gathered this year in Cuzco for an interdisciplinary investigation of the high elevation ecology and environment in the high andean Cordillera Vilconata. The vilconata is home to the largest single mass of ice in the tropics, the Quelccaya ice cap.

Our research was funded in part by the CIRES Innovative Research Program. The principal investigators on the grant were Anton Seimon and myself.

Although we had a spectacular time broke personal elevation records, saw some fantasic vistas, and met wonderful people, the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to complete our research as planned. Much of our science was compromised, but we all managed to keep our spirits up, learn a lot, and a good part of the science was done after all.

Although I mainly took stills and slides, I did take a few digital photos, which I will continute to post online.

This field season, I flew to Greenland with the Air National Gaurd on April 29th along with Jason Box, Sandy Starkweather and Russ Huff. We stayed in Kangerlussuaq until May 1st when we were put into Swiss Camp by a Twin Otter. Once the camp was open, I calibrated new instruments and collected data from and maintained 5 AWS (automatic weather stations), 4 SMS (smart stakes) and several GPS stations. This work included several snowmobile traverses down into the ablation zone and a helicopter ride up to Crawfor Point. We later were met at Swiss Camp by Koni Steffen, Nicolas Cullen and Jay Zwally. We also installed a 5th SMS in the melt zone.

Two weeks later, Sandy and I headed up to Summit, while Jay and Jason returned to the US, and the others went on to the Petermann Glacier. I returned to the US on June 14th. I encourage you to visit my photo albums to see pictures from Swiss Camp, our traverses and from Summit.

Each Spring my research takes me to the Greenland ice sheet where I install smart stakes and collect data from and maintain GC-Net automatic-weather stations. In 2001, five CU students, our advisor, Koni Steffen, Jay Zwally of NASA and Zubin Emsley of Ball Aerospace were stationed at CU's Swiss Camp and at Summit. Our science goals are in support of the larger PARCA project supported by NASA's Cryospheric Sciences Program.