Earth Sciences122
-

Switchyard Project: In Transit…Part 2
April 27, 2011: We spent the night in Thule in the North Star Hotel. Before we could leave Thule the crew had to load the cargo back into the C130. Equipment is loaded onto palettes, and these palettes are loaded through the rear door into the plane. A C130 can handle four palettes with two tons of cargo…
-

Switchyard Project: In Transit…Part 1
Bags are packed and ready to go. April 25, 2011: We left Lamont in the afternoon to Schenectady, close to Scotia where the 109th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard is located that will fly us up to CFS Alert. That unit provides extensive logistical support for all U.S. science operations in the arctic and…
-

Switchyard Project: Tracking the Arctic Seascape
Arctic summer sea ice is declining rapidly: a trend with enormous implications for global weather and climate. The multi-year Arctic Switchyard project will seek to distinguish the effects of natural climate variability from those of human-induced climate change.
-

A 30 year history of measuring Greenland’s Breathtaking Vistas
We flew our last science flight out of Kangerlussuaq Base (western Greenland) over the Geikie Peninsula, on the east coast of Greenland. This high priority mission had not been completed prior to this because of difficult weather in the peninsula area. The mission focus was to determine how the surface ice elevation and ice thickness…
-

Soaring Through the Southeastern Greenland Outlet Glaciers
Our mission was to collect some long survey lines down the center of some of Greenland’s most spectacular southeastern glaciers. The study design would require us to complete a transect across the Greenland ice sheet, fortunately at a location when the country undergoes a noticeable taper. Starting at Kangerlussuaq, our base on Greenland’s west coast,…
-

“You are Misinformed”–Planning for Flood Regime Change
Lately a lot of people are wondering just how helpful the 100-year flood benchmark really is, as places seem to be getting hit by 100-year floods all the time.
-

Web Diagramming Rocks: Paper Named Among 10 Best
The researchers found the diagramming helped students form “knowledge networks” that led them to a better understanding of the material.
-

Southern Louisiana’s Vanishing Act
Louisiana’s wetlands — the largest system in the United States — are shrinking at an alarming rate.
-

It takes a lot of instruments to collect ice measurements!
The Operation IceBridge (OIB) mission is a truly collaborative project with several agencies and multiple instruments involved in collecting independent measurements. The data is then analyzed concurrently to develop an understanding of the ice processes underway. The measurement of sea ice is an excellent example of how multiple methods of measurement are needed to collect…

By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
