State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

climate science37

  • Switchyard Project: Day 1 – Alert, Alert, Alert

    Switchyard Project: Day 1 – Alert, Alert, Alert

    The first day of our operation is usually filled with a lot of work preparing and testing the instruments we brought up here, preparing the airplanes, loading our equipment into the planes, setting up the equipment in the laboratory and preparing the sampling containers. Since our operation requires drilling holes through the sea ice, we…

  • Switchyard Project: In Transit…Part 2

    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

    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

    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.

  • Irrigation Management and Global Water Supply

    Irrigation Management and Global Water Supply

    The Columbia Water Center hosted Marshall English last week to talk about the role crop irrigation plays in water resource planning and problem solving.

  • Celebrating the end of the Antarctic field season

    Celebrating the end of the Antarctic field season

    It is the end of a highly successful field season for our ‘Antarctica’s Secrets’ team – a mix of sadness and joy

  • Glacial deposits: A clue to reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet

    Glacial deposits: A clue to reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet

    Having been joined by a fifth team member, Tim Flood from St Norbert College, our “Antarctica Secrets” team sets out to a new field site near Mount Achernar.

  • How to cross a crevasse zone on the Antarctic ice sheet

    How to cross a crevasse zone on the Antarctic ice sheet

    Back at the Central Transantarctic Mountain camp, our ‘Antarctica Secrets’ team figures out the best way to cross a crevasse zone to get to their next field camp at Mt Achernar.

  • In the Arctic More Than Elsewhere, Things Are Heating Up

    In the Arctic More Than Elsewhere, Things Are Heating Up

    According to a new international study, water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the North Atlantic is the warmest it has been in the past 2,000 years.

  • Switchyard Project: Day 1 – Alert, Alert, Alert

    Switchyard Project: Day 1 – Alert, Alert, Alert

    The first day of our operation is usually filled with a lot of work preparing and testing the instruments we brought up here, preparing the airplanes, loading our equipment into the planes, setting up the equipment in the laboratory and preparing the sampling containers. Since our operation requires drilling holes through the sea ice, we…

  • Switchyard Project: In Transit…Part 2

    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

    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

    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.

  • Irrigation Management and Global Water Supply

    Irrigation Management and Global Water Supply

    The Columbia Water Center hosted Marshall English last week to talk about the role crop irrigation plays in water resource planning and problem solving.

  • Celebrating the end of the Antarctic field season

    Celebrating the end of the Antarctic field season

    It is the end of a highly successful field season for our ‘Antarctica’s Secrets’ team – a mix of sadness and joy

  • Glacial deposits: A clue to reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet

    Glacial deposits: A clue to reconstructing the history of the Antarctic ice sheet

    Having been joined by a fifth team member, Tim Flood from St Norbert College, our “Antarctica Secrets” team sets out to a new field site near Mount Achernar.

  • How to cross a crevasse zone on the Antarctic ice sheet

    How to cross a crevasse zone on the Antarctic ice sheet

    Back at the Central Transantarctic Mountain camp, our ‘Antarctica Secrets’ team figures out the best way to cross a crevasse zone to get to their next field camp at Mt Achernar.

  • In the Arctic More Than Elsewhere, Things Are Heating Up

    In the Arctic More Than Elsewhere, Things Are Heating Up

    According to a new international study, water flowing into the Arctic Ocean from the North Atlantic is the warmest it has been in the past 2,000 years.