S.T. Lee Lecture in Arctic Studies, IARC/UAF

Jan-Gunner Winther

Director, Norwegian Polar Institute, Tromsø, Norway

About the S.T. Lee Lecture Series

Norwegian-US IPY Traverse

Date: Friday, 20 June 2008
Location: C. T. Elvey Auditorium (GI)
Time: 3:30pm

As part of the International Polar Year (IPY), several international scientific traverses will be conducted in East Antarctica. The overarching scientific goal is to enhance our understanding of the role of the ice masses in East Antarctica with respect to future global sea level changes. Today, knowledge about the mass balance of Antarctica is insufficient and recent studies diverge whether the mass balance is positive or negative. Due to the enormous volumes of freshwater that are stored in Antarctica even small changes will have a great impact. For example, one percent reduction in the ice volume will lead to a sea level rise of about 65 cm, which is more than the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has projected to occur for this century. The reason for this is because global circulation models today do not account for dynamic responses of ice sheets due to global warming. The Norwegian-US IPY Traverse, from the Norwegian Troll Station at the coast in Dronning Maud Land to the South Pole, is one of six traverses that collect unique climate data from East Antarctica during IPY.

During the 2007-2008 field season, our scientific measurements included 1) drilling a collection of ice cores (three 90-meter (300-foot), five 30-meter (100-foot), five 10-meter (33-foot), and twenty-eight 7-meter (23-foot) cores) to measure a broad range of chemical and physical properties and characteristics, taking us back in time over 1000 years; 2) collecting 10,000-km (6000 miles) of radar data to map snow and ice accumulation between drill sites (using 4 different ice-penetrating radar systems running continually over our route, including one specifically designed to detect crevasses; 3) making detailed near-surface (top 3 meters) physical and chemical snow and ice measurements; 4) installing two automatic weather stations; 5) conducting unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights and measurements; and 6) making deep-ice temperature measurements. This suite of observations will be used to gain new insights into the paleo-environments and climate change of this virtually unexplored area of Antarctica.

The lecture will address the science made during the expedition but also issues related to logistics and the fascinating Antarctic environment.