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Arctic sea ice and international policy
Arctic / Courses

Arctic sea ice and international policy

On this page I will post information relevant to the University of Washington Winter 2020 Task Force course with co-instructor Nadine Fabbi through the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Also see the UW Study Abroad course listing. Seminars and events Relevant links UW Arctic and Northern Studies Library Guide Featured image: 2019 Arctic … Continue reading

Educator’s workshop in Greenland
Arctic

Educator’s workshop in Greenland

My report on a uniquely impactful workshop on immersive undergraduate education is also shared here, and has been originally sent out through the Henry M. Jackson School’s International Policy Institute Arctic Initiative July 2019 newsletter. Immersive undergraduate education: Greenland, the Arctic, and beyond Fifteen educators from around the world, five days, and nearly two million … Continue reading

Courses / Univ. Washington Glaciology

Spring 2019 reading seminar

This quarter the group is following the theme of outlet glaciers, loosely defined. Here is what we are reading! 1. Recent work on Jakobshavn Glacier Khazendar et al. (2019) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0329-3 Joughin et al. (2014) https://www.the-cryosphere.net/8/209/2014/tc-8-209-2014.html 2. Reconstructions of a Cordilleran Ice Sheet outlet glacier Kovanen and Slaymaker (2004) https://atmos.washington.edu/marka/okanoganlobe.pdf 3. Catania G. A., Stearns, L. A., Sutherland, D. A., Fried, … Continue reading

Exploration Seminar to Greenland / Denmark
Courses / University of Washington

Exploration Seminar to Greenland / Denmark

This page provides a summary of the 2018 Exploration Seminar to Greenland and Denmark. Follow the posts written by the incredible group of 14 University of Washington undergraduate students that detail activity during the class: 15-20 August 21-26 August 27-31 August 1-4 September 5-9 September This program has received generous support from the Scan|Design Foundation. … Continue reading

Keck Institute for Space Studies
Research

Keck Institute for Space Studies

There is some great content online about how to tackle the challenge of inferring climate history on Mars from polar ice deposits, and what future missions may be required to get the data needed to do this: http://kiss.caltech.edu/workshops/polar/polar2.html (Check out great videos from first workshop) It was a very interesting and enriching experience to be … Continue reading

Fall 2017 reading seminar
Courses

Fall 2017 reading seminar

Week 1: IPCC (2013) report on Sea Level Change See also: IPCC FAQ, Real Climate assessment Week 2: Llovel et al. (2014), Deep-ocean contribution to sea level and energy budget not detectable over the past decade. Nature Climate Change 4, 1031-1035. Purkey, S.G. and G.C. Johnson (2010), Warming of global abyssal and deep Southern Ocean … Continue reading

Courses

Spring 2017 reading seminar

We had a seminar with papers on a not-so-specific theme this quarter. And read some work from a few here at UW. Here is a recap: Week 1: Colgan, W., H. Machguth, M. MacFerrin, J. D. Colgan, D. van As, and J. A. MacGregor (2016), The abandoned ice sheet base at Camp Century, Greenland, in … Continue reading

Fall 2016 reading seminar
Courses

Fall 2016 reading seminar

This quarter we are reading papers about the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS). week 1: Fahnestock et al. (2001), High Geothermal Heat Flow, Basal Melt, and the Origin of Rapid Ice Flow in Central Greenland. Science 294, 2338. Joughin et al. (2001), Observation and analysis of ice flow in the largest Greenland ice stream. Journal … Continue reading

University of Washington

Commencement 2016

It was really an honor to be invited to speak at the Earth and Space Sciences Commencement this year, and it was a great event. Congratulations to all the graduates! Below is the text of my speech: Good morning, everyone. It is truly an honor to be speaking to such an inspiring group of graduates, … Continue reading

University of Washington

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

There are many resources, programs, and initiatives active at UW. Follow these links and the links within these top-level pages to start learning more: Diversity at UW: http://www.washington.edu/diversity/ UW Graduate School Diversity: http://www.grad.washington.edu/diversity/ Race and Equity Initiative: https://www.washington.edu/raceequity/ Office of Minority Affairs: http://www.washington.edu/omad/ College of the Environment Diversity and Access: https://environment.uw.edu/about/diversity-commitment/     Continue reading

South Pole Station
South Pole

South Pole Station

Taking from basic sources of information about the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, I wanted to write about it before I arrived and then provide my impressions after spending a few weeks there. From a pamphlet put together by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, I copied here a description of the history and … Continue reading

South Pole Flow
Research / South Pole

South Pole Flow

This is the first season of a new collaborative research project on Characterization of upstream ice and firn dynamics affecting the South Pole Ice Core (SPICE). Details about the SPICE core can be found here: http://spicecore.org/ Our team from University of Washington includes Howard Conway, T.J. Fudge, Ed Waddington, and Max Stevens, and team members … Continue reading

Experience Denmark
Fellowships

Experience Denmark

Scan | Design Foundation by Inger and Jens Bruun has generously provided undergraduate and graduate student fellowships at the University of Washington to promote exchange between the US and Denmark. There are also faculty travel fellowships available. These opportunities are open to students and faculty from departments across campus, including those within the College of … Continue reading

Fall 2015 reading seminar: glacier variability
Courses / Univ. Washington Glaciology

Fall 2015 reading seminar: glacier variability

This quarter, Gerard Roe suggested something a bit different for a reading seminar, inspired in part by visiting professor Jamie Shulmeister and in part by paleo-glacier puzzles. The topic is ‘The Natural Variability of Glaciers’. Here is Gerard’s introduction: The widespread and ongoing retreat of glaciers is a powerful totem of anthropogenic climate change. Moreover, … Continue reading

Research

Instruments for polar studies

  Here is a link to an Eos article about a recent workshop on Instruments for Polar Studies: https://eos.org/meeting-reports/what-instruments-are-available-for-polar-studies   Here are links to information about some of this equipment, and some other useful instruments: Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS): ground-based scanning LiDAR to characterize cm to meter-scale topography. http://www.riegl.com/products/terrestrial-scanning/ Gamma Portable (aka Terrestrial) Radar Interferometry … Continue reading

Mt. Rainier glaciers
Glacier / PNW

Mt. Rainier glaciers

This post is a start to links and information that I want to keep track of related to glaciers on Mt. Rainier. http://glaciers.us/glaciers-washington (image credit for figure in this post) http://www.glaciers.pdx.edu/Projects/LearnAboutGlaciers/MRNP/Atlas10.html http://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/nature/glaciers.htm (and links within) http://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/nature/mount-rainier-glaciers.htm http://www.glaciers.pdx.edu/Projects/LearnAboutGlaciers/MRNP/Res00.html http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mount_rainier/mount_rainier_geo_hist_77.html http://faculty.washington.edu/jhrl/Research.html http://www.wonderlandtrailguide.com/   Some scientific publications: https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ofr03368 http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/39/7/639.short http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014JF003086/abstract http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169555X14004103 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014JF003274/full http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379197000772 http://geology.gsapubs.org/content/32/1/81.short   For recent work … Continue reading

UW courses for glaciology students
Courses

UW courses for glaciology students

There are many great graduate-level courses at the University of Washington, and many with a focus in glaciology. Check the course listing for quarter and year offered, but these course titles (among others) should be considered for students in our glaciology graduate program: Principles of Glaciology / The Cryosphere Geophysical Continuum Mechanics Scientific Writing and … Continue reading

Science / Writing

A few notes on writing and reviewing

There are many different writing style guides, including those listed as part of the Department of Earth and Space Sciences (ESS) course 519: Scientific Writing and Graphics http://courses.washington.edu/ess519/. Learning to write in a style suitable for scientific publication is critical. The American Geophysical Union provides a worthwhile grammar and style guide as well as suggestions … Continue reading

Introduction to glaciers
Glacier

Introduction to glaciers

This summer a high-school student through the Seattle Pacific Science Center’s Discovery Corps program in the Track for Earth and Space Science Achievement (TESSA) is joining our UW glaciology group. Welcome to Chaja Levy! For the start of Chaja’s summer research project studying changes in Blue Glacier in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State, I … Continue reading

Local ice
Glacier / PNW

Local ice

Ice in the Pacific Northwest is melting. Loss of our ice and loss of ice from most other glaciated regions of the world means that glaciers are retreating, snowpack reservoirs are decreasing, and sea level is rising. Global ice loss is a signal of the severity of global climate change. Local ice loss is a … Continue reading

Partners in the Park
Glacier / PNW

Partners in the Park

Friends of mine from University of Washington have organized another amazing summer opportunity in the Park, this time at Mt. Rainier. I look forward to contributing in any way that I can, and learning from this tremendous experience. Here is the description from their website: “Out of the forest at last there stood the mountain, … Continue reading

SPICE ice
Antarctica

SPICE ice

The next major US-led drilling program is going to be at the South Pole for an intermediate-depth ice core (to ~1500 meters depth and ~40 ka). The drilling will start this southern hemisphere summer — progress will be posted as the drilling begins. Low annual average temperature (-50˚C) and relatively high accumulation rate (8 cm … Continue reading

Antarctica / Radar

Ground-based radar

The ground-based radar system we used is a coherent system; it records a time-domain voltage induced in the receiving antennas, and thus preserves both the phase and the amplitude of the echoes. The transmitted pulse is +/- 2000 volts and the center frequency of the mono-pulse depends on the lengths chosen for the antennas, which … Continue reading

Ice-shelf seismics
Antarctica / Research / Seismics

Ice-shelf seismics

During the 2012 season we conducted active and passive seismics on Beardmore Glacier, about 30 km upstream from the grounding line. During this season (2013-2014), we conducted seismic experiments on the Ross Ice Shelf a few km downstream of the Beardmore Glacier.       Paul installs GPS receiver (background) and Max installs a passive … Continue reading

Transantarctic outlet glacier dynamics
Antarctica / Research

Transantarctic outlet glacier dynamics

Work on Beardmore Glacier, an outlet glacier in the Transantarctic mountains, has been funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs. I am part of this research project, led by Twit Conway (UW) and Paul Winberry (Central Washington University). Recent observations of rapid changes in discharge of fast-flowing outlet glaciers and ice streams … Continue reading

Put in: soon
Antarctica / Research

Put in: soon

I was optimistic for a timely put-in to our field work, but not unexpectedly we are waiting a few days for weather, planes, and destiny to cooperate. This gives time to reminisce about last year’s put in. First we will go to a location called “Central Transantarctic Mountains”, or CTAM. This was a base of … Continue reading

McMurdo Station and surroundings
Antarctica

McMurdo Station and surroundings

We have been and are still waiting in McMurdo Station for our flight to Beardmore Glacier. While waiting, I have a chance to put together some blog posts! The station has some highlights: interesting walks, interesting people, and interesting history. We went to visit Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery hut near the station. Built in … Continue reading