Surveying Conditions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
November 23, 2009 - January 10, 2010 | West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide, Antarctica
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Now Archived! Live from IPY! events with Gary and the CReSIS team at Byrd Camp Antarctica. Events were on 17 December 2009, 7 & 11 January 2010. To access the archives, click here.
Gary Wesche teaches middle school science at St. John Francis Regis Catholic School, but prior to being a classroom teacher Mr. Wesche was a full-time dad, professional storyteller, and musical theater actor. He continues to link these experiences of acting, traveling, singing, parenting, and story telling to his teaching in ways that draw his students to learning. He pledges to have no student pass through his classes without an ample opportunity to experience the fun of life as a scientist. Mr. Wesche enjoys travelling, singing, gardening, learning, and playing with his wife and six children in their 110 year old mansion next door to the Kansas City Zoo. Mr. Wesche plans to use this PolarTREC experience to convey to his students and the public the relevance and excitement of scientific study and research, and give his students the chance to believe that they too can explore, discover, and travel the globe in their lifetime.
Carl Leuschen is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kansas. Dr. Leuschen earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas (KU) in 2001 and spent five years asSenior Professional Staff at the Applied Physics Laboratory, Space Department, Ocean Remote Sensing Group at Johns Hopkins University before returning to KU in 2006 to join the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS). He has been at the center of sensor development and integration since returning to KU and joining CReSIS.
Je'aime H. Powell is a graduate student at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) studying applied mathematics with a concentration in remote sensing. Mr. Powell is interested in finding the most effective method for data storage and processing in low-power situations. During the Antarctic field season, Mr. Powell's responsibilities in the field include being a high-performance computing administrator and data transfer liaison. He will be focusing on archiving and visualizing data collected during the field season to aid scientists in gaining an overall view of how the field season is progressing possibly interpret data trends.
Initially, the CReSIS team will be working at McMurdo Station preparing and outfitting a Twin Otter airplane with equipment that will be used to conduct aerial radar surveys of glaciers at remote field camps. Being used as a platform for conducting the experiments, the airplane will be mounted with instruments that measure ice thickness, map ice layers, and conduct SAR-imaging-a form of radar that produces high-resolution maps of the ice surface.
In early December, after aircraft preparations have been completed, the team will travel to Byrd Camp, a remote camp on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, to conduct the aerial surveys. Each day, weather permitting, the team will take off, fly over area glaciers, and come back to camp. When they arrive back at camp, the team will download and process the data that was collected by the instruments.
Although many of the areas that will be surveyed have been largely undiscovered, the survey work will include flights over Thwaites Glacier (75.5°S 106.75°W). Part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Thwaites Glacier is one of the largest and most rapidly thinning glaciers in Antarctica.
At the core of CReSIS's work, the data collected during this project will be integrated with other research efforts and data to create a 3-D visualization of the ice sheet to model and assess the potential impacts of ice sheets to future sea level rise.
Located near the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide field camp, the team will work primarily out of the newly established Byrd Camp. Both camps are located on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, a section of the continental glacier that covers the Antarctic continent west of the Transantarctic Mountains. The camp sits on top of over 3,000 meters of ice, thicker than 9 Empire State Buildings stacked on top of one another! The WAIS is classified as a marine-based ice sheet, meaning that its bed lies well below sea level and its edges flow into floating ice shelves.
