Cresis Aerial Survey of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Update
Meet the Team
Teacher - Gary Wesche
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.
Researcher - Carl Leuschen
Journals
01_15_10 I'm Home
01_07_10 Reporter, Flat Stanley, Live from Byrd Surface Camp
01_05_10 The Data!!
01_03_10 Flying on Our Plane is more than Peanuts and Pretzels
10_04_10 Let's Go Fly Our Grid!
Project Information
Where are They?
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.
What are they Doing?
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.
Vocabulary
- Aerial
- High-resolution
- SAR−Imaging
- Twin Otter
Pertaining to the air or atmosphere.
Images that contain a large number of dots per unit of area and are therefore sharp and detailed.
Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar used to collect aerial images at high image resolutions. Because it uses radar signals instead of aerial photography, SAR allows images to be collected during night or periods of poor visibility. More information about how SAR works is available on the Sandia National Laboratory Website.
A highly maneuverable utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada. It can be flown slowly and in tight circles, and is designed for 20 passengers, short takeoffs and landings, and often used for cargo, passengers, and as a science platform.