At Summit Station, Greenland, science technicians measure the snow conditions of the runway to determine if the LC-130 aircraft which brings supplies and people in and out of Summit can land and takeoff safely.
Students can use data taken by technicians at Summit Station, Greenland and develop a model to determine if snowpack conditions on the runway are sufficient
Researcher Egbert Schwartz and PolarTREC teacher Justin Kendhammer will travel to the Dry Valleys of Antarctica in search of life in the seemingly barren soil. One of the questions they will attempt to answer is whether microbes in the soil are native to Antarctic soil or whether they have been blown onto the continent from elsewhere in the world.
PolarTREC alumni and science teacher Bill Schmoker is taking his second research trip to the Arctic this summer as one of a handful of educators chosen as a Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow.
Arctic Research Mapping Application. ARMAP is a suite of online, interactive maps and services that support Arctic science. Learn more about research projects in your region of interest or scientific discipline. Explore available data or possible collaborations. Use the online mapping tools to meet your own project's specific goals.
Summit Station, Greenland Website. The station is located atop 3200 m of ice and is nearly 400 km from the nearest point of land. Summit supports a diversity of scientific research, including year-round measurements of air-snow interactions that provide crucial knowledge for interpreting data from deep ice cores drilled both at Summit and elsewhere.
North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling website. The North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling - NEEM - is an international ice core research project aimed at retrieving an ice core from North-West Greenland (camp position 77.45°N 51.06°W) reaching back through the previous interglacial, the Eemian.
Density currents drive 3D movements within the world’s oceans that dwarf surface currents by volume. Density-driven movements due to temperature/salinity differences keep the world’s oceans well mixed & help to re-distribute heat from tropical areas towards polar areas. Resultant upwelling creates some of the world’s richest ocean ecosystems. Density movements known as turbidity currents are the world’s largest
Many students are familiar with topographic maps showing relief of land surfaces. In this lab they will produce their own bathymetric maps, the underwater equivalent. A bathymetric map shows sea floor features by contouring depths below sea level (instead of elevation above sea level as in topographic maps). Students will first probe depths in “Mystery Bay”, a box
The website, Ice Stories, features short interviews and other interesting content live from the polar regions. This weblink has a short video interview of PolarTREC teacher, Craig Beals, while taking part in a PolarTREC expedition with Barry Lefer at Summit, Greenland.