The Arctic climate is changing rapidly, and this change will have profound effects on the Arctic landscape, its people and wildlife. Perhaps most importantly, Arctic Ocean sea ice is melting, and changing its nature, from a thicker multi-year ice pack, to an ice cover that is characterized mostly by first-year ice, that is thinner, and much smaller in areal extent in summer. Here scientists and Arctic dwellers talk about climate change in the Arctic.
(If you have a slow internet connection, make sure HD is turned off, in the upper right hand corner of the video clip.)
Dr Don Perovich
Research Geophysicist
Dr Don Perovich is a Research Geophysicist at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover NH and is an Adjunct Professor in the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College. His primary research interest is understanding the role of sea ice in the global climate system, with an emphasis on the heat budget of sea ice and the ice albedo feedback. He has participated in numerous Arctic field experiments including serving as the Chief Scientist of field campaigns studying the electromagnetic properties of sea ice (EMPOSI) and the surface heat budget of the Arctic (SHEBA).
"Imagine what it would be like to walk on a frozen ocean, a vast beautiful wasteland..." Don talks of tipping points, "ice albedo feedback," and the roll of clouds in the loss of sea ice.
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Dr. Matt Huber
Paleoclimate Modeler
Matthew Huber is an Associate Professor in Purdue University's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department and co-founding member of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center. He has been Associate Editor of Paleoceanography and G-Cubed, and co-Chair of the Paleoclimate Working Group of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Modeling initiative. Huber attempts to solve fundamental climate questions, such as: When global warming occurs, how much is the warming amplified near the poles? What are the impacts of climate change on the hydrological cycle and severe weather events? What sets the equilibrium equator-to-pole temperature gradient and how is this key parameter related to global mean temperature? Are there mechanisms that generate increased heat transport in warm time intervals? What are the negative feedbacks in the climate system that prevent a positive feedback loop, i.e. a ‘runaway greenhouse effect?’
Attempting to answer these fundamental climate questions has led Huber from the present to the deep past (Eocene--50 million years ago) and back again. Huber’s work covers many subjects and methodologies including: climate modelling , paleobiogeographic reconstructions, Lagrangian tracer modelling, compound-specific isotope record synthesis, and satellite observation investigation. One of his most exciting research opportunities was collaborating with other scientists who collected deep sea cores from the Arctic Ocean on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Cruise 302. The paleoclimate proxy records indicated Florida-like temperatures in the Arctic 55 million years ago, whereas the climate models produced only tepid temperatures.
Here Matt describes the energy policy of humans--
"If it's not running away, and if you can't eat it, THEN BURN IT!" Our propensity for burning things means serious warming in our future!
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Dr. Steven C. Amstrup
Research Wildlfie Biologist, Polar Bears
Dr. Steven Amstrup, USGS, polar bear expert, talks about Polar Bears & Climate Change. Dr. Amstrup is a Research Wildlife Biologist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK. He led the international team of researchers which prepared 9 reports that became the basis for the recent decision, by the Secretary of Interior, to list polar bears as a threatened species.
Alaska's foremost polar bear expert talks about the effect of the retreating ice on bears
Research Wildlife Biologist, Alaska Science Center, USGS, Anchorage, Alaska. Dr. Amstrup talks about Polar Bear science and managing bears as the pole warms up and the ice retreats.
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Dr. Matthew Sturm
Research Physical Scientist
Dr. Sturm is responsible for conducting wide-ranging geophysical studies on snow in high latitudes. His work has taken him from the Antarctic to the Arctic, and he has been the leader of more than 30 expeditions in winter in pursuit of his science. He is based at the Alaska Office in Fairbanks, but collaborates with a wide range of scientists both at CRREL and elsewhere. His most recent work focuses on the role of snow cover on climate, with particular attention to snow ecology, and climate change resulting from snow-vegetation interactions.
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Two Atmospheric Chemists working in Barrow, Alaska, take time out to discuss the problems with quick fixes for Climate Change
Dr. Paul Shepson
Analytical/Atmospheric Chemistry
Dr. Paul Shepson, Head of the Chemistry Deptartment, Purdue University holds a split appointment between the Departments of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and Chemistry. He is currently Head of the Department of Chemistry, and was the founding Director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center (PCCRC). Professor Shepson’s research group is interested in numerous problems in the field of atmospheric and analytical chemistry, applied to atmospheric measurement problems. His group focuses on issues related to exchange of gases between the surface and the atmosphere in two very different environments – the Arctic, and mid-latitude forests. His research approaches involve building platforms from which to study the atmosphere, including tethered balloons and aircraft, including the Airborne Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.
Dr. Jan Willem Bottenheim
Atmospheric Chemistry
Dr. Bottenheim's research interests are in the area of atmospheric gas phase chemistry. One area of particular interest to Jan is the chemistry of the Arctic boundary layer air. Several years ago Jan and colleague Len Barrie discovered that during the Arctic spring ozone in the surface boundary layer air can be almost totally absent. This lower tropospheric ozone hole has been one of the topics Jan has studied in detail in collaboration with several colleagues from all over the world; lately this has led to the discovery of surprisingly active photochemistry of the snow pack.
Jan was the lead scientist for several large field studies in recent years such as the OASIS-CANADA, Polar Sunrise Experiment 1992, PACIFIC93, ATLANTIC96 and ALERT2000, and the results of these studies have been published in special issues of key scientific journals such as the Journal of Geophysical Research and Atmospheric Environment.
Born in the Netherlands, Jan received his education from the University of Amsterdam, and after post doctoral work in Japan and the US came to Canada in 1975. After a stint in Alberta he came to Toronto in 1980 where he has been employed by Environment Canada since that time.
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Geoff Carroll
Wildlife Biologist
Geoff Carroll, Area Wildlife Biologist for Alaska's Department of Fish and Game, talks about his job looking after the animals in a 56,000 sq mile region on the North Slope. He also talks about his love of the Arctic, and especially the sea ice, and about his passion for sled dogs. In 1986, he accompanied Will Steger on a National Geographic sponsored 56-day dog sled expedition to the North Pole. One of these clips shows Geoff out on the snow and ice his Greenland dogs.
And Dr. Jan Bottenheim