Researchers travel to study climate change
by Katharine Lackey | Daily Collegian (Penn State)
Issue date: 12/5/07 Section: News
(U-WIRE) — While the summer season usually conjures up images of warm weather and beach trips, summer in Antarctica is certainly not that.
The penguins might enjoy it, but with temperatures ranging from zero to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, sometimes dipping to minus 25, it's enough to make anyone long for the milder winter in State College.
Within the last few weeks, two separate groups of Penn State students and faculty left for barren Antarctica to conduct research, two of the many projects Penn State is spearheading in the effort to understand the pressing issue of climate change.
The projects involve drilling deep ice cores to better understand past climate changes, as well as exploring the large Thwaites Glacier to determine how fast the glacier is moving, a concern because of global warming, said Richard Alley, Evan Pugh professor of geosciences.
Alley, who was a contributing and leading author for two chapters in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, said Penn State is a "world leader" in ice sheet research.
Across the globe, the polar bear, or the "poster child" for climate change, has been affected by the Arctic Sea ice near Greenland that melted to record lows last summer.
The ice is slowly expanding, but the surface area it covers still remains well below normal levels for this time of year, Alley said.
"The minimum reached was way smaller than the long-term average ... by about 40 percent," he said, adding that data for the size of the ice sheet goes back to 1979.
According to the United States Geological Survey, nearly two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could disappear by the mid-21st century if projected changes in Arctic Sea ice are realized.
Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology, lead author on the previous IPCC report and expert reviewer for the current assessment, said the Greenland ice sheet is a major concern for climate change experts.
The penguins might enjoy it, but with temperatures ranging from zero to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, sometimes dipping to minus 25, it's enough to make anyone long for the milder winter in State College.
Within the last few weeks, two separate groups of Penn State students and faculty left for barren Antarctica to conduct research, two of the many projects Penn State is spearheading in the effort to understand the pressing issue of climate change.
The projects involve drilling deep ice cores to better understand past climate changes, as well as exploring the large Thwaites Glacier to determine how fast the glacier is moving, a concern because of global warming, said Richard Alley, Evan Pugh professor of geosciences.
Alley, who was a contributing and leading author for two chapters in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, said Penn State is a "world leader" in ice sheet research.
Across the globe, the polar bear, or the "poster child" for climate change, has been affected by the Arctic Sea ice near Greenland that melted to record lows last summer.
The ice is slowly expanding, but the surface area it covers still remains well below normal levels for this time of year, Alley said.
"The minimum reached was way smaller than the long-term average ... by about 40 percent," he said, adding that data for the size of the ice sheet goes back to 1979.
According to the United States Geological Survey, nearly two-thirds of the world's polar bear population could disappear by the mid-21st century if projected changes in Arctic Sea ice are realized.
Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology, lead author on the previous IPCC report and expert reviewer for the current assessment, said the Greenland ice sheet is a major concern for climate change experts.
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