When we think of lightning, it is often accompanied by warm summer nights, tropical storms and a sticky feeling when we try to sleep. However, lightning also happens in the cold Arctic, and is even increasing in frequency. But how and why? And why does that matter? What is lightning? Lightning is caused by a difference in electrical charge between the cloud and the air, nearby clouds, or the groun ...[Read More]
Camp Century re-visited: sediment from the bottom of a Cold War ice core reveals Greenland’s warm past
Historic photograph of the ice core drill rig inside a covered snow trench at Camp Century, northwestern Greenland in 1964. Source: Langway, 2008 [Credit: USACE/CRREL].
A Cold War nuclear-powered military base inside the Greenland Ice Sheet sounds like science fiction, but the science that came out of this U.S. army installation was anything but fiction. In last week’s EGU CR blog post, Paul Bierman and Amanda Schmidt discussed the advances made by the U.S. military in operating across the Greenland Ice Sheet that culminated in the establishment of Camp Century i ...[Read More]
Living IN the Greenland ice sheet: the story of Sites I and II, Camp Century’s older, smaller siblings
Site I in 1953 or early 1954, just after installation and before it was buried by accumulating snow. These three main tubes each have a diameter of 5.4 meters. [Credits: U.S. Air Force]
Greenland, cold as it is, was appropriately front and center in the Cold War. Strategically placed between Europe and North America, the United States sought to maintain and enhance its position on the island so that American missiles and bombers were in striking range of many Soviet targets. Soviet bombers and missiles coming toward North America would streak over Greenland making early warning c ...[Read More]
Parenting in Academia: Challenges and Perspectives
Children pave the way to the future, but the parents need support [credit: Suzi Kim at Unsplash.com]
Trying to juggle teaching, advising, publishing, finding a new (or permanent) job, relocating, attending conferences, and actually doing research sometimes requires more hours in the day than exist (oh and that global pandemic situation is sticking around). Additionally, many scientists have children or are starting a family at the same time as maintaining and building a career. In this week’s blo ...[Read More]
Climate Change & the Cryosphere: Fjord sediments reveal how melting ice impact the marine ecosystem
Coastal marine landscape in Ilulissat, West Greenland [photo: Anna Bang Kvorning]
It is scary how fast the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting and how much freshwater it is discharging to the coastal areas around Greenland. This freshening is having a serious impact to coastal marine primary production, which is the foundation of the Arctic marine food web. Now, because of increased melting and freshwater discharge, we need to understand how coastal ecosystems will react. How will A ...[Read More]