Tag: Cryosphere

NASA and NOAA will launch the JPSS-1 Satellite from California Tuesday, Nov. 14, the first of four next generation satellites which orbit pole to pole collecting global data on atmospheric conditions.   Polar satellites allow for high accuracy weather forecasting up to a week in advance, said NOAA’s Mitch Goldberg, the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) chief scientist.   “All the major weather prediction centers throughout the world, they use our …

ESSIC research scientist Dorothy Hall coauthored the recently published article “Overview of NASA's MODIS and VIIRS Snow-Cover Earth System Data Records.” The article, published by Earth System Science Data (ESSD) analyzes the system that NASA uses to measure snow cover and how it has been improved to minimize error in snow detection.      Additionally, Hall will give an invited talk at the International Workshop on Fiducial Reference Measurements for …

ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Alek Petty is the lead author of an article published in the summer 2017 edition of US CLIVAR Variations. The article is titled; “Improving our understanding of Antarctic Sea Ice with NASA's Operation IceBridge and The upcoming ICESat-2 mission.” It broadly covers the ways in which scientists hope to use NASA’s Operation IceBridge and the upcoming ICESat-2 mission for Antarctic sea ice research.  …

ESSIC researchers Alek Petty and Linette Boisvert are co-authors of a new study that has determined that temperature peaks above minus 10 degrees Celsius are occurring more frequently during the arctic winter.  Titled “Increasing frequency and duration of Arctic winter warming events,” the study published in Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) has been featured by both the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.  Although arctic …

ESSIC researchers Alek Petty and Kelly Brunt were quoted in a Baltimore Sun article on the recent calving of the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica. The researchers were specifically asked if the event could be connected or attributed to global warming, but both scientists felt the calving was part of the normal ice shelf splintering and recovery processes that have occurred in the past and will continue in the future….

ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Alek Petty is the lead author of a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research’s Earth Surface. Titled “Atmospheric form drag coefficients over Arctic sea ice using remotely sensed ice topography data, spring 2009–2015,“ the paper provides new insight into atmospheric wind drag over Arctic sea ice utilizing Operation IceBridge data.  Petty is also a co-author of a newly published study in the European Geosciences …

ESSIC Post-doctoral Associate Alek Petty recently published a paper on forecasting summer Arctic sea ice. The paper, titled “Skillful spring forecasts of September Arctic sea ice extent using passive microwave sea ice observations,” was published in the American Geophysical Union’s Earth Future. In the study, Petty discusses the use of a new satellite-based forecasting model to better estimate Arctic Sea ice loss during the spring months. A NASA feature, which …

ESSIC Associate Research Scientist Kelly Brunt was interviewed March 8 during a segment of PBS Newshour. The feature expounds on the sectional disappearance of the Larsen-C Ice Shelf, located in the northwest portion of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea.  Brunt, whose research focus-expertise is glaciology, commented on the dynamic qualities of ice and the magnitude of the ice loss, as well as the anticipated calving of a massive iceberg from the shelf.  Brunt is currently located at …

ESSIC assistant research scientist Linette Boisvert and post-doctoral associate Alek Petty recently published a paper that is making headlines at NASA. Their study found that during December 2015, a cyclone brought heat and humidity to a usually frigid and dry environment causing sea ice cover to thin and shrink when it grows thicker and stronger during that part of the year. Both Boisvert and Petty are quoted in the NASA article that was featured on the nasa.gov homepage. Boisvert also did …