Tag: Cryosphere

Dr. Seymour Laxon, Professor of Climate Physics at University College London, died aged 49 after sustaining a head injury in an accident on New Year’s Day, 2013. Laxon was remembered on the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling web-site, as the “heart of all the achievements and successes of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London (UCL) over the past two decades.” He pioneered the use of space-borne altimeter systems for measuring sea ice freeboard …

Over 35 UMD, NOAA, and NASA scientists, met at the M-Square Research Park Friday, January 18, 2013, to discuss current and emerging cryospheric research opportunities. The word “cryosphere,” which comes from the Greek word for cold, pertains to the frozen areas of the earth. The meeting, which included a number of cryospheric presentations and discussion topics, was organized by ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Sinead Farrell, a member of both NASA’s Operation IceBridge Science and …

Data show that Arctic ice is melting at an increasing rate, a rate that NASA wants to more clearly define through airborne observation. ESSIC Assistant Research Scientist Sinead Farrell has worked with NASA to help accomplish that goal. Farrell is a member of NASA’s Operation IceBridge science team – she is one of 5 or 6 sea ice scientists on a science team of more than 15 people – that surveyed land and sea ice in the Arctic Ocean from aircraft equipped with a range of instruments, …

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) reported on July 24 that Greenland’s surface ice melted at an unusually high rate during July. According to a JPL release, the extent of surface ice melting occurred over the largest area of melting observed in the past 30 years. Three satellites contributed data that led to this conclusion. Data from the satellites showed that thawing went from affecting 40 percent of the ice sheet on July 8 to 97 percent of the ice sheet on July 12. These data are …

Sinead Farrell discussed the sea ice factories of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean as part of a NASA podcast recorded for the NASA Visualization Explorer (NASA Viz) App. for the iPad.  A link to the story can be found here: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10826…

Sinead Farrell was acknowledged for participation on the IceBridge Science Team when NASA presented the 2011 Group Achievement Award to the Team for exceptional achievement in support of NASA’s IceBridge campaign. IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth’s polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the …