Polar Research
From north to south pole, climate scientists grapple with pandemic disruptions
Carin Ashjian, a biological oceanographer at WHOI who studies the impact of climate on ecology, was also on the ship then and remembers that “there were a lot of mixed feelings” when news of the pandemic hit them in March. She described how they were both worried about the safety of people back home, while feeling relief that they were protected from the virus by their geographic isolation.
NOAA Live! Webinar: Sea Ice
Becki Heim, NOAA’s National Weather Service, AK Sponsored by: NOAA and Woods Hole Sea Grant This will be held virtually.…
Read MoreMC&G Department Virtual Seminar: Meltwater Drainage Dominates the Recent History of Thwaites Glacier as Recorded by Offshore Sediments
Lauren Simkins, University of Virginia Sponsored by: MC&G Department This will be held virtually. Zoom link: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/92438868687
Read MoreBreaking the ice on melting and freezing
“Ice deforms as it melts,” said WHOI physical oceanographer Claudia Cenedese, who has worked with Hester on the project. “It makes these very weird shapes, especially on the bottom, like the way the wind shapes a mountain on a longer time scale.”
Hunger in the Arctic prompts focus on causes, not symptoms
As Arctic Inuit communities try to cope with extreme food insecurity, researchers look for answers
Read MoreG&G Department Virtual Seminar: Future Climate Response to Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt Produced by Anthropogenic Warming
Shaina Sadai, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Sponsored by: G&G Department This will be held virtually. Zoom details: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/98028388697?pwd=Wm93QkVZRkQrUlZvbnRHTW93NERsZz09 Meeting ID:…
Read MoreWoods Hole scientist part of MOSAiC expedition that spent year researching Arctic ecosystem
The research vessel Polarstern returned to its home port in Germany Monday after spending a year locked in thick sea ice, floating in the Arctic Ocean and gathering data. Among those onboard was Carin Ashjian, a senior scientist and biology department chairwoman at WHOI.
WHOI oceanographer completes epic Arctic mission
The largest Arctic science expedition in history has ended, with the return of the German icebreaker Polarstern to its home port of Bremerhaven more than one year after it departed Tromso, Norway.
Read MoreArctic Science Mission Wraps Up as Research Ship Docks in Germany
After a year spent drifting across the top of the world, frozen in sea ice, a German research ship returned home on Monday, ending the largest Arctic science expedition in history, one aimed at better understanding a region that is rapidly changing as the world warms.
Epic Arctic Mission Ends
An epic mission ended as the German icebreaker Polarstern returned home Oct. 12, 2020, after being frozen near the top of the world for nearly a year to study all aspects of the Arctic system.
Read MoreWHOI-NOAA Partnership Tackles Critical Gap In Climate Knowledge
Researchers at WHOI were awarded a $500,000 grant from the NOAA Climate Observations and Monitoring program to develop machine learning tools to improve estimates of air-sea heat exchange in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas.
Antarctic Ice Sheet Loss Expected to Affect Future Climate Change
The research team reports that their new models with the added ice melt information reveal important interacting processes and demonstrate a need to accurately account for meltwater input from ice sheets in order to make confident climate predictions.
Read MoreAntarctic ice loss expected to affect future climate change
In a new climate modeling study that looked at the impacts of accelerated ice melt from the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) on future climate, a team of climate scientists reports that future ice-sheet melt is expected to have significant effects on global climate.
Penguin math – Science & Tech – WORLD
Penguins may not know anything about math, but their formations align with sophisticated physics and geometry concepts. The research validates an earlier study in which a team of researchers with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution used robotic, high-resolution cameras at a remote Antarctic research station to monitor the penguins’ behavior and measure the movements of individuals within the colony.
AOP&E Department Virtual Seminar: Frozen Fingerprints: Deciphering the Physical and Biogeochemical Signatures of Planetary Ices
Jacob Buffo, Dartmouth Sponsored by: AOP&E This will be held virtually. Please Join: https://whoi-edu.zoom.us/j/94850236990?pwd=akJrTDFBeDJYakhOdVc2c1hDWVdYQT09 Meeting ID: 948 5023 6990 Passcode:…
Read MorePenguins Are Nature’s Best Snugglers
It turns out that penguins execute their huddles with a high degree of mathematical efficiency, as Blanchette and his team discovered. More recently, Daniel Zitterbart, a physicist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, helped develop and install high-resolution cameras to observe undisturbed huddling behavior.
Doctoral Dissertation Defense of Thesis: Morphological Approaches to Understanding Antarctic Sea Ice Thickness
M. Jeffrey Mei, MIT-WHOI Joint Program Sponsored by: Academic Programs Office This will be held virtually. To register, please visit:…
Read MoreWill melting glaciers cool the climate?
As glaciers melt at unprecedented rates, WHOI’s Simon Pendleton is looking back to historical records to predict whether this new cool runoff will slow ocean circulation and cool the northern hemisphere––findings which could mean adjustments to some climate predictions.
Read MorePhysical Oceanography Department Virtual Seminar: Potential Vorticity Dynamics of the Arctic Halocline
Michael Spall, WHOI Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84827620172?pwd=QVd3VlF0Tlp0ZjRpY3UzSmZIRjJoUT09 Meeting ID: 848…
Read MorePhysical Oceanography Virtual Seminar: Inferring Mixing from Acoustic Observations of Double-Diffusive Staircases in the Arctic Ocean
Nicole Shibley, Yale Sponsored by: Physical Oceanography Department This will be held virtually. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83756315793?pwd=amt3TitUdW5wb3pwSEpmZEdOR1RwQT09 Meeting ID: 837…
Read MoreGeodynamics Virtual Seminar: The Elusive Arctic Carbon Budget: Bridging Gaps Between Observations and Models
Jennifer Watts, Woods Hole Research Center Zoom Link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89217068485 Meeting ID: 892 1706 8485 Password: 009874
Read MoreCovid-19 Forces Spring Science Field Work to Go Fallow
Carin Ashjian, a senior scientist at WHOI, was one of 97 scientists and crew members aboard a German oceanographic research vessel that has been deliberately stranded in Arctic Sea ice as part of the year-long MOSAIC experiment.
Study Finds New Source of Trace Elements Could Rapidly Change Arctic Ecosystems
A new study by WHOI and their international colleagues found that freshwater runoff from rivers and continental shelf sediments are bringing significant quantities of carbon and trace elements into parts of the Arctic Ocean via the Transpolar Drift—a major surface current that moves water from Siberia across the North Pole to the North Atlantic Ocean.
Imagining Home: scientist’s stay in the Arctic extended by coronavirus
WHOI biologist Carin Ashjian is aboard the icebreaker Polarstern in the Arctic as part of the year-long MOSAiC research expedition. She should be almost home by now. Instead, her stay has been extended by COVID19.
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