Chapter 7. Atmospheric and Oceanic Research in CIRES:
Atmospheric Physics, Cryospheric and Polar Processes,and Climate Dynamics
Cold Climates: Cryospheric and Polar Processes at CIRES
As noted above, ice sheet modeling studies were introduced by Radok in
the 1980s. The incorporation of the World Data Center for Glaciology
into CIRES added a new dimension. Initially, this was primarily a library
and information function, although it also included a glacier photographic
archive from the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1982 the group took
on the film archive of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP)
Operational Line Scan (OLS) imagery from the University of Wisconsin.
This comprised over one million positive transparencies and it satisfied
many requests for imagery not only of snow and ice, but also meteorological,
night-time lightning and city light features. It was also used for
graduate thesis research, notably by Andrew Carleton, and in studies of
Arctic cloud (Axel Schweiger and John Newell) and ice albedo (Greg
Scharfen and Mark Serreze). The DMSP project was headed by Greg
Scharfen and employed numerous undergraduate students, until the Air
Force products became digital and were taken over by NGDC in 1992. In
1982, the National Snow and Ice Data Center
[ About NSIDC ]
title was approved
by NOAA/NESDIS and, through NASA support, the NSIDC took
on the archiving and distribution of satellite passive microwave data
from early microwave polar-orbiting sensors. These developments were
greatly aided by the graduate thesis work of Robert Crane and Mark Anderson.
Planning began for the archiving and processing of DMSP Special
Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) data, which led in 1990 to the first distribution
of sea ice products on CD-ROM. Richard Armstrong joined
NSIDC in 1985 supported by several agencies. The Bureau of Reclamation,
Office of Atmospheric Water Resources (Project Skywater) funded
avalanche research with the Army Research Office. The National Science
Foundation supported Armstrong's work on the Blue Glacier.
A major success was achieved in 1986 with the award of a five-year
University Research Initiative from the Office of Naval Research (ONR)
for the study of "Arctic Ocean-ice-climate interactions" to co-PIs Barry,
A. S. McLaren and R. Schnell. The project involved analyses of in situ
and remote sensing data and was closely linked with a modeling and laboratory
component at the Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College,
New Hampshire. The funding continuity supported five graduate
students, most of whom have continued after completing their degrees to
work on related problems. These include Mark Serreze (CIRES), Jim
Maslanik (CCAR/Engineering), Jeff Key (NESDIS, University of Wisconsin),
and Martin Miles (Nansen Center and University of Bergen).
During 1986 to 1988 Konrad Steffen from the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology (ETH), Zurich undertook sea ice remote sensing studies while
on a visiting fellow appointment. His stay was extended 12 months through
NASA support, and after briefly resuming his position at the ETH, he
joined CIRES and Geography as a faculty member in 1991. Barry, Steffen
and Radok made the case for establishing a Division of Cryospheric and
Polar Processes. This was approved in 1991 and Barry was nominated and
appointed as its first associate director, a position he filled until 1998,
followed by Steffen who continued to hold this position in 2001.
Steffen focused initially on remote sensing of sea ice, validating the
NASA Team sea ice concentration algorithm (passive microwave) using
high-resolution satellite and aircraft measurements. In 1991 he started
the climate-monitoring project on the Greenland ice sheet, which ultimately
resulted in a NASA research initiative, the Program for Arctic
Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA). In 1995 this NASA project was
combined into a coordinated multi-investigator program to assess
whether airborne laser altimetry can be applied to measure ice sheet
thickness changes. The PARCA goal is to determine the mass balance of
the Greenland ice sheet, and its present and possible future impact on sea
level. Steffen was also active in science leadership through his chairmanship
of the Polar Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) User Working
Group, an NSIDC enterprise, from 1991 through 1999.
The data management aspect of NSIDC expanded in the mid-1980s
with the development of a Cryospheric Data Management System
(CDMS) by Ron Weaver and Vince Troisi in anticipation of archiving and
distribution of SSM/I data. The NSIDC proposed to operate a
Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) for the NASA Earth Observing System
program and the first contract was awarded in 1993. Building on a
prior successful project for the Office of Naval Research, headed by
Claire Hanson, NSIDC was also funded by NSF to manage multidisciplinary
Arctic System Science (ARCSS) data.
In the 1990s the NSIDC-affiliated science group expanded and diversified
so that most areas of expertise in the cryosphere were represented:
Mark Serreze (Arctic climate), James Maslanik (sea ice passive microwave
data), Ted Scambos (Antarctic glaciology), Florence Fetterer
(Arctic sea ice remote sensing), Anne Nolin (optical remote sensing of
snow and ice), Julienne Stroeve (radiative transfer), and Tingjun Zhang
(frozen ground). Most of these individuals were employed part-time by
the NSIDC-DAAC to provide science support for satellite data products,
and additionally brought in their own research funds, although Fetterer
was recruited as a NOAA-NESDIS liaison. NSF and NASA grants, as
well as the CIRES/CDC Western Water Assessment project led to the addition
of expertise in snow hydrology through Martyn Clark and Andy
Barrett. Diversification was also added through the visiting fellows program
work of Alan Frei on atmospheric model inter-comparisons of
snow cover and Sergey Sokratov on snow/frozen ground interactions,
and the Fulbright-supported visit of Olga Solomina from Moscow for
work on glacier history.
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