I've had a lot of interactions recently where I am talking with people about the upcoming holidays and at some point I briefly mention how I will be in Antarctica for Christmas. At this point in my preparation process, I breeze through this tidbit as anyone would sharing their plans to see family. Of course, spending Christmas in Antarctica is not a normal thing and the conversation usually comes to a screeching halt to the tune of, "wait what? Antarctica?" So I'm going to Antarctica and here is the story. This fall I started my PhD at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. I arrived in my new home for the next five years fresh off a summer internship in Huntsville, AL with NASA and shortly after earning my Bs in Geology at St.Lawrence University in Canton, NY in May. I was lucky to have a research assistant position open up last minute with Mark Salvatore and his Planetary Exploration Lab group in the Physics & Astronomy Department. While I am neither a physicist nor an astronomer, the department recently added a PhD program in Planetary Science and brought on geologists like Mark to cover planetary surface topics. This is where I fit in. I ultimately want to study the surface of Mars using terrestrial analogs. In other words, using field sites on Earth that are similar to the Martian surface to understand the environment on Mars. At the moment, I am working on strictly Earth research in yep...Antarctica. People forget that Earth is a planet too. My research position is to assist with a project called ICEBERG, a fancy acronym for Imagery Cyber-Infrastructure and Extensible Building-Blocks to Enhance Research in the Geosciences. To put it simply, the project aims to scale up satellite image interpretation of Antarctica and convert it into a user friendly software. Even simpler, we are creating a paint by numbers mosaic of Antarctica's land cover and wildlife populations. In order to accomplish this task, we have a range of polar and computer scientists from five different Universities working together. Antarctica is hard to get to and because of that we don't have the same extent of on-site, or in situ data that we have for the rest of the populated world. Most of what we already know and where we continue to gather most of our data on Antarctica is via satellites. This is called remote sensing and satellites are just one way you can make observations of place without being there. If you remember your 6th grade science class, you may recall the electromagnetic spectrum. If not, it is a series of energy wavelength intervals such as visible light, which allows us to see color, or radio waves which we cannot see. All objects and surfaces emit electromagnetic energy which can be captured with a satellite in space. Some energy is scattered, some absorbed, and some reflected. Each object or surface has a specific signature of electromagnetic energy called a spectral signature. We can use these signatures to identify things like rock types, water, and guano (AKA penguin poop). When satellites measure these signatures, they also measure the atmosphere between the satellite and the surface. We can correct for this using a range of methods, but it's not always simple in Antarctica. Again, because of that hard to get to, lack of in situ data problem, we don't have the best grasp on what the behavior of the atmosphere is like in the South Pole. This is one of the issues I am trying to solve in my research and one we experience when observing other planets. Part of solving this problem is collecting in situ data by doing what is called "ground truthing". This is why I am going to Antarctica. There is a piece of equipment called a field spectrometer. It does the same thing that the satellites in space do: measure electromagnetic energy reflected off the surface. By taking these measurements with the field spectrometer, you don't have to worry about atmospheric interference. By "collecting spectra" of different objects and surfaces in Antarctica, we can use these absolute values to check the accuracy of our atmospheric corrections with our satellite measurements. This can give us a better understanding of the atmosphere in Antarctica and the different surface types so that we can be confident in scaling their properties to the entire continent. The best part is that the field spectrometer makes you look and feel like a ghostbuster. I will be teaming up with a group called the Oceanites, a team of scientists that focus on Antarctic site inventory of penguins for conservation. Since most penguin populations are concentrated on the Antarctic Peninsula, the Oceanites depart from Ushuaia, the southern most city in Argentina, South America. This is pretty unique for research as many Antarctic field expeditions operate out of McMurdo Station, a United States Antarctic Research Center on Ross Island which is accessed by plane out of Christchurch, New Zealand. Our trip relies on extra space aboard a commercial cruise ship to make the trip, which means only two scientists can go on a given ship. Luckily, these cruise ships take many trips to Antarctica which give the Oceanites the opportunity to send more scientists throughout the field season. The field season is from November to February which is summer in Antarctica and up to a full 24 hours of sunlight. I depart with fellow scientist, Maureen Lynch of Stony Brook University out of Ushuaia on December 20. We will spend ten days at sea aboard the luxurious Resolute and return on December 30. Of those ten days, four will be spent at sea getting to and from Antarctica through the rough waters of the Drake Passage. The remaining six days have us bouncing around different islands and bays along the peninsula. From the cruise ship, we will take small zodiacs to shore where Maureen and I will separate from the passengers to do our work. In addition to taking spectral measurements, I will be assisting Maureen with inventory by helping count penguins and photographing seals. We will even recruit passengers to participate in citizen science by having them submit their wildlife photos. We are considered more crew than passenger and will occasionally help the staff by giving presentations to the passengers while at sea. When we return, two new Oceanite scientists will board for the next cruise and we will get the unique bragging right of celebrating the end of the year at the end of the world. Field Spectrometer ghostbuster get up Map of penguin populations in Antarctica. (MAPPPD)
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About this blogEverything science, from lab work to field work and anything else important to me in the science community.
Science meI am currently a PhD student in the Planetary Exploration Lab at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. I received my Bs in Geology from St. Lawrence University and am interested in surface processes on Mars. My current research involves scaling the efficiency of image interpretation of geologic features in Antarctica. Archives |