“My 3-year old daughter and I were looking at a globe today. She says, ‘I want to go to this island daddy.’  Her finger was on Greenland.”  — A proud Tweet from photographer, Chris Linder

Chris Linder shoots from a larch tree in Siberia. Photo: Brian Kator

Seattle-based photographer Chris Linder grew up in southeastern Wisconsin, which is to say he’s no stranger to snow and sub-zero temperatures, a good thing considering he makes his living, in part, by photographing polar scientists in the field.

‘I was a geeky kid in high school and still am,” Linder wrote on the Polar Discovery website. “I love learning new things and wish I could stay in school my whole life.’

Linder first took up photography as a hobby during the two years he spent in Spain as a naval officer following graduation from the United States Naval Academy and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)/Massachusetts Institute of Technology joint Masters graduate program in Ocean Engineering. After completing his stint abroad, Linder returned to the States as a civilian and returned to WHOI as a research technician.

While in graduate school, Linder went on his first scientific cruise with Bob Pickart (WHOI) to the Irminger Sea, east of Greenland, as a watchstander. When not taking water samples from a CTD rosette, on watch, or doing work on deck, he took pictures of other people doing science. His photographs were impressive—so much so that WHOI scientists invited Linder along on the Edge of the Arctic Shelf cruise just to photograph and handle project outreach.

Winter FINCH II cruise aboard the R/V Oceanus, 2005. Craig Marquette (WHOI) secrures the wet lab as heavy seas crash into the ship. Photo: Chris Linder

Linder’s largest project while at WHOI was as project manager and expedition photographer for the NSF-funded Live from the Poles project which documented polar science during the International Polar Year on the project’s Polar Discovery website. Between 2007 and 2009, Linder worked with science writers Mike Carlowicz, Lonny Lippsett, Hugh Powell, Amy Nevala, and Helen Fields to create photo essays while participating in five WHOI field expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic.

In daily web dispatches, which included audio, video, and still photography, Linder’s media team explained complicated science concepts and field methodology. Linder also set up the Live Talk schedule partnering with nine U.S. museums to facilitate interaction between a scientist in the field and a museum audience via satellite phone.

“Field science is fun and exciting and it’s my job to show this through photography. My goals are to educate, inspire, and communicate.”

Linder relocated to the west coast with his wife and young daughter in 2009, where Linder began what has proved to be a very busy freelancing career. Since that first cruise, he has spent more than a year of his life at sea; more than half of that time has been in the Arctic working for scientists on a total of 11 arctic projects (6 of these ship-based). Now bipolar (in that he’s been to Antarctica twice), he has made photographing field research his specialty.

Ships remain his favorite venue for documenting field science, but Linder is branching out both in terms of venue and medium. These days he’s a mainstay with the Polaris Project, a National Science Foundation-funded summer field course in arctic system science for undergraduates headed by Max Holmes (WHRC). Each summer the group spends four weeks at the Northeast Science Station in Cherskiy, Siberia.

Undergraduate Blaize Denfeld takes a water sample from the Panteleikha River in Siberia. Photo: Chris Linder

Linder documents field work, and mentors a university student who is interested in science journalism. Last summer, he and Western Washington University student Max Wilbert took more than 50,000 photos. The two are currently developing multimedia segments on student projects using stills, video, and audio, which will support the Polaris Project website.

Linder has also been increasingly involved in a number of nature and travel groups. He was recently named Associate Member of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers. The ILCP brings awareness to environmental and conservation issues through the pro bono collaborative efforts of specialized field teams who produce multimedia ‘portraits’ through RAVEs (Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition). The grass roots organization seeks to document ecosystems while informing the public.

Graduate student Maria Tausendfreund collects a water sample from an Arctic melt pond during a brief period of 'ice liberty.' Photo: Chris Linder

Linder’s photographs have been featured in a number of museum exhibits including the Field and the Smithsonian Museums. Linder’s first book, The Photographer’s Guide to Cape Cod and the Islands came out in 2007. His second, entitled Science on Ice, is due in stores by fall of 2011.

When not photographing his new baby boy, Linder teaches photography workshops and gives presentations about his work and expeditions. Thirty-five of Linder’s Adelie penguin photographs are featured currently in an exhibit at the Massachusetts Audubon Visual Arts Center through January, 2011, at which time, he’ll head to Antarctica a third time to work with scientists from Rutgers University and the University of Hawaii aboard the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer. –Marcy Davis

You can check out Chris Linder’s work at chrislinder.com

Comments (1) Jan 03 2011

For Christmas I received a new-to-me iPhone 3G. It’s my first smart phone and I love it. This morning I went way down the bunny hole of apps at the iTunes Store where I downloaded weather, currency converter, and requisite ‘best restaurants around’ apps. But, I wanted more – what apps out there are available and relevant to those of us who live in and/or work in the circumarctic? Below is a brief summary of some that look useful…or at least fun and interesting. Disclaimer: these apps are as new to me as they are to you – I’m not reviewing or recommending, just sharing. If you try these out or have any favorite polar apps to share, let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Arctic Science

Arctic Watch

Arctic Watch allows users to access sea ice maps for the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Coverage maps updated daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Environmental Prediction show daily sea ice coverage extent. Real-time satellite data is also accessible and users can compare current readings to data for the last thirty years. The arctic utility is free while the antarctic utility requires a one-time $.99 fee which supports other real-time app development. Download

Skeptical Science

This App and its developer have received a lot of press. Below is a review published by the Guardian’s Green Living Blog (February, 17, 2010) as one of the top 10 green iPhone apps. It’s also free.

“Based on information from an Australian blog that puts climate s[k]eptics under the microscope, this app is the ideal tool to counter pub bores when they tell you solar radiation, a spot of snow or the hacked climate science emails are proof that climate change isn’t happening. It lays out the most common arguments by s[k]eptics and then offers you both a succinct and in-depth counterargument, the latter often complete with graphs and links to science papers. Well-designed, it offers dozens of responses to statements you’ll have heard many times, from ‘the ice age was predicted in the 70s’ and ‘the models are unreliable,’ to ‘Greenland was green.’ The genius touch is a reporting feature that enables you to feed back arguments when confronted with them, helping the team behind the app to build up a picture of the most common arguments.” Download

Google Earth

The desktop application we know and love on the iPhone. Download

Arctic Wildlife

Project Noah

Project Noah makes you a citizen scientist. The free app allows users to record wildlife and plant sightings with map, note, and photo formats. Observations are networked so you can see the critters other people in your area have catalogued in the Noah Field Guide. Visit the Project Noah website for global exploration. Join a Mission for science like the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Impact which asks people to contribute photos and observation notes. Download

The Sibley eGuide to the Birds of North America

You can have the entire Sibley Guide complete with bird sounds! The guide isn’t cheap at $29.99, but if you’re into birds, it’s worth it according to this review from The Birder’s Library. Download

Fun and Games

Aurora Borealis Jigsaw

This app creates digital jigsaw puzzles from beautiful photographs of the Northern Lights. The app is well worth the $.99, especially when you find yourself stranded in an airport. Download

Amazing Alaska iSlider Puzzles

I love this app! Photos of Alaska glaciers are made into 29-piece slider puzzles. Truly a fantastic time-waster. Download

North Pole – iSoundboard

Ever wonder what a narwhal sounds like? For $.99 this simple utility allows the user to see and hear a handful of Arctic animals and birds. It’s a fun app for adults for a few minutes, but it’s really geared toward the kiddos. Critters include:

• Whale (sounds like a Humpback to me)
• Wolf
• Reindeer
• Narwhal
• Snowy owl
• Polar Bear
• Husky
• Seal
• Walrus
• Arctic hare
• Musk Ox
• Puffin
• Harp Seal
• Beluga
• Moose
• Penguin (shouldn’t this one be on the South Pole iSoundboard?)

Download

Now, if I could just find an ARMAP app…hint, hint. –Marcy Davis

Comments (1) Dec 31 2010

This map of Greenland shows the location of earthquakes, the boundaries between Greenland's ice drainage basins and the speed of ice (2005-2006). Graphic by Jonathan Corum and Xaquin G.V. / The New York Times.

At Polar Field Services, we are fortunate to assist in important scientific research that takes place in some of the world’s most beautiful places, and we aim to report on much of that research here in our blog. And while we know we have some dedicated readers, we’d hazard to guess the New York Times has a more robust readership. So we were glad to see some of the scientists we support on the front page of last Sunday’s issue in Reading Earth’s Future in Glacial Ice. Situated above the fold, this thoroughly-reported article on National Science Foundation-funded research outlined ongoing studies that aim to understand glacial dynamics.

The article, written by Justin Gillis and with a Tasilaq, Greenland, dateline, transports the reader immediately to the Greenland ice fields in a helicopter where two scientists drop a measuring device deep into water in an ice-choked fjord. The temperature registers at 40 degrees, a “troubling measurement showing that the water was warm enough to belt glaciers rapidly from below.” This information, says Gillis, will be used to help answer “one of the most urgent—and most widely debated—questions facing humanity: How fast is the world’s ice going to melt?”
The article continues to state that glaciology and ice dynamic studies are still in their infancy, and as scientists better understand the relationship between warming sea temperatures and earthquakes and glacial melt, it appears that sea levels will likely rise to a higher level more quickly than previously thought.

For decades, common scientific wisdom believed it would take thousands of years for Arctic and Antarctic ice to melt. Sea levels were predicted to rise possibly seven inches in this century. According to the article, sea level could rise as much as three feet by 2100, and glacial dynamics are much more complex than previously thought.

The article includes information about the Helheim Glacier, located in southeastern Greenland. This glacier has rapidly lost ice in previous years and is the subject of myriad research projects. Sea water flowing underneath the glacier could be contributing to rapid melting and scientists want to understand the impacts of that accelerated melting.

The issue of increased melting extends to many of Greenland’s glaciers. According to the article, “satellite and other measurements suggest that through the 1990s, Greenland was gaining about as much ice through snowfall as it lost to the sea every year. But since then, warmer water has invaded the fjords, and air temperatures in Greenland have increased markedly. The overall loss of ice seems to be accelerating, an ominous sign given that the island contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by more than 20 feet.”

Gillis’s article poses tough questions about the cause of the melting increase. Most scientists concur it is, in part, due to warmer temperatures. He writes, “to a majority of climate scientists, the question is not whether the earth’s land ice will melt in response to the greenhouse gases those people are generating, but whether it will happen too fast for society to adjust.”

He writes about budget issues that have hampered climate research and says a shortage of satellites has decreased the amount of data scientists can collect data about the ice sheets.

Finally, much remains unknown about the earth’s land ice, he writes. Although ongoing studies are critical, scientists need more resources to gather more data. The article quotes Harvard geochemist Daniel Schrag as praising scientists who study ice but commenting, “The scale of what they can do, given the resources available, is just completely out of whack with what is required.”

At Polar Field Services, we’ll continue to assist scientists with polar research and look forward to sharing that with you. –Rachel Walker

Comments (0) Nov 16 2010

From hat tricks to the Helheim glacier—a young David Holland spent much of his childhood on ice before studying the matter full time. Photo: Denise Holland

Addicted to Ice

Growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, meant David Holland was well acquainted with ice in nearly every form from a young age. Years later, as a mathematics professor at New York University (NYU) and director of the university’s Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science he’s still surrounded by ice.

Now, his days are spent traveling the world studying ice-ocean interactions and developing computer models that explain how the world’s ice and oceans may fare in a changing climate.

“In the late 1990s, it was noticed that glaciers change a lot faster than people thought—they were much more dynamic. My background is in ocean science, so I was curious about this speed up and the ocean’s contributions,” Holland said. “So I became interested in studying and modeling this. I guess you can say I’m addicted to ice in a lot of ways,” he laughed.

Studying Ice Around The World

David Holland’s love of studying and modeling ice has taken him from the top of the planet to the bottom, and lots of places in between. Here he is all smiles in Antarctica. Photo: Denise Holland

Holland’s fascination with ice has led to some interesting jobs throughout his career and has taken him on adventures spanning the globe.

While still in Newfoundland, he worked as a research engineer to determine ways to move icebergs in order to prevent collisions with ships.

“This technology really never panned out. In Newfoundland and Labrador and Greenland there are icebergs all over the place. We tried to blow them up, cut them in half and melt them, and what not. Really large icebergs are a challenge to move and really the easiest thing is to just get out of their way,” Holland explained.

South Of The Equator

After leaving Canada, Holland headed 10,000 miles south to Australia for a postdoctorate fellowship at the Australia Bureau of Meteorology. While there he worked on coupled modeling—pairing global ocean models with atmospheric models. It was an exciting time because he worked with a group of modelers who had just started to include sea ice in global climate models.

“As we were doing that in the 1990s, nobody had the vaguest thought sea ice in the Arctic would change the way it has today. We now know in the summer sea ice reaches half the extent it used to. That was something no one even remotely believed in the 1990s. Today those models still work pretty well, but they aren’t good enough to project the kind of sea ice behavior we’re actually observing,” he said.

Launching Career

After finishing his postdoctoral work in Australia and the United Kingdom, Holland was a research scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. In 1998, he joined NYU as a professor where he lectures, develops computer models and plans research missions. His most recent mission supports an ongoing National Science Foundation-funded project in Greenland.

Field Work in Greenland

David Holland (far right), Denise Holland, and graduate student Carl Gladish pose at the calving front of the Helheim glacier during this summer’s field effort in the fjords of Greenland. Photo: Denise Holland

This July and August Holland was busy studying ocean and ice sheet interactions at the Ilulissat and Helheim glaciers in the fjords of Greenland. The work is part of a five-year (2009-2013) effort to improve the understanding of how warm, deep ocean waters are influencing ice sheet retreat.

Holland and a team of graduate students recorded meteorological observations and collected water temperature, salinity, oxygen, suspended sediment and current measurements using CTDs.

In sea-ice-covered areas, the team used a helicopter to first break up the sea ice before lowering an expendable CTD (XCTD) into the water column. An XCTD is an expendable probe that can be dropped from moving ships or aircraft. Data from the probe are transmitted by wire. For areas with less sea ice, the samples were collected by ship using a traditional CTD lowered off the side of the ship by winch.

Help From The Locals

This bearded seal may not realize it, but it’s playing a critical role in helping scientists study ice-ocean interactions. This summer, David Holland and colleagues attached CTDs with transmitters to the backs of two seals in Greenland. The CTDs will collect data as the animals swim through the water. The devices will fall off after 12 months when the seals molt. Photo: Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid

Holland also looked to the local population of seals to help collect water column data in the fjords. He attached small CTDs with telephone transmitters on the backs of two seals. “I have two seals swimming around now and they email me every four or five hours with profile temperatures and salinity. Then I can look at a map and see where they are,” he said.

The CTDs will stay on for roughly 12 months and will fall off when the seals molt in the spring. Holland points out that every effort was made to meet animal welfare guidelines and ensure that no harm comes to the animals as a result of the CTD attachment.

Water column data collected by both humans and seals alike will be combined with the meteorological observations and used to develop a coupled ocean-ice sheet model. Ultimately, the data and the resulting model will help researchers quantify how the water from the melting ice sheet may change global sea level in the future.

Climate and Future Modeling

In the future, Holland plans to tackle a very tricky climate-related question: which changes in climate are occurring naturally and which are influenced by human activities? He will collaborate with others to make long-term observations in both Greenland and Antarctica to try to answer these questions.

He also hopes to develop models that will give us a better idea of how sea level may change in the future. “It’s going to take a long time to get that sorted out correctly, if at all, but the climate model may tell us about future sea level changes due to glaciers,” Holland said.

A Family Affair

Month-long trips in remote areas like Greenland require a tremendous amount of effort and teamwork. Data collection success is dependent on detailed planning done months in advance. And Holland’s wife Denise is always more than happy to lend a helping hand by taking on much of the logistics planning and coordination.

Denise is also an artist currently studying at NYU. She often joins him in the field to document the trips through photos and videos. “The trips take about a month or so and it’s nice to have family around to help,” Holland said.

Holland’s graduate students also play a critical role in the success of the missions. In addition to teaching two graduate-level courses, he always takes graduate students on missions to help with data collection and to gain valuable field research experience.

“It’s [field work] extremely valuable both to me and to them. The graduate students are very, very, capable, hard working and creative about coming up with solutions. It’s an all-around victory,” he said.

To learn more about David Holland and his ice-ocean interaction research, visit: http://efdl.cims.nyu.edu/ —Alicia Clarke

Comments (1) Oct 12 2010

Ed 'n' Friends. Penguin Ranch near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, November 2005. Photo: Ed Stockard. All rights reserved. Used with permission

“Here is a self portrait while working at the Penguin Ranch outside of McMurdo Sation, Antarctica,” writes Ed. ”I think they bonded with the hat!”

We’re glad Ed Stockard shares this photo with us despite the “risk to my reputation or masculinity,” because it symbolizes the endless attraction and dare we say charm of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s polar programs:  in the midst of the everyday, you’re never far from the matchless and the amazing—the opportunity to do or see something you can do or see no where else in the world. That’s pretty attractive.

If you’re curious, Ed was supporting a long-term study of penguin diving physiology led by Paul Ponganis of UC San Diego. The work continues, and Dr. Ponganis has expanded it to include leopard seals. For more basic information on the Penguin Ranch studies, including exerpts from the PI’s 2008 research journal, read this LiveScience piece.

We asked Ed to share some of his favorite shots with us in honor of his being selected as a finalist in the Air Greenland Photo Contest.  The contest ends today so be sure to visit the site if you haven’t yet done so.

–Kip Rithner

Comments (0) Sep 15 2010