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

It's not what you said; it's how you said it. This PFS 2.0 staffer is not impressed. Photo: Chico Perales

Tone Matters When Talking about Global Warming  

A new study from Robb Willer, UC Berkeley social psychologist, that’s slated for publication in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science, shows that the majority of people tune out or become skeptical when faced with dire or emotionally charged warnings about the consequences of global warming. Individuals are less amenable to reducing their carbon footprint when the impacts of global warming are cast in “scary messages,” according to a release from the University of California, Berkeley.  

“The scarier the message, the more people who are committed to viewing the world as fundamentally stable and fair are motivated to deny it,” said Matthew Feinberg, a doctoral student in psychology and coauthor of the study.  

However, the researchers found that if scientists and advocates can communicate their findings in less apocalyptic ways and present solutions to global warming, most people can get past their skepticism. 

Armed With Cigarette Lighter and Knife, Russian Scientist Tries to Quantify Methane Release From Melting Ice 

Russian scientist Sergey Zimov walks on a Siberian lake near the town of Chersky, Russia, where methane bubbles are trapped under the ice. Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the last few decades, as the Earth has gradually warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane—a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Photo: AP/Arthur Max

The Associated Press reports on Sergey Zimov, a Russian scientist who, like the University of Alaska’s Katey Walter, studies methane locked inside Siberia’s permafrost. The article opens with Zimov as he “shuffles across the frozen lake, scuffing aside ankle-deep snow until he finds a cluster of bubbles trapped under the ice. With a cigarette lighter in one hand and a knife in the other, he lances the ice like a blister. Methane whooshes out and bursts into a thin blue flame.”  

Gas locked inside Siberia’s frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane – a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.  Some scientists believe the thawing of permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change. They say 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, is a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere. (To gauge the efficacy of that last metaphor, see previous news item.) 

Rising Arctic Temperatures Correlate with Increase in Tundra Fires  

The massive Anaktuvuk fire scorched more than 1,000 square kilometers of tundra in northern Alaska. Researchers have found a correlation between warmer temperatures and larger, more damaging fires. Photo: Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab

An article published in the October 2010 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research presents data that correlate even moderate increases in warm-season temperatures on Alaska’s North Slope with the increased likelihood of catastrophic conflagrations. The study’s lead author, Feng Sheng Hu of the University of Illinois, sought to understand if dramatic fires like the Anaktuvuk, which burned 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska’s North Slope (doubling the area burned in that region since record keeping began in 1950) are anomalies or a regular occurance. After analyzing sediment cores from the burned area for charcoal to assess the ages of the sediment layers, Hu and his team found no evidence of a fire of similar scale and intensity in sediments representing roughly 5,000 years at that locale. So the researchers studied 60 years of fire, temperature and precipitation records from the Alaskan tundra to determine whether specific climate conditions prevailed in years with significant tundra fires. They discovered a “dramatic, nonlinear relationship between climate conditions and tundra fires, and what one may call a tipping point,” Hu said in a press release from the University of Illinois. 

For the past 60 years, annual mean temperatures during this warm season have fluctuated between about 6 and 9 degrees Celsius (42.8 to 48.2 degrees Fahrenheit), with temperatures trending upward since 1995. In 2007, the year of the historic fire, the mean temperature was a record 11.1 degrees Celsius, while precipitation and soil moisture dipped to an all-time low. 

The study team also included researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Neptune and Company, and the University of Washington. The National Science Foundation provided grant funds for Hu’s research; CH2M HILL Polar Services (in which PFS is a partner) supported the field work. 

Comments (0) Nov 23 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

Perks of the job - Encounters Producer, Lisa Busch, records a Humpback whale in Southeast Alaska. Photo: Lisa Busch

“Want to visit Alaska, but don’t have money for gas?”—College newspaper ad for Encounters podcasts served up at the Encounters website.

Lisa Busch wears many hats. She’s the co-founder of Sitka Trail Works, an organization which develops and maintains trails near Sitka, Alaska, volunteer for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp for K-12 students, and member and founder of the Sitka Tree and Landscape Committee—and that’s in her “free time” (did I mention she’s also a wife and mother of two).

Busch’s day job?  She has two.

When it comes to science in Southeast Alaska, Busch has your back. She is the Executive Director of the Sitka Sound Science Center, a hatchery and aquarium with a strong focus on community education and research on the Gulf of Alaska. Busch also produces Encounters: Experiences in the North, a radio program based at Sitka’s public station, KCAW-FM (Raven Radio). Now broadcast on the XM Satellite Channel, Remix Radio, the Alaska Public Radio Network, and on thirty college stations nationwide, Encounters brings the natural sounds of Alaska’s wild country (and beyond) to urbanites all over the world.

In the last few years, Busch has expanded the program to include more of the world’s wild places. Now in its eighth year of production, Encounters airs weekly half-hour segments that engage listeners with lively and wondrous field audio of calving glaciers, screeching bald eagles, and the associated sounds of the social dynamics of Humpback whales. Pre-production research keeps the listener educated with relevant scientific and cultural tidbits to accompany a cacophony of wild sounds.

Hence the show's title: PI Richard Nelson encounters a polar bear. Photo source: Encounters Facebook

Richard ‘Nels’ Nelson, a cultural anthropologist and author originally from Madison, Wisconsin, began Encounters in 2004. Before moving to Sitka, Nels lived in the Alaskan wilderness recording the cultural history and traditions of Alaska’s native peoples.  With funding from a National Science Foundation grant for the last three years, Nels has been wandering around the Alaskan bush with a microphone recording all kinds of natural sounds to share with listeners. Nelson recently teamed with the University of San Francisco’s Cultural Anthropology department in his creation of the Encounters Down Under series. In the wild lands of Tasmania and Australia, he explores the human and physical connections, like the migration of birds and animals, between the northern and southern hemispheres

Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Arnold also contributes to Encounters as a senior reporter. Arnold began her career at Juneau’s KTOO in 1985 then moved to Washington D.C. where she has been a national correspondent for NPR for 15 years. Now on faculty with the University of Alaska in Anchorage, Arnold expands Encounters programming to the circumpolar Arctic, particularly the Berengia region (the Aleutian chain and Russia’s Commander Islands, for example) and Canada—wild lands not usually in the media’s limelight. A background in political coverage gives Arnold the unique ability to consider Alaskan issues in the context of national perspective as she explores such topics as Steller’s Curse (in development).

Busch is also bringing her own voice to the show these days along with twenty years of freelance writing and producing experience. An east coast native, Busch majored in Geology and Environmental Science at Tufts University. Following graduation, she acquired a taste for public radio and the West while working at KUAC in Colorado. Next was a big move to Sitka to work for KCAW and launch a career specializing in Alaskan science. After a blip back in D.C working for U.S. News and World Report, Busch returned to Sitka, married Davey Lubin, captain of the Esther G. Sea Taxi, and made Southeast Alaska her home.  Listen to Busch’s recent program on Frontierism in which she thoughtfully considers the state motto from Coldfoot, Alaska, -40F, population 10.

Stop by the Encounters website to listen online. Visit the ‘new educational wing’ (under development) where teachers, students, and armchair adventurers can learn more about Alaska and beyond. –Marcy Davis

Comments (0) Nov 14 2010

Summit Station Lunar Optics Oct 26, 2010. Photo: Ed Stockard

Ed Stockard sent the above picture of night-time light works at Summit Station, Greenland, to the folks at Atmospheric Optics, a site devoted to the study of how light bends (not to put too fine a point on it). Several of Ed’s photos showing “multi-ringed glories, coronae and ghostly fogbows” (as they are so lyrically described on the Web site’s “About” page) were selected as the Optics Picture of the Day.

The really cool thing about this site is that Les Cowley, site administrator, actually annotates the pictures to identify the phenomena and explain how they are likely formed. Check it out!

Meanwhile, Ed is preparing to leave Summit Station in about a week or so, once he and the rest of the winter phase one staff turn over their tasking to the fresh staff of phase two. That team of five is now in Kangerlussuaq, waiting to fly tomorrow by Twin Otter over the ice sheet and into the U.S. National Science Foundation-managed station.

When Ed sent his last batch of photos, he reflected on the time he’s spent at Summit this fall, and how the photo ops exceeded even his wildest dreams: “This season has been an optical delight. The Summit skies have tossed more at us than I expected or hoped for. I had hoped for auroras at night and halos, arcs and sun dogs during daylight. We got it and got it good! What I hadn’t expected were moon related arcs, halos and moon dogs. I hadn’t expected moon related fog bows. In fact I decided to dedicate a whole set on my flickr page which I call Ed’s Optics!”

You can view Ed’s Optics on his CoastalEddy flickr site . Meanwhile, enjoy one more peak through Ed’s viewfinder of the kaleidoscope over Summit Station. –Kip Rithner

Big House with Aurora, Summit Station, Greenland. Photo: Ed Stockard

Comments (1) Oct 28 2010