One of the world’s largest and most prestigious prizes has been awarded to the climate researcher who is credited with coining the term “global warming.” The geochemist from Columbia University, Wallace S. Broecker, receives the $885,000 Balzan Prize for his breakthrough studies in climatology and his early warnings about changes in the climate.

In 1987, Broecker proposed that ocean currents interact with the atmosphere and, like a global conveyor belt, transport heat around the planet. Broecker is the author of over 400 scientific articles and several textbooks. In his recent book Fixing Climate (Hill and Wang, 2008), he advocated removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air and storing it underground to avert a climate catastrophe.

Broecker teaches at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

He was the recipient of the 1996 National Medal of Science and the 2006 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Broecker will receive the Balzan Prize at ceremonies in Rome on November 21.

“Climate Connections” is the theme of the 2009 LEGO League challenge sponsored by the organization founded by well-known inventor Dean Kamen — FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).

Teams of children ages 9 to 14 in 40 countries are challenged to research climate and use robotics in climate-based tournaments. In the project part of the challenge, teams will research how climate affects their own community, identify a local climate problem, analyze climate data, and discover what their community is doing. Then teams will find another community somewhere in the world with the same issue, identify any solutions, and finally create a community solution. The robot game gives missions to robots, such as burying carbon dioxide or extracting an ice core sample.

After qualifying events and championship tournaments, winners have the chance to participate in the FIRST Championship on April 16-18, 2009, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

FIRST also offers a program for 6 to 9 year olds based on the Climate Connections challenge for older children. There is a $25 fee per team. Children investigate the theme, according to specific instructions, document on a poster how they researched and what they learned, and build a model, incorporating a moving part, from LEGO pieces. The children’s work is expected to be featured at local events.

Inventor Dean Kamen holds more than 440 patents, many of them for medical devices, such as the first insulin pump for diabetics. He is also the inventor of the self-balancing, electric-powered Segway. In 1989 he founded FIRST to motivate children to learn about science and technology.

Recently, we introduced Elaina Wahl, a Columbus, OH teen and the Columbus Zoo’s first Arctic Ambassador. We’re pleased to report that Elaina is now in Churchill, Manitoba, for Polar Bears International’s Polar Bear Leadership Camp. Elaina is meeting students from across the country, learning about polar bears and conservation, and preparing to return to Columbus as the “ultimate Arctic Ambassador, someone others see as an example of a person who truly is a protector of the planet. Kind of like an environmentalist on Red Bull, complete with an outgoing go-green attitude and armed with energy-efficient light bulbs.”

During her time in Manitoba, Elaina will post to an online journal. Keep up with all her adventures with the link in our blog’s sidebar!

The University of Rhode Island’s Office of Marine Programs is now accepting applications for the ARMADA Project - Research and Mentoring Experiences for Teachers. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, provides K-12 teachers an opportunity to participate in ocean, polar, and environmental science research and peer mentoring.

Teachers with five or more years teacher experience are eligible for the program. Selected teachers are paired with scientists and participate in summer shipboard, field, or laboratory research. Following the research experience, teachers incorporate their data, methodologies, and technology into their classrooms, mentor new teachers in their school districts, and present at the National Science Teachers Association National Convention.

Access the application and more information at http://www.armadaproject.org, or contact Andrea Kecskes at armada@gso.uri.edu. Applications are due February 9, 2009.

Teachers of grades 3, 4, and 5 now have the opportunity to apply for an all-expense paid trip to the 2009 Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy’s math and science professional development program. Selected participants will spend five days next July at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ building math and science content knowledge, learning how to facilitate problem solving and inquiry-based learning, and learning how to link math and science to support student learning.

The Academy was developed in conjunction with the National Science Teachers Association and Math Solutions. Students can nominate teachers, or teachers can apply by logging on to www.sendmyteacher.com. Teacher applications are due by October 31, 2008. A panel of experts chosen by the National Science Teachers Association and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics will evaluate the applications and will announce selections in February 2009.

U.S. Satellite Laboratory, an online provider of curriculum products and teacher training, has added a program on polar research for upper elementary to high school students to its offerings. With the purpose of using technology and real-time science and mathematics content, the organization works with NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation in providing no-fee sessions.

The polar offering is called SPRINTT (Student Polar Research with IPY and National [and International] Teacher Training). Students in grades 5-12 will be introduced to the unique environments of the Arctic and Antarctic and also view current climate changes through the perspectives of native people. 

Participating schools agree to adopt SPRINTT as a part of the formal science curriculum and use SPRINTT curricular materials. The minimum commitment is: (1) a three-week introductory unit in which students learn about the polar regions and (2) student research projects using polar data sets. Teachers are trained in the program through online sessions with polar researchers.

Beginning in November, online training sessions are available by completing the online registration and obtaining a written agreement of support from the school principal.

U.S. Satellite Laboratory, located in Rye, New York, was founded by science educator Glen Schuster. It now offers three no-fee programs in science, including Signals of Spring, Project 3D-View (Virtual Interactive Environmental Worlds), and SPRINTT.

From late March to the middle of August, scientists and others at Antarctica research stations were resigned to no air service during the months without sunlight. A C-17 Globemaster III changed all that in September by landing at McMurdo Station in complete darkness using night-vision goggles technology and reflective cones on the runway.

The mission was flown as part of Operation Deep Freeze, which is headquartered at Hickam Air Force base in Hawaii and provides air- and sealift support to the U.S. Antarctic Program and the National Science Foundation.

According to the Air Force News Agency, the C-17 is the jet built for night-vision operations. It shows all the aircraft’s operating parameters directly in front of the pilots on a piece of glass. This allows pilots to use night-vision goggles to survey the area.

For the flight into McMurdo Station, 64 high-intensity retro-reflective cones were placed on the runway edge. The unpowered cones reflect the plane’s wingtip light to the night-vision goggles when the plane comes in for landing. One pilot said the reflective cones could be seen by the naked eye two or three miles from the runway. It had been physically impossible to light the entire runway with powered light sources.

There were ten pilots on board the first landing on Pegasus Ice Runway, all of whom were certified to land on the ice in the dark using night-vision goggles and the cones. 

A trio of seal-sniffing dogs was featured in the September issue of Current, a monthly newsletter of the National Science Foundation. Marine biologist Brendan P. Kelly and researchers at the University of Alaska Southeast use the three Labrador retrievers to locate ringed seals in the sea ice of the far north.

Researchers are seeking to learn more about the seal’s annual movement and its fidelity to its breeding sites in order to predict the impact of decreasing sea ice and early snowmelt on the mammal.

The dogs find the seals’ breathing holes and snow caves in the sea ice cover. Then the researchers set up live-capture nets on the breathing hole and attach satellite tags to the captured seals.

An Inuit hunter taught Kelly how to use dogs to find seals. The dogs run ahead of the researchers’ snow machines “sniffing” for the scent of a seal. When the dogs detect an odor, they run in a zig-zag pattern, which gets shorter and shorter as they close in on the scent. The dogs start digging until Kelly and his co-workers call away the dogs and set up a live-capture net on the breathing hole. The net prevents the seal from diving back into the water after it comes up for air. The biologists take skin and hair samples and attach satellite tags.

The tag, attached to a flipper, allows researchers to track the seals for more than a year and monitor the seals’ movements between mating seasons. The ringed seal can make deep dives, down to 300 feet, and stay submerged for up to 45 minutes.

Kelly says the dogs have a 80 to 85 percent success rate in the five to ten kilometer radius around campsites. They find 100 to 200 holes in a month. Kelly trained his first Labrador to find seals by using seal-skin slippers buried in the snow. Now young dogs are taken out with experienced dogs to learn how to track the seals. 

The research is meant to produce more information about the four ice-associated seals (spotted, ribbon, ringed, and bearded) and the impact of global warming on them. The research so far has shown that ringed seals are emerging from their lairs earlier, corresponding with earlier snowmelt. Early snowmelt exposes seal pups prematurely and increases their death rates from exposure to the cold and to predators.

The National Marine Fisheries Service announced in September that it will review the status of ringed, bearded and spotted seals as candidates for threatened or endangered species protection. The agency is responding to a petition filed by the Center for Biological Diversity 

Ringed seals are found throughout oceans around the North Pole. They are the smallest of seal species, growing up to five feet in length and weighing up to 150 pounds. They dig their cone-shaped breathing holes through the ice with the claws of their front flippers. In the snow accumulated around the holes, the seals build caves or lairs in which the female gives birth to one pup.

Solar radiation, albedo, and the natural resources of the polar regions are all part of the newest issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Energy and the Polar Environment. In this issue, you can:

Learn about the albedo (reflectivity) of Earth’s various surfaces and how increased melting of polar ice caps will affect Earth’s energy balance

Find lessons, stories, and books to teach your students about solar radiation, reflection, and absorption

Assess student misconceptions about solar radiation

Learn about the natural resources found in the polar regions

Find activities to teach natural resources and energy efficiency

Read about a researcher’s study of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice

Of course, there’s much more to be discovered. Check out Issue 7: Energy and the Polar Environment today!

News from the polar regions in September included more worrisome news for Arctic sea ice, the potential role of permafrost in global warming, and new fossil discoveries in Antarctica. Missed these stories the first time? Read on!

2008 was the second-lowest year in terms of summer Arctic sea ice coverage, a continuation of an accelerated downward trend. This was also the first year in which the Northwest Passage and the Northeast Passage were both ice free. In addition, Arctic sea ice is becoming younger and thinner and thus more susceptible to melting. The continued loss of sea ice spells trouble for polar bears and other marine mammals as well as the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. It also means that less solar radiation is reflected back into space, as it is absorbed by the darker open water. Increased heat absorption will lead to further melting and is thus a powerful positive feedback that accelerates global warming.

Another positive feedback in the Arctic is thawing permafrost. Permafrost, frozen ground that contains slowly decomposing roots and other soil organic matter, contains large amounts of organic carbon. As temperatures warm and permafrost thaws, the carbon is released into the atmosphere as the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. Permafrost blankets the northern latitudes of Russia, Europe, Greenland, and North America. Just how much carbon is contained in these areas? A new study estimates 1,672 billion metric tons – more than double the 780 billion tons in the atmosphere today. Researchers say that this new estimate supports other climate change science in suggesting that at a certain tipping point, natural processes (such as permafrost thaw) may contribute significantly to global warming. Another study has identified very old (more than 700,000 years) sections of permafrost in North America, suggesting that layers of frozen soil more than several meters below the surface may be more resilient than previously thought. Even so, the authors conclude that permafrost’s potential role in global warming should not be ignored.

Greenland has also made news in recent months as a result of ice loss and continued studies of ice sheet dynamics. While much of the focus has been on large glaciers, new research has found that almost 75% of Greenland’s ice loss can be traced back to small coastal glaciers. The study combined two types of satellite data to obtain a better picture of the rapid thinning. Greenland is second only to Antarctica in terms of ice, a cap 1,491 miles long, 683 miles wide, and 1.8 deep at its thickest point.

The changes across the Arctic have prompted a group of scientists to merge and re-analyze ten years of detailed atmospheric, sea ice, and land surface measurements into a single computer model-based synthesis. Researchers hope that the Arctic System Reanalysis project will lead to a better understanding of changes in the diverse and complex Arctic environment.

In August, we reported that vast amounts of oil and natural gas were believed to be present in the Arctic region. Now, new technologies and expeditions may help governments locate and utilize these resources. Scientists at the University of Liverpool have developed a method to analyze remote sensing data that locates the intersection of continental and oceanic crust. Called rifted continental margins, these boundaries are often the location for oil and gas reserves. U.S. and Canadian expeditions will explore the Arctic seafloor in an attempt to map the extended continental shelf, an area more than 200 nautical miles beyond shore. Under the criteria of the Convention of the Law of the Sea, countries may claim the extended continental shelf off their coastline.  

Researchers in the polar regions will soon be able to start processing data in the field, thanks to the Polar Grid Project. The project provides a collection of customized computational resources in an effort to speed time between data collection and scientific discovery. Data analysis in the field also provides the ability to adjust experiments to gather more accurate data. Equipment from the project was used in a summer expedition to Greenland and currently is being sent to a research camp on Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica.

Analysis of ice cores from Antarctica has showed a correlation between carbon dioxide levels and abrupt changes in climate. The study’s findings provide greater insight into past greenhouse gas and climate fluctuations and seem to support computer models that project a warmer climate in the future as a result of increased carbon dioxide.

Paleontologists have discovered an amphibious predator species that lived in Antarctica during the Triassic period, about 251 to 199 million years ago. The amphibian, called Kryostega collinsoni, was probably about 15 feet in length, resembled a modern-day crocodile, and had large teeth at the edge and on the roof of its mouth. The size of the teeth suggest that it was a predator. During the Triassic period, all the world’s land was united in the supercontinent Pangaea, and the climate of Antarctica was much warmer than today.

Researchers are using mathematical techniques to locate and study giant spinning eddies in the Southern Ocean. Called gyres, the swirling water does not mix well with the rest of the ocean. Gyres can thus trap pollutants, nutrients, drifting plants and animals, and even block ocean currents. It is believed that gyres have significant effects in terms of how heat and carbon are distributed around Earth by the oceans.

One major concern associated with climate change is the potential for sea level rise, with some projections as great as 20 feet or more by the end of this century. A new study, however, concludes that the most plausible scenario will lead to a total sea level rise of roughly 3 to 6 feet by 2100. Researchers considered glaciological conditions in Greenland and Antarctica to make their projections.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Biological and Environmental Research recently launched a new program to attack the problem of abrupt climate change. While many people think of climate change as a gradual process, it has happened suddenly in the past and can do so in the future. The program brings together six national laboratories: Argonne, Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, and Pacific Northwest.

And, finally, experts are calling for a new coordinated set of international rules to govern commercial and research activities in the Arctic and Antarctica. Increases in both types of traffic have put pressure on the fragile ecosystems – something experts claim is not manageable within existing international law.

Know of another significant news story from September that you’d like to share? Reactions to one of the stories discussed here? Post a comment – we’d love to hear from you!