{"id":1008,"date":"2008-11-20T11:23:10","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T19:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/?p=1008"},"modified":"2011-02-16T11:28:39","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T19:28:39","slug":"connecting-in-cold-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/2008\/11\/20\/connecting-in-cold-places\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting in Cold Places"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Transmissions from the Ice Sheet<\/strong><\/p>\n

This November, Logan Mitchell will spend two months working at the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide<\/a> research station in Antarctica, along with 45 other scientist, students and technicians from across the United States. The NSF<\/a>-funded project aims to collect a 3.5 kilometer-long ice core over three summer seasons, with the intention of providing Antarctic records of environmental change for the last 100,000 years. Portions of that core will ultimately end up in Ed Brook\u2019s lab at OSU.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, whose funding also comes from the NSF, faces a lengthy journey. He must first get to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he will board a military plane bound for McMurdo Station<\/a> \u2014 a miniature polar city capable of housing 1,200 people \u2014 on the Antarctic coast. There, he\u2019ll undergo a week of survival training for conditions that, even in the Antarctic summer, where temperatures average -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). He\u2019ll learn simple mountaineering and how to deal with a crevasse, a crack in the ice that can swallow a person. And then he\u2019ll head 1,000 miles northwest to the WAIS station. Because it is so remote, Mitchell underwent the most extensive physical evaluation he\u2019d ever experienced. As a precaution, people visiting the WAIS must have their wisdom teeth removed. The knee-length parka Mitchell will wear is bright red; if he\u2019s injured, it\u2019ll make him easy to spot on the flat, white landscape.<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019ll have limited access by satellite to the Internet at the WAIS outpost, Mitchell is planning on filling in the OSU community on his day-to-day life, from his work as a core handler to the things, like the \u201cice Olympics,\u201d polar researchers do for fun.<\/p>\n

Check out his blog at:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n \"Ed<\/a>\n
Ed Brook and Logan Mitchell<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n

Studying ice cores gives Ed Brook and Logan Mitchell a picture of climate change.<\/p>\n

For most, a polar landscape conjures a feeling of otherworldly barrenness and unrelenting cold. But for geosciences<\/a> professor Ed Brook<\/a> and Ph.D. student Logan Mitchell, the most far-flung, inhospitable places on the planet \u2014 the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Greenland Ice Sheet, the
\nSiple Coast of Antarctica, to name a few \u2014 are fruitful grounds for research. They hold the keys to understanding the history of the Earth\u2019s climate, as well as its future.<\/p>\n

Brook and Mitchell study the tiny air bubbles that are trapped in ancient polar ice. Measuring greenhouse gases \u2014 methane and carbon dioxide \u2014 in those bubbles helps them reconstruct climate changes throughout the past 800,000 years. \u201cIce cores are unique,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cThe bubbles in the ice core are the actual atmosphere from that time. It\u2019s not a proxy. We\u2019re studying the real deal.\u201d Brook\u2019s lab is one of the few throughout the world that can work with a high quantity of ice core samples, enabling his team to continually draw more refined pictures of past climate changes.<\/p>\n

As a mentor, Brook helps Mitchell make connections in other ways, as well. \u201cHe\u2019s really good about letting me take ownership of ideas,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cHe lets me struggle and come to conclusions myself and provides feedback that\u2019s constructive. He doesn\u2019t just tell me the answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only that, Brook encourages students like Mitchell to take advantage of as many opportunities to engage in their field as possible. Brook wants his students to branch out, to go to meetings and contact researchers at other universities, which is essential in an interdisciplinary field like ice-core research. Brook and Mitchell need to know, for example, how droughts and fires are related to greenhouse gases on a global scale. They need to understand hydrology and glaciology to help put their research into context.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the most important thing is that students should be colleagues,\u201d says Brook. \u201cThis was done for me when I was a student. It helps them get involved in the field, and it gives them responsibility. It can be hard work. Logan was one of the most responsible students I taught. He took things a little further than most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell\u2019s focus on ice-core research emerged from a longstanding love of the outdoors, hiking and colder environments. When he started thinking of the places he visited with a scientific perspective, he realized he had the potential to work in a relevant and valuable field. Brook was available when Mitchell needed advice about applying to OSU and choosing a lab, and the work piqued Mitchell\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe science is exciting,\u201d says Mitchell, \u201cAnd Ed really has a gift for making me motivated about the research.\u201d<\/p>\n

OSU, Brook says, is a good place to be for anyone interested in climate change research. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot happening here,\u201d he says. \u201cWe all gain a lot \u2014 the students in particular \u2014 because of what\u2019s happening on this campus.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Transmissions from the Ice Sheet This November, Logan Mitchell will spend two months working at the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide research station in Antarctica, along with 45 other scientist, students and technicians from across the United States. The NSF-funded project aims to collect a 3.5 kilometer-long ice core over three summer seasons, with… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[687,146677],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment-and-natural-resources","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1008\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/spotlight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}