FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Stevie Seibert, GI Public Relations, 907-474-5229, stevie [dot] seibert [at] gi [dot] alaska [dot] edu

Fairbanks, Alaska—For many years now, scientists have been tracking the thaw of permafrost throughout the Arctic. Since permafrost with the highest ice content is usually found closer to the ground surface where our structures are, Alaskans and other Arctic communities face major changes in the future if the degradation continues. Ecosystems, buildings, roads, and pipelines will likely lose their stability as the ground beneath them shifts.

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As the Arctic climate warms, permafrost begins to thermally degrade. Transformation of this frozen layer of earth triggers changes in every aspect of surface water and energy in the Arctic. While the region experiences warming, permafrost becomes thinner, and its extent in the boreal forest shrinks. Alterations to permafrost also influence the look of the northern landscape and the region's climatology. In short, warming climate and thawing permafrost create changes to the entire hydrological cycle in Alaska.

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Five scientists from the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) will lead sessions at the International Geophysical and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), September 20 through 24 at the Egan Convention Center in Anchorage.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recognized its In-Flight Icing Product Development Team, including UAF Geophysical Institute Assistant Research Professor Jeff Tilley, as the winners of the 2002 Excellence in Aviation Award. As part of the Icing Product Team, Tilley provides experimental real-time modeling of aircraft icing potential for the benefit of pilots in Alaska.

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Experts on climate change in Alaska and the Arctic will gather in Anchorage on Friday, Sept. 24 to give presentations on thinning Alaska glaciers, melting permafrost, and the possibility of shipping routes through the Canadian Arctic in the near future.

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After working for the past decade toward increased permafrost monitoring in Alaska, scientist Vladimir Romanovsky is going global due to funding from the National Science Foundation. For the next three years, Romanovsky, a professor of geophysics at University of Alaska Fairbanks, and a researcher in the Permafrost Lab at the Geophysical Institute, will use a $945,000 grant to establish a network of permafrost observatories in North America and Russia.

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The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is saddened to learn of the death of Karoline Frey, a 27-year-old graduate student with the instituteʼs snow, ice and permafrost group.

Frey, a native of Altensteig, Germany, died on March 24 after falling into a crevasse on a small glacier on Item Peak in the Alaska Range. Frey was on a spring break skiing vacation with a group of friends at the time of the accident.

There is evidence that the McGinnis Glacier, a little-known tongue of ice in the central Alaska Range, has surged. Assistant Professor of Physics Martin Truffer noticed the lower portion of the glacier was covered in cracks, crevasses, and pinnacles of ice—all telltale signs that the glacier has recently slid forward at higher than normal rates. It has not been determined whether the glacier continues to surge.

For Immediate Release 
 

The coastal mountains along the Gulf of Alaska and Alaska’s inside passage are home to the largest glaciers outside of the polar region. The close proximity of the Pacific Ocean to this region’s high mountains makes these glaciers especially dynamic. Tidewater glaciers sometimes exhibit wild instabilities that can lead to dramatic changes much larger than or even opposite to other glacier behavior.