Liz O’Connell | Frontier Scientists

Liz O'Connell: ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liz is a media artist and wannabe scientist who loves the Alaskan frontier.

Liz O'Connell: All Posts

Eyes on Columbia Glacier’s retreat

Posted 22 May 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists The Landsat mission, a joint effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), has been collecting data on Earth's physical features via satellite since the 1970s. "The Landsat data record -- humanity's longest continuous record of our planet from space -- has been an invaluable tool for scientists and decision-makers in many fields, from natural resources to agricultural productivity and climate change."* Now, the Landsat mission has joined with Google Earth... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, General, Modeling Arctic Waters |

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Ozone loss and recovery in the Arctic

Posted 14 May 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists The ozone hole is a problem which plagues the skies above Antarctica. Yet in 2011, Arctic skies experienced the most severe ozone depletion ever measured in the north. The reasons why are now explained in a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres headed by lead author Susan E. Strahan, an atmospheric scientists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Understanding ozone loss begins with a look at the ozone layer. Located high in the stratosphere (which begins... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Computational Science, Weather in Alaska |

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Monitoring volcanic activity at Mount Cleveland

Posted 8 May 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists On Saturday May 4th the Alaska Volcano Observatory detected a series of low-level explosions at Cleveland volcano. Three discrete explosions occurred at 5:00 am, 9:17 am, and 11:44 am Saturday, while subsequent less powerful rumbles on Sunday denoted an ongoing low-level eruption. The sequence of eruptions emitted ash, gas, and steam into local airspace. Cleveland is a 5,676 foot tall conical stratovolcano, a restless volcano prone to rumbles, small explosions, and lava flows. It forms... Read more

Posted in Cook Inlet Volcanoes, Weather in Alaska |

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Big booms over the northland

Posted 30 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

by Ned Rozell Near a small village in Russia, Marina Ivanova stepped into cross-country skis and kicked toward a hole in the snow. The meteorite specialist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and Vernadsky Institute in Moscow was hunting for fragments of the great Chelyabinsk Meteorite that exploded three days earlier. This search was different from others. Ivanova has looked for metallic stones on the world’s great deserts and in Antarctica, places where heavenly rocks stand out because of... Read more

Posted in Arctic Archaeology, Computational Science, General |

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New insights: global warming drivers in the 20th century and beyond

Posted 24 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists Researchers have combed through the last 2,000 years of climate records. Their assessment affirms that a persistent long-term cooling trend concluded in the late 19th century, reversed by global warming. The study was performed by members of the "2K Network" of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) Past Global Changes (PAGES) project, supported by both the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Swiss National Science Foundation. The international effort utilized 'proxy data' to discern temperatures... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Understanding Climate Change Through Archaeology, Weather in Alaska |

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VIIRS as an Arctic Nightlight

Posted 16 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

by Liz O'Connell for Frontier Scientists During winter in the Arctic it’s “night” almost all the time, but thanks to the new Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day/Night Band (DNB) we no longer have to be in the dark about what’s going on with the weather. Here is a VIIRS/DNB image of the Alaska region on December 31, 2012 generated by GINA, Geographic Information Network of Alaska, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Although it looks like a typical... Read more

Posted in AGU Fall Meeting, General, Weather in Alaska |

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Burned Alaska may cause more burned Alaska

Posted 10 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

by Ned Rozell The blackened scars that Alaska fires leave on the landscape may result in more lightning, more rain in some areas just downwind of the scars, and less rain farther away, according to two scientists. Nicole Mölders and Gerhard Kramm, both of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, study how changes in landscapes affect the weather. After Alaska’s fire season in 2004, when smoke befouled much of the air Alaskans breathed and a collective area... Read more

Posted in Climate Change Watch, Weather in Alaska |

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Plants march north

Posted 3 April 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Laura Nielsen for FrontierScientists The face of the Arctic is changing as plant growth flourishes further north than before. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), "Temperature and vegetation growth at northern latitudes now resemble those found 4 degrees to 6 degrees of latitude farther south as recently as 1982." This change accompanies the ongoing anthropogenic climate change associated with our warming world. Satellite data from the past 30 years helped researchers understand the vegetative change, and the... Read more

Posted in AGU Fall Meeting, Climate Change Watch, Permafrost, Weather in Alaska |

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AAA Conference Gives Life to Ancient Stories and New Revelations

Posted 26 March 2013 by Liz O'Connell

Liz O'Connell for Frontier Scientists “Ancient ice is melting and yielding many things we haven’t seen before,” said Jeanne Schaaf, National Park Service archaeologist, at the Alaska Archaeological Association Conference in Anchorage. Three antler arrow points, rare organic artifacts of a type not seen in the area previously, were found at two remnant ice patches in the Telaquana Mountain area, in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Radiocarbon ages of the artifacts are 152, 1667 and 1,977 years before... Read more

Posted in Arctic Archaeology, Conference, Upward Sun River |

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Permafrost scientist snowmachining from Alaska to Atlantic

Posted 20 March 2013 by Liz O'Connell

by Ned Rozell Kenji Yoshikawa will soon sleep on brilliant, blue-white landscape that has never felt the imprint of his boots. Beginning on spring equinox, the permafrost scientist and a partner will attempt to drive snowmachines from Prudhoe Bay to Canada’s Baffin Island. While traveling a distance equal to Seattle to Tokyo to Seattle over land and sea ice, Yoshikawa will camp outside villages in an Arctic Oven tent. Along the way, stopping at village schools in Canada’s far north,... Read more

Posted in Permafrost, Weather in Alaska |

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