During his seven-week expedition to Antarctica, Ken Golden learned that sea ice plays an important role in global warming.
Golden, a mathematics professor at the U, said during his presentation at Keys on Main on Wednesday evening that ice deflects sunlight, allowing the ice to stay cool. However, when sunlight melts ponds of water on the ice, the packs melt and lately, fewer have been reforming. This occurrence has assisted with the depletion of 40 percent of the summer arctic ice pack.
“The measurement is important because it now allows for theoretical predictions and helps us (researchers) to better understand how fluid permeability changes with temperature,” Golden said.
The 20-minute presentation highlighted Golden’s most recent expedition, Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem Experiment, on which he first measured how long it takes brine to flow through the ice. The presentation also included footage of the expedition and a short film he produced about it.
“I thought the presentation was very good,” said Brett Vanausdall, a graduate student in chemisty. “I came to experience what other fields of science are doing.”
This presentation comes before Mathematics Awareness Month in April, in which the topic is math and climate. According to the Web site www.mathaware.org, during the month the math department hopes to address the question of how long the summer Arctic sea ice pack will survive and how much the sea level will rise as ice sheets melt.
Golden, who is also known as “Frogman” because of the green rubber suit he uses, has been on five expeditions to both the Antarctic and Arctic to study sea ice. His work has attracted attention by many in the scientific field.
Even though he is a math teacher with no formal field training, he has been asked to attend many conventions on global warming and sea ice.
Adam Gully, a math graduate student and the first student to join Golden on a field expedition, has received attention for his participation in the last expedition.
“My main contribution was to help Ken with the (sea ice) experiments and entering data,” Gully said. “If I were given the opportunity I would absolutely go again. It’s a once in a lifetime chance.”.
The next expedition will be in September 2010 off the east coast of Antarctica. The focus of that expedition will measure the internal structure of the ice, Golden said.
Any interested students can attend the next Science Night Live on March 4 about hantavirus, a disease that can cause fever and organ failure, and is usually spread by rodents.
John Staffordmathematics professor Ken Goldman speaks about his seven-week Antarctic expedition at Keys on Main as part of Mathematics Awareness Month. His presentation touched on global warming and icepack depletion.