This photo series was originally published in the Academia print issue of The Daily Utah Chronicle, originally in stands in October of 2024. It has not been updated and some information may be out of date.
During the late spring, University of Utah mathematics professors Jody Reimer and Ken Golden, along with seven student researchers, journeyed to the Arctic for a 10-day expedition. Situated over 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle and at the northernmost tip of Alaska, the small town of Utqiaġvik would be their base of operations. With pastel colors, constant golden hour lighting and glistening snow, Utqiaġvik was a photographer’s dream come true.
You might be wondering what a group of mathematicians are doing all the way up in the Arctic. The answer is simple: sea ice. One of the most influential pieces in the regulation of Earth’s climate, sea ice is studied and modeled by these mathematicians to better understand its properties.
“Studying sea ice from a mathematics perspective gives a unique view of the system,” said David Gluckman, one of the undergraduate researchers on the expedition. “This perspective allows us to expose new, fascinating processes and theories that other disciplines don’t have a good way of studying.”
Professors Golden and Reimer study two different, yet inherently connected, sides of sea ice research: physical and biological. A key component of both the professors’ research pertains to brine inclusions within the sea ice. These salty pockets of unfrozen water are not only home to algae, but can also influence the macroscopic physical properties of the sea ice. One of the main physical properties of sea ice that impacts the global climate is albedo, a measure characterized by the reflectivity of the ice’s surface.
“In the summertime, sea ice reflects much of the incoming solar radiation,” Golden said. “If that protective blanket disappears, the sunlight will heat the Arctic Ocean rather than being reflected back into space, which creates a cycle where even more ice melts, called ice-albedo feedback.”
Laney Hansen • Jan 29, 2025 at 2:11 pm
yassss marco!!!!