[CRYOLIST] We are all Glaciologists!

Happy New Year Cryolisters!

 

One of my New Year's wishes is that one of the more musically inclined among us respond to this outreach challenge that the paleontologists have thrown down:  "I am a Paleontologist!"   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7zo2zY1Zqg   because after watching it I feel like I need to watch the "I am a Glaciologist" version of that to keep from picking up a book on dinosaurs.  But maybe it should be called "We are all Glaciologists!", because whether we study glaciers or not, everyone on this list is a glaciologist, as Richard Alley pointed out in his Nye Lecture in 2004 "We are all Glaciologists now".  (Unfortunately the link to the video of his talk from this page http://cryosphere.agu.org/nye_2004.html is broken and I cant find it through AGU either – if someone knows how to fix that link, I think its worth doing).  His talk nicely captured not only how ice drives the global dynamics of atmosphere and oceans, but because of that how anyone studying anything depending on those dynamics is essentially a glaciologist in spirit if not in practice, and I think the cryospheric community as a whole might benefit from a musical boost and outreach conveying that.  So if someone is feeling inspired and wants to share their passion for studying the cryosphere in a scientific battle of the bands, I think the paleontologists (and Richard Alley) have given you your cue.  I think there's a whole album of possibilities there...

 

In that spirit, as a holiday gift to those glaciologists not actually studying ice, I have some data to share.  Last summer and fall, while commuting to the Alaskan Arctic for other projects, I flew over most of the long term 'glaciology' grids along the haul road used for studying snow, permafrost, ecology, etc, including Toolik, Imnavait, Happy Valley, Betty Pingo and Westdock, so I mapped them with my photogrammetric system at 10-20 cm resolution in topography and imagery.  If anyone is interested in a copy of those data, just send me an email telling me what you might do with them (it's not a test, I'm just curious) and I'll send you a download link (about 10GB).  I've also got most of them online in 3D in Fodar Earth, which should now work on any computer with a recently updated browser (Chrome seems to work best) – just follow this link www.fairbanksfodar.com/fodar-earth and click on the thumbnail in the film strip or fly there manually to check it out.  The system is still a bit glitchy and may be slow at times; I'd appreciate any feedback, especially from Mac users as I cant test it myself.  Also if anyone is interested in developing custom Cesium apps for teaching, outreach, or research with it (eg https://cesiumjs.org/demos.html), please let me know, there are lots of possibilities, including adding some motivational music...

 

Cheers,
Matt

 

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Dr. Matt Nolan
University of Alaska Fairbanks
525 Duckering Bldg
206 Tanana Loop, Suite 525
Fairbanks, AK 99775
907 978 0542