arctic

11 Results
Date Inputs. Currently set to enter a start and end date.
Current Filters Clear all

Using a fiber optic cable to study Arctic seafloor permafrost

December 15, 2023 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Arctic is remote, with often harsh conditions, and its climate is changing rapidly — warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth. This makes studying the Arctic climate both challenging and vital for understanding global climate change. Scientists at Sandia National Laboratories are using...
A permafrost-created pingo or “ice pimple” in the North Slope of Alaska. Scientists from Sandia National Laboratories have been using a fiber optic cable to study permafrost in the Arctic seafloor to improve the understanding of global climate change.

Burping bacteria: Identifying Arctic microbes that produce greenhouse gases

October 17, 2022 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — As greenhouse gases bubble up across the rapidly thawing Arctic, Sandia National Laboratories researchers are trying to identify other trace gases from soil microbes that could shed some light on what is occurring biologically in melting permafrost in the Arctic. Sandia bioengineer Chuck Smallwood and his team...

Sandia-operated Arctic measurement facility moves, research to continue

November 9, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — After eight great years of observations and research, a Sandia National Laboratories-operated atmospheric measurement facility moved from Oliktok Point, on the North Slope of Alaska, this summer. The mobile facility will be relocating to the southeastern United States; the exact location is still being decided. The Department...
Two men look at blue shipping container-like shelters. One points.

A song of ice and fiber

April 8, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories researchers are beginning to analyze the first seafloor dataset from under Arctic sea ice using a novel method. They were able to capture ice quakes and transportation activities on the North Slope of Alaska while also monitoring for other climate signals and marine life....

International research team begins uncovering Arctic mystery

February 8, 2021 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Something lurks beneath the Arctic Ocean. While it’s not a monster, it has largely remained a mystery. According to 25 international researchers who collaborated on a first-of-its-kind study, frozen land beneath rising sea levels currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic...

Exploring Arctic clues to secure future with new Sandia, university partnership

April 23, 2018 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Arctic is undergoing rapid change, with sea ice melting and temperatures rising at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. Its changing environment affects global security, politics, the economy and the climate. Understanding these changes is crucial for shaping and safeguarding U.S. security in...

Balloons and drones and clouds; oh, my!

August 14, 2017 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Last week, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories flew a tethered balloon and an unmanned aerial system, colloquially known as a drone, together for the first time to get Arctic atmospheric temperatures with better location control than ever before. In addition to providing more precise data for weather...
Dave Novick examines an octocopter against a background of grey clouds

The destructive effects of supercooled liquid water on airplane safety and climate models

November 3, 2016 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Supercooled  water sounds smooth enough to be served at espresso bars, but instead it hangs out in Earth’s atmosphere, unpredictably freezing on airplane wings and hampering the simulations of climate theorists. To learn more about this unusual state of matter, Sandia National Laboratories atmospheric scientist Darielle Dexheimer and colleagues have organized an expedition to...
Ice pops from a balloon's tether line as Sandia National Laboratories researcher Darielle Dexheimer gathers in an instrumented balloon at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement research station at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The balloon is about 25 feet above Dexheimer's head and the lines are completely iced over.

Warning Area in Arctic airspace to aid research and exploration

August 6, 2015 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 700-mile-long airspace that stretches north from Oliktok Point — the northernmost point of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay — to about 400 miles short of the North Pole has been put under the stewardship of Sandia National Laboratories by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal...
Helicopter Arctic Ocean

Alaskan North Slope climate: hard data from a hard place

August 13, 2012 • Researchers examine clouds (from both sides now) and the structure of the atmosphere BARROW, Alaska — Sandia National Laboratories’ researcher Mark Ivey and I (science writer Neal Singer)  are standing on the tundra at an outpost of science at the northernmost point of the North American continent. We are five miles northeast...

U.S. Navy experience shows climate alterations, invited speaker at Sandia Labs says

March 29, 2012 • ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Because its presence is worldwide, the U.S. Navy sees the effects of climate change directly, an invited lecturer in Sandia National Laboratories’ ongoing Climate Change and National Security Speaker Series recently told his scientific audience in Albuquerque and, by teleconference, Livermore, Calif. “The findings are independent of climate...