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 an existing fiber optic cable […]
Tag Archives: arctic
Burping bacteria: Identifying Arctic microbes that produce greenhouse gases
October 17, 2022 – 5:00 am
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 recently spent five days collecting […]
A song of ice and fiber
April 8, 2021 – 5:00 am
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. The team, led by Sandia […]
International research team begins uncovering Arctic mystery
February 8, 2021 – 5:00 am
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 carbon. Little is known about […]
Exploring Arctic clues to secure future with new Sandia, university partnership
April 23, 2018 – 8:36 am
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 the future, Sandia scientists say. […]
Balloons and drones and clouds; oh, my!
August 14, 2017 – 8:05 am
Sandia collects more precise weather, climate data with help from unmanned aerial system 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 […]
The destructive effects of supercooled liquid water on airplane safety and climate models
November 3, 2016 – 5:00 am
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 fly huge tethered balloons in […]
Warning Area in Arctic airspace to aid research and exploration
August 6, 2015 – 10:20 am
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 Aviation Administration (FAA). Oliktok Point […]
Alaskan North Slope climate: hard data from a hard place
August 13, 2012 – 5:00 am
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 of Barrow, an Alaskan village […]
U.S. Navy experience shows climate alterations, invited speaker at Sandia Labs says
March 29, 2012 – 12:25 pm
Information based on data, not computer models 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 […]