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Cynthia M. O'Carroll                    April 18, 2003
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/614-5563)
Cynthia.M.ocarroll{at}nasa.gov

RELEASE: 03-40

NASA AND NATIVE AMERICAN STUDENTS EXPLORE NORTH POLE VIA LIVE
WEBCASTS

Secondary and college classrooms are invited to explore the frozen 
ice sheets of the North Pole through live webcasts on April 21 and 24 
with scientists from NASA and Native American students from the Bay 
Mills Community College in Brimley, Mich. The team will be gathering 
data about the nature and thickness of the sea ice on a moving ice 
floe and measuring the concentration of aerosols or pollutants in the 
Arctic under the AERONET (Aerosol Robotic Network) program with NASA 
scientist Brent Holben.

The Field Research Investigating Geophysical Interface Dynamics 
(FRIGID2003) project will run from April 19 - 26 with live 2-hour 
webcasts scheduled for Monday April 21st from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. EDT 
and April 24 1:30-3:30 p.m. EDT. To access the webcast log onto:
http://spioffice.gsfc.nasa.gov/frigid2003/

The webcasts are possible because NASA has the unique ability to 
point the 16-ft. antenna on its 20-year old Tracking and Data Relay 
Satellite-1 at this remote location, Ice Station Borneo at the North 
Pole, enabling a high-speed Internet connection.

This joint scientific adventure provides the Bay Mills' students with 
an unprecedented opportunity to perform hands-on field data 
collection activities in a remote icy location in accordance with 
established scientific procedures. Students participating in the 
webcast will have a unique opportunity to share the experiences of 
the research team performing measurements on the ice. They will also 
have the ability to participate in the exchange of dialog between the 
scientists and the students in the field.

The researchers involved in the webcasts are Dr. Brent Holben of the 
Biospheric Sciences Branch of the NASA Goddard's Lab for Terrestrial 
Physics; Dr. Rhett Herman, professor of physics at Radford University 
located in Radford, Va.; and Mr. Austin Kovacs, retired from the Cold 
Regions Research and Engineering Lab of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The primary audience for the first live webcast from the Pole is a 
group of Tribal and mainline colleges in the U.S.A. and Norway, 
including George Mason and Radford in Va., Yale in Conn., Michigan 
State, American International College in Boston, and The University 
Centre on Svalbard, Norway. A second live interactive webcast will be 
from Longyearbyen, Norway, with the prime audience a secondary school 
(grades 5-12) science classroom.

Both of the 2-hour webcasts will be web-archived and video-indexed 
for long-term access with content aligned to National Science 
Education Standards. The webcasts will include demonstration and 
explanation of the scientific protocols used for monitoring sea ice 
thickness, and a series of Global Learning and Observation to Benefit 
the Environment (GLOBE) program atmospheric protocols.

The research done by the students of Bay Mills Community College is 
sponsored by the Department of Defense through various grants. The 
purpose is to inspire Native American students to seek out careers in 
technology and science by allowing them to work hand-in-hand with 
scientists in unique locations. With the help of NASA scientists, the 
students will collect over 1500 ice thickness measurements in a 3 km 
(1.86 miles) grid area. They are using the same Electromagnetic 
Induction devices that are used by NASA researchers throughout the 
Arctic.

Using GLOBE protocols, the students and teachers will also be 
measuring the concentration of aerosols and their specific properties 
of size and absorption of sunlight. The amount of sunlight that 
aerosols absorb is very important as it will help scientists better 
understand how they contribute to trapping heat in the atmosphere and 
warming the Earth.

The goal of the AERONET program is to study the energy that aerosols 
absorb and reflect and confirm the accuracy of aerosol satellite 
data. Holben will be setting up a station as well as training the 
students and teachers on the trip in the use of sun photometers. Some 
aerosols or pollutants transported from Earth's mid-latitudes may 
reach the Arctic's polar vortex (spinning winds around the poles) and 
are trapped there for months.

This Arctic site will be the northernmost AERONET site in the polar 
vortex that will compliment NASA's Barrow, Alaska. site and lay the 
groundwork for a future collaboration with the Russians at Ice 
Station Borneo.

The data gathered directly by the FRIGID 2003 team will provide an 
extensive survey of a large area of sea ice. This extensive area 
survey can be related to 5 or 6 scientific buoys that various 
scientific institutions are placing on the same floe. These buoys 
each have a satellite link that transmits data on their local changes 
every day. By correlating those spot measurements with the larger 
area now, the larger area changes can be extrapolated from the spot 
changes. The only effective way to monitor sea ice changes over the 
entire Arctic Ocean is with satellites. Currently ground teams play a 
crucial part in validating the satellite instruments. The ground 
truth areas surveyed must be large enough for airborne instruments to 
scan with multiple pixels. Aircraft measurements calibrated and 
validated in this fashion are then used to extend the calibrate 
footprints to a size large enough to calibrate/validate satellite 
instruments.

FRIGID Live Web cast April 21 and 24:
http://spioffice.gsfc.nasa.gov/frigid2003

Internet links with more information, photographs and images are
posted at:
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0418northpole.html
http://www.radford.edu/~rusmart/rufreezing
http://psc.apl.washington.edu/northpole/
http://www.unis.no/

More information on the AERONET Program can be found at:
http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For more on the GLOBE Program, go to:
http://www.globe.gov/globe_flash.html

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