UD’s Carlos Moffat receives NSF CAREER Award to study melting ice in Antarctica
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE
As a coastal physical oceanographer, University of Delaware Assistant Professor Carlos Moffat has been interested in how coastal systems affect the larger climate and has worked on projects that measure the impact of the ocean on glacial ice retreat around the world for quite some time.
Moffat has studied coastal systems in some of the most remote regions of the world such as Patagonia and Antarctica, observing how the ocean plays a large role in explaining the patterns of ice loss from continents, which contributes to global sea level rise. As more of that ice on land melts, the mean sea level is increasing around the world.
Now, having been awarded a five-year, $787,528 National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Faculty Career Development Award, Moffat will look at a challenging scientific problem faced by polar physical oceanographers: trying to determine and understand how all this added freshwater as a result of ice melt affects the coastal systems in Antarctica.
Specifically, Moffat will try to discover where the freshwater ends up and how it impacts the circulation and the properties of the ocean around Antarctica.
That meltwater forms strong coastal currents and ocean fronts, and those currents are impacted by winds, tides, and break down if they become unstable. Aside from generating those currents, the distribution of freshwater in polar oceans strongly modulates the distribution of marine organisms, the magnitude of ocean mixing, and the formation and melting of sea ice, among others.
“We know surprisingly little about those processes in polar regions, and the CAREER grant gives me an opening to study them,” said Moffat, who works in the School of Marine Science and Policy in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment. “We are trying to study a part of the ocean where it is really risky and complicated to collect observations.”
One of the reasons this problem has been so hard to study is that the meltwater, because it’s lighter, rises, and it also accumulates near the coast. Those surface regions near the coast are heavily impacted by different kinds of ice, including icebergs that break off from glaciers and sea ice that is formed in the ocean itself.
To conduct his research, Moffat will go to the west Antarctic Peninsula — the region he is using as a model for the study — in January of 2022. Moffat said that he chose the west Antarctic Peninsula because it is a region of the world that warmed quickly in the 20th century and it has been one of the fastest warming regions in the Southern Hemisphere.
Once he arrives at his study site, he will deploy some instruments to study freshwater discharge from the coast. He is hoping to utilize observations that are connected from the atmosphere and from the ocean, as well as autonomous vehicles in his research.
“There are autonomous vehicles that you can drop from a ship or one of the Antarctic bases in that region and program them with a mission to collect observations,” said Moffat. “The idea is that next summer, we will program two of these vehicles to sample a pretty broad region of the coast, and we’ll collect oceanographic data including salinity, temperature, and some microstructure data, which allows us to understand mixing processes.”
In the meantime, he will begin modeling work on the region at UD.
Moffat said he became interested in this problem because it is a good example of how processes that are happening close to the coast and in relatively small places — sometimes even underneath ice sheets and small glaciers themselves — are having a big impact on the global climate system.
“Understanding the process of what is happening in that point of contact between the ice and the ocean and the processes that explain how fast the ice is melting at that boundary is critical to understand sea level rise,” said Moffat. “That ocean-driven process of melting is a key source of uncertainty for sea level rise projections.”
Educational Component
In addition to his research, Moffat said he hopes to achieve multiple educational goals from the grant, the first of which is generating a new class focused around polar oceans and polar problems.
Another central effort of the proposal is to have a Professional Learning Institute that will bring in teachers of grades 8-12 over two consecutive summers to train at the University. Over the course of a few days, Moffat and his colleagues will translate some of the research from Antarctica into material that can be used in the teacher’s respective classrooms, especially in terms of the Next Generation Science Standards for Delaware.
In addition, Moffat will use what he learns in Antarctica to train a graduate student and will present his research findings at different conferences and public outreach events.
Finally, the School of Marine Science and Policy at UD has been involved in an effort to renovate the basement of Robinson Hall to create a new teaching lab, and Moffat said he will join in those efforts.
“The idea is to make use of those new facilities to create student-driven investigations where we can use tanks and other teaching tools to allow students to have hands-on experiences with problems related to physical oceanography,” said Moffat.
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The Western Peninsula in Antarctica? Where all of the aggressive volcanoes are producing the only melting anomaly in all of Antarctic? The books are already cooked!
There has been no step change in volcanism to cause recent rapid warming in West Antactica. But heh, anything but CO2 I suppose.
http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glacial-geology/antarctic-ice-sheet/subglacial-volcanoes/
Just in Antactica CO2 is a cooling factor, another point you have no clue of 😀
Loydo, try googling “Active volcanism beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet and implications for ice sheet stability”. A word of caution, however, this report has a lot of big words.
Loydo, have you considered getting some kind of remedial reading and/or reading comprehension therapy? Yes we know that scientists provide references, but 12-year olds who do science fair projects know that the references are to support what’s being said.
Otherwise, what’s your lame passive aggressive hypothesis? … that CO2 gangs up over West Antarctica and not the rest of it, and beats down back radiation on that region only.
I refer you back to a Dunning-Kruger post on this site. You should be able to find it, because it was you who posted it.
No way that a volcano with 2000C magma within it could possibly melt ice. Gotta be CO2.
Loydo, if at least you read your links and try to understand the read:
“These observations suggest the presence of a thin persistent Late Miocene ice dome or icefield draping the pre-Miocene topography in northern Victoria Land for the period, although it may have been confluent with the greater East Antarctic Ice Sheet similar to conditions present today [5]. The Late Miocene was much warmer than today but the Transantarctic Mountains hinterland was already uplifted to its current elevation prior to the volcanism and helped the ice sheet to establish and persist. The glacial thermal regime varied from wet-based and dynamic, to cold-based (frozen to its bed) and presumably relatively stable. The glacial thermal regime was dominantly polar since the earliest eruptions but with several temporary changes to a wet-based (sub-polar or temperate) more dynamic regime.”
From your link:
Conclusions, Loydo?
If you want to learn:
“AbstractRecent Antarctic surface climate change has been characterized by greater warming trends in West Antarctica than in East Antarctica. Although this asymmetric feature is well recognized, its origin remains poorly understood. Here, by analyzing observation data and multimodel results, we show that a west-east asymmetric internal mode amplified in austral winter originates from the harmony of the atmosphere-ocean coupled feedback off West Antarctica and the Antarctic terrain. The warmer ocean temperature over the West Antarctic sector has positive feedback, with an anomalous upper-tropospheric anticyclonic circulation response centered over West Antarctica, in which the strength of the feedback is controlled by the Antarctic topographic layout and the annual cycle. The current west-east asymmetry of Antarctic surface climate change is undoubtedly of natural origin because no external factors (e.g., orbital or anthropogenic factors) contribute to the asymmetric mode“
The internal origin of the west-east asymmetry of Antarctic climate change
WRONG AS ALWAYS, Loy-dumb
.
Please stop basing all your comments on ABJECT IGNORANCE.
As you are well aware, CO2 warming ONLY exists in your imagination.
(From 2017) Scientists have uncovered the largest volcanic region on Earth – two kilometres below the surface of the vast ice sheet that covers west Antartica. The project, by Edinburgh University researchers, has revealed almost 100 volcanoes – with the highest as tall as the Eiger, which stands at almost 4,000 meters in Switzerland.
Geologists say this huge region is likely to dwarf that of east Africa’s volcanic ridge, currently rated the densest concentration of volcanoes in the world. After the team had collated the results, it reported a staggering 91 previously unknown volcanoes, adding to the 47 others that had been discovered over the previous century of exploring the region.
(From 2013) Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have in fact discovered a chain of active volcanoes under the West Antarctic ice sheet. They weren’t looking for them. They just detected unexplained seismic activity while doing measurements. The researchers then used airborne ice-penetrating radar to create topographic maps of the bedrock.
“Eruptions at this site are unlikely to penetrate the 1.2-2-kilometer-thick overlying ice, but would generate large volumes of melt water that could significantly affect ice stream flow,” said the study. These observations provide strong evidence for ongoing magmatic activity and demonstrate that volcanism continues to migrate southwards along the Executive Committee Range.
Where is the change in recent decades in the Antarctic Peninsula’s volcanic activity that might corellate to the change the Antarctic Peninsula’s temperature?
“East Africa’s volcanic ridge…”. So authoritative.
Loy-dumb caught out by its overwhelming ignorance YET AGAIN.
https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=295861
https://oceanleadership.org/newly-discovered-volcanic-heat-source-under-antarctic-glacier-is-half-as-hot-as-icelands-most-active-volcano/
Of course, according to Loy-dumb, a huge heat source UNDER the ice doesn’t cause any melting..
It has to CO2 in the atmosphere that causes the ice to melt underneath
How much more ignorant and scientifically mal-informed can this Loy-clown get !!
I’m sure it will continue to show us the very depths of its ignorance…. Mariana trench is shallow in comparison.
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-volcanic-source-major-antarctic-glacier.html
Try to get away from your base level ignorance, Loy-dumb
Its getting embarrassing to watch you FAIL day after day after day.
.
I doubt you feel that embarrassment though. Its just part of being you.
If you think this warming anomaly has anything to do with volcanoes you are hopelessly clutching at staws.
Where is the effect from the East Antarctic volcanoes?
No step change in geothermal activity = no correlation.
Yes there has been a step change in ocean seismic activity
WHY do you persist in making DUMB IGNORANT COMMENTS.
Now Loy-dumb..
Prove , with actual science , that is NATURAL variability in one small region, has ANYTHING AT ALL to do with human CO2
You are just hopelessly clutching an empty air.
You have NOTHING
You are NOTHING.
Larsen Ice shelf COOLING since 2000
.
Sea temperatures around Antarctic FALLING since 2000
Anyway, Antarctic shows no warming in 7 decades
https://climaterealism.com/2021/01/peer-reviewed-study-confirms-antarctica-has-not-warmed-in-last-seven-decades/
Yes there has been a step change in ocean seismic activity
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-quake-antarctica/antarctica-rocked-by-30000-tremors-in-3-months-chilean-scientists-say-idUSKBN28Q2XO
“3 months” of tremors starting last year? Are you joking? You love your little cherry-picks don’t you, but this one takes the cake.
No significant rise in volcanic activity to be seen, none that in the most far-fetched way corellates with air temperatures.
But hey, if you’re going to double down on this volcano dunnit rubbish – and I’m thinking you will; where is the East Antarctic volcanic affect?
YAWN
Yes, Volcanic activity HAS been noted under the West Antarctic Ice sheet.,
GET OVER IT and FACE FACTS for once in your life
It is noted you presented ZERO EVIDENCE OF WARMING BY HUMAN RELEASED CO2.
You are yapping mindlessly again loy-dumb.
You mean the COOLING since 2000?
Are those the temperatures you refer to ?
Were they caused by human released CO2 as well ?
How is it even possible for a human being to post a map like that and try to persuade people that it’s an effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Loydo, you really need to look in a mirror and ask yourself – are you actually a loonie?
What’s your theory Phili?
Natural variability
Antarctic is COLDER NOW than for most of the last 2000 years.
Antarctic temps have done basically NOTHING in the last 2000 year
All you have is mindless anti-science fantasies, loy-dumb..
Unbacked by anything remotely resembling facts or reality.
My theory is that you could actually be a loonie.
“Moffat said that he chose the west Antarctic Peninsula because it is a region of the world that warmed quickly in the 20th century and it has been one of the fastest warming regions in the Southern Hemisphere.”…and not at all by being warmed by volcanic action under the ice!
He didn’t mention Climate Change, right ?
And got funding, not naming CO2 ?
This research is, of course, the tip of the iceberg (geddit?). There are thousands of young researchers getting grants like this, often including renovations to the basement of some university building or other. I met one such, a couple of years ago, who had been given some of these floating scientific instrument toys to play with. I suggested to him that there might come a time, in the not too distant future, when the ‘global warming’ discourse fell apart, and that it might be good to make sure that the research still made sense in the absence of this particular ruling paradigm. I don’t know whether the advice was taken, but I think the same applies to this early-career enthusiast for melting ice. Probably what he is doing is interesting in itself, even in the absence of ‘catastrophic anthropogenic climate change’; just make sure so.
Sounds like they have a whole
propagandaprogram in store for some high school teachers.No, no, he wants to train teachers to develop propaganda for the kiddies. So they can choose a career in climastrology, no doubt. Who needs engineering, maths, critical thinking, when you got critical race theory, statistics massaging and climatic eskatology, and all the factories are in China, anyway. I still blame madam Montessori more than mister Mann. He was just the product of her “teachings”.
Maybe that’s why he only got $150K a year – that won’t cover much
Nice job if you can get it. 🙂
That just happens to be utter and complete BS. !!!
Antarctic sea ice is just about where it always is at this time of year.
UAH shows no South Pole region warming since 1980
.
Antarctic is cooler now than it has been for most of the last 2000 years, at least
.
Stories of warming Antarctic ice are straight from the AGW Mills and Boon fantasy agency.
Is it not a bit disingenuous to claim a place is warm when it goes from “freezing your face off” to taking slightly longer to freezing your face off? -32C probably feels about the same as -51 C, blasted cold!
I haven’t felt -51 C, but I have felt -47 C, and, of course, -32C, as well. Both were felt while walking to school in the ’60s in Northern Minnesota. I can assure you the 15 C difference is noticeable. Fortunately, whenever temperatures that cold were reached, there were usually clear skies and very little wind. I did freeze my windward ear slightly once when it was -40.
Be there do that, I was also out on the prairie, it can be – 20 F with a twenty five mile hour wind, even a little wind goes a long ways at that temp. When you get -30 F most of the time there is little wind. I have found memory in of driving from western North Dakota to Minnesota in -20 weather with a very strong wind. The sun dogs were very bright that day.
I’ve worked outdoors at Ft McMurray at minus 50 – don’t recall if that was minus 50 C or F – when it’s that cold you don’t care.
We left our trucks running all day and all night – never shut them down. Fill-em-up while running and carry on. How very un-green!
I recall that strange sensation when you inhaled, and the boogers in your nose froze.
Usually there is very little wind at that temperature – smoke (water vapor) from the chimneys went straight up in parallel columns.
When you walk, the snow squeaks at a higher and higher pitch the colder it gets – at minus 50 you can barely hear it – at minus 60, probably only dogs can.
We were tough in those days – no “safe spaces” nonsense. What happened since then to make people so soft, so soft-headed, and so crazy? Spend an entire work night outdoors at minus 50 degrees and you’ll never complain about global warming.
Claims of melting Antarctic, where surface temperatures are well below zero..
Are complete and absolute NONSENSE.
Spoilsport! “Who needs facts, when you hold the moral high ground?”
The peninsula is different. It sticks out into the sea and has been warming. It’s just the rest of the Antarctic that hasn’t.
Of course, this does poor cold water on the ‘well-mixed effect of CO2’ hypothesis. And supports the ‘ocean circulation changes drive the temperature movements’theory.
But that is reason enough to study the changes. If only to find out why there has never been a runaway amplification to an uninhabitable world.
You really think the proponents of CO2 hypothesis would notice the contradiction? We do but I don’t think they are bright enough to understand the contradiction, make they hypothesis rather worthless.
wait so this “fresh water” flows into the ocean but doesn’t mix and become salt water ? just sits on “top” of the salt water ??? wow … wouldn’t it freeze faster than salt water then (higher freezing temp) …
couldn’t he study this at EVERY RIVER that empties into an ocean ?
It does mix but it just take time, it is lighter due to lack of salt and also due to the fact it is warmer. The gulf stream is and example of warmer water riding on top of colder water.
John Kerry may fly down in person using a government plane – not his private jet – to congratulate this guy for doing his part to melt Antarctica….John thinks we need to melt Antarctica because Arctica is not enough……John believes a melting Antarctica will make our dreams come true. John thinks Antarctica can contribute a lot more to sudden abrupt rapid climate change.
….sort of carry its own weight for a change.
These researchers will do anything to get their “trip of a lifetime” or the adoration of their peers, friends and family. That includes telling complete lies to obtain their next grant money infusion and telling every media hound who calls them just how important their research is. Yet they call oil and gas tech people “shills”….
Looking at the picture, they are taking some risk. That of course depend if that was them, whoever in the picture were taking some risk.
Notice it always takes lots of fossil fuels for them to do all this travel and study and then conclude that we should all stop using fossil fuels, everyone…except climate researchers, they should get more grants by the way.
Hey, you have to give the guy credit. He’s actually going out in the field to collect data. Such arefreshing change from the usual mental masturbation exercises involving computer models.
Did you miss the part where he’s spending a couple of years developing the model before he goes to get data? That’s a lot of time being mental in front of a computer.
I willing to bet he will have over half of his “research” based on modeling.
I didn’t read anything in the story trying to link the observations to CO2 and global warming which is refreshing. Most of the description is about phenomenon of meltwater impact on coastal marine environments which would be an interesting and potentially useful process to understand, and one which would reflect physical and chemical principles which are easily observable. If there is an intent to use the research to promote the global warming religion then that would be a major flaw in reason as there is no evidence CO2 is causing Antarctic ice to melt more rapidly or even that Antarctic ice is declining in mass. Making observations in the Western Peninsula where warming and melting are more evident also makes sense if you want to observe melting ice (whatever the cause). From what I read I would give the researcher the benefit of doubt till I see evidence otherwise.
What’s going on here is exactly why Willis always puts his little disclaimer at the end of his essays
(The bit about ‘exact words‘)
having softened you up a little with that preamble –
My Question here is:
What Is Reality?
Scary stuff but lets narrow it down a bit to (Ant)Arctic Explorers, what is their reality?
They have gone there, under a very bright spotlight to look for Global Warming
And They Are Going To Find It.
Whether by some really real definition of whether it really exists at all.
Their reality is that if they don’t find Global Warming at Arctica, they’re gonna be seen by that immensely bright Super Trouper focussed right at them them to be idiots and complete blithering & stupid incompetents.
That’s of little matter consequence, just wait till the D Word Launcher is wheeled out.
Then its Curtains. Their lives would end.
And so, they find The Warming.
They become perfectly blind to how their scientific work could go wrong. No-one there is consciously cheating, but…… the warming is there and their entire lives, careers and social standing depend on quantifying it.
But, and where The Blindness becomes a Double Blind, the Super Trouper also sees that:
The Only Places where there is any warming, is where The Scientists went to look for it.
Thus:
What is The Reality? Who are The Deniers?
(Is really beyond the bounds that whoever asserted and vehemently continues to assert, that mind-bending chemicals are ‘OK to use’ and in the case of sugar, very large quantities of same and are absolutely essential to life.
Why does anyone use those chemicals if not: To Escape Reality?)
Maybe now you start to get a handle on Flat Earthers and, might now take it as a compliment to be thus accused.
Its a nice way of ‘Breaking The Ice’ (ha haha haha ha) when you meet someone new, and discovering if your potential new friend has a GSOH.
Girls know all about that
Ooooooooow – wonder if that’s where all the babies went?
For 99.99999999999999% of everybody, it makes no jot of difference whether Earth is flat or not.
The Round Earth only applies to folks who are full-of-themselves and have no hesitation in telling everyone how superior they are, so as to gain control, power, money, sex whatever…
Round earthers will semi-jokingly say: “Ha ha you muppet- If Earth is flat you will fall off the far-end if you travel far enough.”
Wait a minute, doesn’t that define a Singularity, a Non Linear function?
Thus, why have the round earthers doing Climate Science absolutely No Problemo At Alleo with non-linearities.
They quite revel in them.
(We do remember The Definition of Climate?= “Chaotic & Non-linear”)
How many ways & times is it possible to have cake and eat?
Pretty well by definition, Polar Explorers are Round Earthers and thus regard themselves as superior to everyone else.
Power corrupts blah blah .
So Arctica warms. And see if it cares.
Fortunately, the girls have realised this (that they have no GSOH) and refuse to breed with them.
Unless, as we discovered with Princess Nutty, they are avid consumers of the mind bending chemicals.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm – which way will it go?
As more of that ice on land melts, the mean sea level is increasing around the world.
“Ice on land” In Antarctica it’s called the ice cap, and there’s precious little melting going on the vast majority of the ice cap. It eventually calves into the sea as icebergs. That’s what causes sea level rise, melting comes later as the bergs float off to warmer water.
To conduct his research, Moffat will go to the west Antarctic Peninsula — the region he is using as a model for the study — in January of 2022.
The Palmer Peninsula is hardly representative of Antarctica
Moffat said that he chose the west Antarctic Peninsula because it is a region of the world that warmed quickly in the 20th century and it has been one of the fastest warming regions in the Southern Hemisphere.
Bullshit, it’s easy to get to.
In the meantime, he will begin modeling work on the region at UD.
Sit down jobs are most desirable.
Moffat said he became interested in this problem because it is a good example of how processes that are happening close to the coast and in relatively small places — sometimes even underneath ice sheets and small glaciers themselves — are having a big impact on the global climate system.
Bullshit, He became interested in the area because that’s where the grant money is.
“Understanding the process of what is happening in that point of contact between the ice and the ocean and the processes that explain how fast the ice is melting at that boundary is critical to understand sea level rise,” said Moffat. “That ocean-driven process of melting is a key source of uncertainty for sea level rise projections.”
Bullshit. The process that is driving sea level rise from Antarctic ice isn’t “melting” it’s the process of ice formed from snow that fell years, decades or centuries ago that is pushed into the sea by the ever advancing ice cap. Melting and temperature has nothing to do with it.