Summer 2006
Ohio State Univeristy Byrd Polar Research Center

Mentors:Dr. Ken Jezek, Dr. Carol Landis, Stephen Smather
Team Member: Garry Cameron - Math Education Senior
The 2006 summer at the Byrd Polar Research Center was unforgettable. Not only were there tons of information shared dealing with climate change, paleoclimatology, polar meteorology, ice cores, glaciology, and much more, but i was fortunate enough to meet important people who are doing nationally recognized research and field work. I had the opportunity to develop models in order to produce innovative antarctic mapping and participate in an intense one-week workshop in which teachers learned the basics surrounding each field studied at the Byrd Polar Research Center and were supplemented with teaching tools to use in the classroom with middle school and high school students.


Spring 2006 Upwelling Team
Mentor: Dr. Malcom Lecompte
Team Members: Erica Pinkney, Jamikra Balktop
Research
Satellite measurements of Sea Surface Temperature often reveal cooler water from offshore ocean depths temporarily displacing warmer coastal surface layers. These waters may carry nutrients that enable the growth of chlorophyll bearing species of marine biota that ultimately support higher levels of the food chain. Evidence suggests that upwelling is driven by southerly winds parallel to Eastern North Carolina coast line. While wind driven upwelling events have been detected along the North Carolina coast line; a correlation with the production of chlorophyll species production has not yet been made. The magnitude of chlorophyll bearing species production can be estimated by measuring the relative radiance of in reflected sunlight from the oceans surface in different spectral bands. Measurements of reflected sunlight radiance at appropriate spectral bands have been made by the Sea viewing Wide Field of view (SeaWiFS) Sensor aboard the NASA-OrbImage SeaStar satellite. The team will import the SeaDAS software to enable analysis of data for the summers of 2000 and 2003 during which upwellings are known to have occurred and determine whether a correlation can be established between Chlorophyll a levels and SST in coastal waters.