The US academic research vessel RV Neil Armstrong departed from Nuuk, Greenland in early October. On the first leg of our journey, the science team’s initial purpose was to collect water samples and previously deployed instruments along a line of moorings at the southern entrance to Baffin Bay, a gateway between the Arctic and the north Atlantic. This line stretches from Sisimiut, on the west side of Greenland, to just off Cape Dyer, near the Canadian coast.
Collaborative Research: Laser Cutting Technology for Borehole Sampling
A vast portion of cryospheric science—the studies of polar ice and the gases, chemicals, isotopes, dust, and biomatter it holds—shares one fundamental requirement: high-quality samples from the depths of an ice sheet. Drilling for a complete ice core is a massive, costly, years-long operation; faster methods such as hot-water drilling achieve their speed largely by giving up the ability to return ice. Robotics-Enhanced Laser Ice Collection is a design which could quickly and economically retrieve new ice samples from almost any borehole, whether drilled using traditional coring drills or rapid-access systems. RELIC uses high-power 1070 nm laser light, carried by fiber optics down to a lightweight probe, to cleanly cut wedges of ice from borehole sidewalls. The use of modern laser technology provides low vibration for brittle ice, eliminates contamination from physical cutting blades, reduces mechanical complexity, and allows new samples to be retrieved from scientifically-interesting depths more quickly, cheaply, and easily than ever before.
Participants Involved in This Project
Kris Liu | Educator Fellow
The Organization for Physics at Two-Year Colleges (OPTYCs), American Association of Physics Teachers | College Park, MD
Merlin Mah | Researcher Fellow
University of Minnesota | Minneapolis, MN
From the Blog
Our plane glides through the Endicott Mountains of the Brooks Range as we make our final descent into Anaqtuuvak. Accessible only by plane, Anaktuvuk Pass (“the place of caribou droppings”) is located 250 miles northwest of Fairbanks and is home to the only community of inland Iñupiat, Nunamiut, people [1]. Below, icy blue glaciers feed into a winding network of streams that snake through dense, green tundra and low-lying willows that line the banks of the Anaktuvuk River. From the air, the tundra is a verdant forest, but once on the ground the trees and shrubbery are no taller than 5-6 feet. The village stands out like a colorful flower within the greenery, blooming into view as we enter the valley. In Anaktuvuk, the roots of plants and people alike extend down into permafrost, the lifeblood of the ecosystem and holder of history.
In July 2024 I had the opportunity to visit Amy in person in Arizona. In the vlog of my trip, I share pictures of the work one of Amy’s colleagues is doing on a telescope that is going in a hot air balloon in Antarctica, we visit Kitt Peak Observatory, which is built on the tribal land of the Tohono Odham nation, and then Amy’s lab at the University of Arizona. You will also hear snippets of the songs I wrote for our Polar STEAM resource assignment.
As a high school science teacher, I’m always looking for ways to inspire my students with real-world science and deepen their understanding of our planet. The PolarSTEAM Educator Fellowship has been an extraordinary opportunity to merge my passion for polar environments with my teaching. Through this year-long virtual collaboration with T.J. Fudge, a research scientist at the University of Washington, I’ve been immersed in cutting-edge research on ice cores, allowing me to bring current polar science research to my students.
The Juneau Icefield is a group of interconnected glaciers just north of Juneau, Alaska that extends into British Columbia, Canada and covers an area the size of Rhode Island. Maybe you’ve heard of the Mendenhall Glacier? It is part of the Juneau Icefield! The Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) has been collecting data on the icefield since 1948.
Made possible with funding by the National Science Foundation Award #2221990. The information contained here is those of the author(s) and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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