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WAIS Divide Ice Coring Project
WAIS Divide is a United States deep ice coring project in West Antarctica funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is the second component to the larger WAISCORES initiative. The purpose of the WAIS Divide project is to collect a deep ice core from the flow divide in central West Antarctica in order to develop a unique series of interrelated climate, ice dynamics, and biologic records focused on understanding interactions among global earth systems.
The WAIS Divide ice core will provide Antarctic records of environmental change with the highest possible time resolution for the last ~100,000 years and will be the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of the Greenland GISP2, GRIP, and North GRIP ice cores. The most significant and unique characteristic of the WAIS Divide project will be the development of climate records with an absolute, annual-layer-counted chronology for the most recent ~40,000 years. In addition, due to the high snowfall rate, the WAIS Divide record will have only a small offset between the ages of the ice and the air trapped in the ice. The combination of high-time resolution and this small age offset will allow us to study interactions between climate variations and atmospheric composition with a level of detail previously not possible in deep long Antarctic ice core records. As such, the WAIS Divide ice core will enable detailed comparison of environmental conditions between the northern and southern hemispheres, and the study of greenhouse gas concentrations in the paleo-atmosphere, with a greater level of detail than previously possible.
Desert Research Institute
The Desert Research Institute istriving to serve as a world leader in environmental sciences through the application of knowledge and technologies to improve people’s lives throughout Nevada and the world.
DRI was established by the Nevada Legislature in 1959 and became a stand alone institution within the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) in 1969. Today there are nearly 500 researchers, staff and students working on approximately 300 research projects per year that takes place in every state in the nation and on every continent in the world.
DRI’s exciting research ranges from watershed issues at Nevada’s major lakes to the preservation of China’s national treasures, the Terracotta Warriors and Horses to assisting the Army with desert terrain issues in the Middle East. We are currently constructing the first six-sided computer visualization laboratory west of Iowa.
The institute’s two main campuses are in Reno and Las Vegas. There are satellite research facilities in Boulder City, Nev., and Steamboat Springs, Colo.
3D Quardat Project (3dQP)
The 3-d Quadrat Program is designed to facilitate an understanding of earth system science. The Earth system is very dynamic and involves multiple variables that are all very dependent on each other. hese variables included aspects of all five spheres: the atmosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere, and the cryosphere. TToo often students are asked to make observations and collect data from only one sphere and do not gain experience in understanding the entire system. 3-d quadrats create a workable sized space that encourages and allows collecting observations and data from multiple interactive parts of the Earth system. Though 1m3 is the basic unit of size for the 3-d Quadrat Program we encourage the creation of other multiple of this size and 10m3 space may be the perfect size for an entire ecology lab for a class or school.
International Environmental Change Workshop Series (IECWS)
The International Environmental Change Workshop Series is a series of 4-day teacher workshops on global environmental change to be presented during the summers of 2003, 2004, 2005, and beyond. Each workshop in the series is co-sponsored and co-directed by the Wright Center for Innovative Science Education and will focus on environmental change from the perspective of one of Earth¹s spheres: the cryosphere, the biosphere, the hydrosphere, the the lithosphere, and the atmosphere. These workshops will enable teams of teachers (K-12) to investigate environmental change through classroom instruction and hands-on involvement in current scientific field and/or laboratory research. Workshops have taken place at locations across the United States and in the Caribbean: cryosphere, summer 2003; biosphere, summer 2004; hydrosphere, summer 2005; hydrosphere, summer 2006; cryosphere, summer 2007.
Wright Center for Science Education
The Wright Center for Innovative Science Education is housed at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, as part of its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Created in 1992 to honor the entrepreneur H. Dudley Wright, the Center is baseline funded by the Fondation Wright de Geneve, Switzerland, and currently directed by Eric J. Chaisson since its founding. We stress innovation and dissemination in science education, as articulated in the following mission statement:
The Wright Center is dedicated to the creation and sharing of novel instructional techniques and interdisciplinary resources for pre-college teachers. Through its fellowships, workshops, seminars, and a variety of public-outreach activities, the Center provides leadership in the training and retraining of science teachers to use innovative methods to stimulate young minds.
National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL)
The U.S. National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL) is a facility for storing, curating, and studying ice cores recovered from the polar regions of the world. It provides scientists with the capability to conduct examinations and measurements on ice cores, and it preserves the integrity of these ice cores in a long-term repository for current and future investigations.
National Science Foundation (NSF)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…" With an annual budget of about $5.92 billion, we are the funding source for approximately 20 percent of all federally supported basic research conducted by America's colleges and universities. In many fields such as mathematics, computer science and the social sciences, NSF is the major source of federal backing.
Centre for Ice and Climate
The Centre for Ice and Climate is a centre of excellence at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. The centre's main activities are drilling of ice cores through the Greenland ice sheet (e.g. the NGRIP and NEEM projects) and analysis of ice cores with the objective of understanding the governing processes of past and future climate.
US Antarctic Program
Funded by the U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) supports scientific research in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The USAP carries forward the Nation's goal of supporting the Antarctic Treaty, fostering cooperative research with other nations, protecting the Antarctic environment, and conserving living resources.
The NSF manages the program under guidance of a Presidential memorandum that directs an "active and influential presence in Antarctica designed to support the range of U.S. Antarctic interests."
Since 1956 Americans have been studying Antarctica and its interactions with the rest of the planet. Research disciplines include glaciology, biology and medicine, geology and geophysics, oceanography, climate studies, astronomy, and astrophysics. Contractors and units of the military provide operational support.
Passport to Knowledge/Polar-Palooza
Passport to Knowledge is a series of interactive learning adventures connecting essential Life, Earth, Space and Physical science concepts with exciting real world phenomena. P2K uses a powerful, integrated suite of video programs, hands-on activities and online resources to deliver: Real Science, Real Scientists, Real Locations, Real Learning!
Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS)
Ice Coring and Drilling Services (ICDS), a unit of the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (UW), provides support for NSF-sponsored cold-regions research in both polar regions and at high altitude. ICDS maintains and operates existing equipment, and develops new systems when needed, to provide high quality ice core and boreholes that provide access to the interior and beds of ice sheets and glaciers for such purposes as embedding instruments, collecting gas samples, setting seismic charges, and studying subglacial processes.
Raytheon Polar Services
Raytheon Polar Services exists specifically to meet the needs of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs. The main function of RPSC is to provide support to the United States Antarctic Program, which is dedicated to sustaining the Antarctic environment and funding scientists who conduct research in Antarctica.
Caterpillar Corporation
Since its inception over 80 years ago, Caterpillar has grown to be the largest maker of construction and mining equipment,
diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines in the world. Our products, services and technologies fall into
three principal lines of business: Machinery, Engines and Financial Products. As a global, diverse technology leader, Caterpillar
is committed to excellence in all that we do. We are proud of our role as the leader in building the world’s infrastructure,
and in enabling progress for millions of people around the globe.
Alaska Tent and Tarp
Alaska Tent and Tarp, as it is known today, was originally named Alaska Canvas Supply and Commercial Sewing. Vern Johnson, a Fairbanksan who had come to Alaska at the age of 17 started the business in the late 1940’s. In his early days Johnson traveled in and out of Fairbanks by dog team on trading trips to Alaska Eskimo villages. One of his stock trading items was rabbit (snowshoe hare) snares….and that earned him his Alaska moniker, “Rabbit Snare” Johnson. In the early days, many men and not a few women had nicknames that described something about their personality or habits. Johnson is still well remembered in Fairbanks among the old timers.
Mountain Hardware
In 1993, a small group of people who had weathered years in the outdoor industry decided to get together and form Mountain Hardwear. In addition to working in the outdoor industry, the Mountain Hardwear founders were avid outdoors people themselves.
Clean Air - Cool Planet
We are in the business of solving the global warming problem, developing economically efficient and innovative climate policies and mobilizing civic engagement to implement practical climate solutions.
Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) is the region's leading organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming:
• We partner with companies, campuses, communities and science centers throughout the Northeast to help reduce their carbon emissions.
• We help our partners, their constituents, and other regional opinion leaders and stakeholders understand the impacts of global warming and its best available solutions, through comprehensive outreach efforts celebrating commitment, innovation and success in climate action.
• We showcase practical climate solutions that demonstrate the economic opportunities and environmental benefits associated with early actions on climate change. We propose and recommend the implementation of effective policy solutions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the state, regional and national levels.
• We work to build support for the implementation and strengthening of the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers’ regional Climate Change Action Plan and national programs to reduce emissions.
Glacier Institute
Since 1983, The Glacier Institute, a private nonprofit, has been providing hands-on, field-based educational adventures to people from all over the world in nature’s wildest places, Glacier National Park and the Flathead National Forest, located within the Crown of the Continent ecosystem.
The Crown of the Continent was a phrase coined by Glacier National Park advocate, George Bird Grinnell nearly 100 years ago to describe the magnificence of Glacier’s peaks and valleys. Today, the phrase is used to describe the larger ecosystem that boasts millions of acres and spans the U.S.-Canadian border. Besides Glacier-Waterton International Peace Park, the ecosystem includes the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, the North Fork Valley, the Blackfeet Reservation and thousands of additional acres of public, private and tribal lands spanning from Banff National Park to the Scapegoat Wilderness.
Glacier National Park
Come and experience Glacier's pristine forests, alpine meadows, rugged mountains, and spectacular lakes. With over 700 miles of trails, Glacier is a hiker's paradise for adventurous visitors seeking wilderness and solitude. Relive the days of old through historic chalets, lodges, transportation, and stories of Native Americans. Explore Glacier National Park and discover what awaits you.
Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center (CCRLC)
The Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center (CCRLC) was developed in 2002 as part of the National Park Service's Natural Resource Challenge, a broad initiative within the NPS to provide a vision and a mechanism for park's to revitalize and expand their natural resource programs. The Challenge responds to the realization that the charge of the NPS, to preserve America's natural resources for the enjoyment of present and future generations, requires an active and informed management to a degree unimaginable when the agency was formed in 1916.
Two fundamental aims of the Challenge are to 1) link management decisions more closely with scientific research results and 2) build integrated knowledge sharing relationships with educational institutions and the public. CCRLC projects are developed within this context and are carried out through collaboration among government, academia, educational institutions, public interest, and private citizens, all of whom are committed to understanding and preserving the Crown's natural, social, and cultural heritage.
Chandra X-ray Observatory
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a satellite launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. It was named in honor of Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who is known for determining the mass limit for white dwarf stars to become neutron stars. "Chandra" also means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit.
Chandra Observatory is the third of NASA's four Great Observatories. The first was Hubble Space Telescope; second the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, launched in 1991; and last is the Spitzer Space Telescope. Prior to successful launch, the Chandra Observatory was known as AXAF, the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility. AXAF was assembled and tested by TRW (now Northrop Grumman Space Technology) in Redondo Beach, California.
Since the Earth's atmosphere absorbs the vast majority of X-rays, they are not detectable from Earth-based telescopes, requiring a space-based telescope to make these observations. The data gathered by Chandra have greatly advanced the field of X-ray astronomy.