Georgia Researcher To Study Effects Of Climate Change In Arctic

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R/V Polarstern is in the arctic ice so scientists can conduct research.

A researcher from the Georgia coast is headed to the Arctic this winter to study particles from the atmosphere. A researcher from the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is traveling to the arctic this winter.

An ice breaker ship has sailed into the arctic, where it’s now frozen in the ice. That is the only way to establish a base for scientists there during the heart of winter.

Clifton Buck of the Skidaway Institute helped plan the expedition. He said particles from the atmosphere used to stay frozen on the ice, but now climate change is melting it.

“Now what we’re seeing is that material will fall onto the ice but then the ice will melt away, and then all of that material will go into the ocean,” he said. “Or there won’t be any ice at all and all that material will just go directly into the ocean.”

Buck said measuring the particles now will give them a baseline so they can track the impacts of climate change in the future.