Lily Wu
Texas A&M University
Research Mentor: Ignatius Rigor
Project: Arctic Sea Ice Observations
Howdy! My name is Lily Wu; I’m a rising senior at Texas A&M University majoring in Environmental Geoscience with minors in Meteorology and Geography. This summer, I worked with Dr. Ignaitus Rigor and Dr. Muyin Wang at the Polar Science Center in the Applied Physics Laboratory. We looked at Arctic sea ice, focusing on using observational methods to create a dataset to advance our knowledge.
The Arctic is especially vulnerable to the consequences of global warming and climate change. As the world warms, accelerating ice melt causes younger and thinner ice formation and unprecedented ice extent loss. 2022 marks one of the warmest years since 1900 and has one of the lowest sea ice coverages since the modern satellite record. Thus, monitoring Arctic sea ice is crucial because ice melt has dire consequences for the global climate system, other processes Earth is dependent on, and wildlife, indigenous peoples, and coastal communities.
Scientists use many methods to study the Arctic; most information comes from passive satellites because of the broad coverage. However, my analysis uses data and information from buoys and webcams placed on ice floes. My mentor, Ignatius, frequently travels to Alaska to deploy these instruments in the Arctic. Using in situ observational methods like the aforementioned is advantageous because of their proximity to the environment. Webcams placed directly on localized ice floes monitor it and its physical processes over time, while buoys record physical measurements as the ice drifts.
My main objective was to create time lapses of Arctic sea ice by stitching together webcam images. First, I would add time stamps onto the pictures using Python, then upload the new files into my video editing software. From there, I would use the software to create the time-lapse videos by stitching the frames together. After creation, these videos can help visually validate the buoy data measurements like temperature. Using Python, I analyzed various buoy temperature measurements and compared them to time-lapse videos within the same date range. We can see if the webcam observations validate the buoy data and match our expectations.
Another objective was to compare the buoy measurements to each other. I regressed buoys against each other to determine the linearity and y-intercepts to determine the error. Doing so can help us evaluate the accuracy of the buoys and compare which instruments work better.
The end goal of my time-lapse videos is to move them to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) webpage, where previous time lapses also reside, to create a more expansive dataset.
You can check out my website temporarily hosting the videos (time-lapse links and extras): https://lilywu70.wixsite.com/cicoes-2023
YouTube playlist (time lapses): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcTZWIdDBjvbZL35QgO_L24Kig4sST1I4
I highly recommend the CICOES internship to anyone curious about scientific research as a career. Working with Ignatius and Muyin and becoming friends with the other interns became the best summer experience since college: and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
Thanks to the following organizations whose images I used to create my time lapses: Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), U.S. Navy Arctic Submarine Laboratory (ASL), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), The Collaborative O-Buoy Project, International Arctic Buoy Programme (USIABP), and Warming and Irradiance Measurement (WARM) Buoy.
Project Introduction
Research Poster
