Spring Break
Professor, student help predict global warming
U-Wire
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Features
(U-WIRE) SALT LAKE CITY - Floating between giant slabs of Antarctic ice, the RSV Aurora Australis rests, sheltering its inhabitants from the stark and freezing conditions outside.
Two residents of the Australian research ship are a University of Utah student and professor, who are studying the flow of salt water through ice, which can be applied to forecast the impact of global warming.
Ken Golden, a mathematics professor at the U, has been studying the properties of sea ice since he was a teenager. It wasn't until a trip to the Antarctic in 1994 where he discovered water spread out through ice layers - a property he is still researching during his voyage to Antarctica.
Golden's recent discoveries show that brine flowing through floating masses of ice follow a formula of permeability that applies to other porous materials. The discovery could make forecasts about the effect of global warming on polar ice packs more accurate.
Though he is working mostly with sea ice biologists and sea physicists on his expedition, Golden's role as a mathematician is essential in the research process. His tasks include measuring ice and applying the numbers to a complex mathematical formula that he developed to assess how easily fluid flows through the ice, as determined by its temperature and salinity.
Not only applicable to sea ice, Golden's mathematical formula can be applied to various other permeability situations and functions.
Two residents of the Australian research ship are a University of Utah student and professor, who are studying the flow of salt water through ice, which can be applied to forecast the impact of global warming.
Ken Golden, a mathematics professor at the U, has been studying the properties of sea ice since he was a teenager. It wasn't until a trip to the Antarctic in 1994 where he discovered water spread out through ice layers - a property he is still researching during his voyage to Antarctica.
Golden's recent discoveries show that brine flowing through floating masses of ice follow a formula of permeability that applies to other porous materials. The discovery could make forecasts about the effect of global warming on polar ice packs more accurate.
Though he is working mostly with sea ice biologists and sea physicists on his expedition, Golden's role as a mathematician is essential in the research process. His tasks include measuring ice and applying the numbers to a complex mathematical formula that he developed to assess how easily fluid flows through the ice, as determined by its temperature and salinity.
Not only applicable to sea ice, Golden's mathematical formula can be applied to various other permeability situations and functions.
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