Craig Technologies’ Scientist Attends 2016 Fall American Geophysical Union
By Space Coast Daily // February 28, 2017
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – John Robbins, a Craig Technologies scientist on the Geophysics, Geodynamics, and Space Geodesy contract, attended the 2016 Fall American Geophysical Union meeting held in San Francisco.
AGU is a premier, international earth science meeting that draws upward to 24,000 participants. Robbins presented ICESat-2 Oceanic and Sea Ice Responses to Atmospheric Forcing, which he offered as a contribution to the AGU Cryosphere session on Alimetry of Polar Regions.
The poster compared atmospheric pressure fields over oceanic regions, identifying field discrepancies. Atmospheric pressure fields are used as a basis for computing the oceanic response, which acts as an inverted barometer as sensed by satellite altimeters.
Higher pressure forces the ocean downward and lower pressure allows for an upward rebound of the sea surface. These are considered correctable effects that are removed in order to study longer-term sea level trends and variations.
Additionally, Robbins investigated the effect of wind field forcing upon the ocean which can cause multi-centimeter sea level variation over short time scales.
Robbins provided support and expertise to “Acceleration of Mass Losses and Mass Gains of the Antarctic Ice Sheet from 1992 to Present,” which was presented by his co-author, H. Jay Zwally.
This presentation was offered as part of another AGU Cryosphere session on “Assessing the Stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and Their Contribution Toward Global Sea Level.”
Robbins said the meeting was terrific, in that it provided useful feedback for his own work, as well as providing an opportunity to develop broader collegial friendships across multi-disciplinary approaches aimed at advancing solutions for present-day problems related to monitoring the state of the Earth’s cryosphere.
CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS
