Roger Barry: Bridging IGY and IPY
09 Feb 2007 - Interviews, Logistics, Ice & Snow, Arctic, Antarctic
Roger Barry - Copyright: CIRES
© CIRES / CIRES
SciencePoles interviewed Arctic climatologist Professor Roger G. Barry, Director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). From 1976 to 1982, Professor Barry was the Director of the World Data Center for Glaciology (WDC) set up during the the International Geophysical Year (IGY) in 1957-58. In 1982 he became Director of the NSIDC, after it was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a means to expand the WDC holdings and as a place to archive data from some NOAA programs.
In addition to leading NSIDC in service of the cryospheric science community, Professor Barry continues his arctic climate research, funded by NASA, NOAA, and NSF grants. In 1999, Professor Barry was awarded an American Geophysical Union Fellowship in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research, teaching, and service in the field of climatology.
What is cryosphere? What role does cryosphere play in the world's climate system?
The cryosphere is all forms of snow and ice. It is snow, fresh water ice, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, frozen ground, and permafrost. Cryosphere is different from other "spheres" (such as hydrosphere for example) because it's discontinuous. Sometimes, the use of the term "sphere" is criticized, but the term is now well accepted. After all, the cryosphere is a significant component of the climate system.
First and foremost, the cryosphere is noteworthy for the snow/ice albedo feedback, which is an important part of the global climate feedback system.
Snow and ice have high albedo (they reflect most of the sunlight reaching the surface), which keeps the air above snow and ice cold. However, if you melt a small patch of snow in the middle of snow covered field, the soil would absorb most of the sunlight; temperatures would go up and the snow around this patch would melt relatively fast and the patch will grow in size. On the global scale this feedback is believed to be responsible for the rapid warming in the high latitudes.
Snow and ice also insulate the surface of the land or the ocean, so it keeps soils relatively warm, or allows the ocean retain its heat.
A massive ice sheet covering the continent of Antarctica dominates atmospheric circulation and therefore the climate of the Southern Hemisphere. The Greenland ice sheet, due to its smaller size, has less of an effect on atmospheric circulation. However, recent studies show that the Greenland ice sheet plays an important role on the synoptic (day-to-day, regional) scale of weather systems.
These are just some of the main processes that the cryosphere is involved in.
You have been involved in climate research for over 50 years now. Can you share your experiences during IGY in 1957-1958?
I was a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal at the time. My main direct role was weather observing at Knob Lake, Schefferville, as the town is called, in central Labrador-Quebec. There was an iron mining town back then. Ken Hare, who was the Head of the Geography Department at McGill, arranged with the Department of Transport and with the Meteorological Services of Canada that graduate students would do the weather observing in Schefferville. I went there during the IGY (1957-58) for a year. There were 5 of us: one permanent senior weather observer and four grad students. We did hourly observations: 3- and 6-hourly synoptic reports and two 12-hourly pilot balloon launches. I also made auroral observations during that year. Whenever there was an aurora, I did a sketch of it and mailed the micro-card somewhere. There was also a full-time technician from Dartmouth College living with us in Schefferville during the IGY year. He was manning the equipment to study auroral whistlers.
It was during IGY when scientist showed that aurorae were synchronous in the two hemispheres.
Did you appreciate the scale of the event? How did you perceive IGY at that time?
I did not know much about the scale. I did go to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Toronto in 1957. I guess the IGY was on the agenda, but I don't remember much about it. There were some discussions of plans for satellites, and, of course, in the October of that year - 1957 - Sputnik was launched.
What do you expect from the upcoming IPY?
I expect quite a lot of very diverse efforts, it is truly an international event - many countries have established their national IPY committee. I know people who work for the US IPY committee, for the Russian IPY committee, and for the Canadian committee - all of them are looking forward to a productive IPY.
Warming and cooling periods in the Polar Regions occurred before, but we didn't have the observations - this time we'll have the observations and hopefully some of the networks that are set out will continue into the future. There'll be quite a lot of data flow and whether we at NSIDC will be involved in the data management remains to be seen. We will know relatively soon, I think.
IPY can help boost international cooperation - even during the IGY the international cooperation through data-centers was good, in spite the Cold War political reality of the time. Now, the political situation is different, but we still need international cooperation in the scientific sense. For example, there's a lot of effort to study the global warming, the rapid changes, and the environmental and societal impacts during the upcoming IPY.
By: Jean de Pomereu
