Chris Polashenski

Research Geophysicist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Phone: (570) 956-6990
chris . polashenski @ gmail.com

Research Interests

Check out my current project traversing the Greenland Ice Sheet at coldregionscience.wordpress.com.

My research focuses on understanding the changes which are being observed in the Arctic and the role of feedbacks in the Arctic climate. Most of my work is based on field observations, which I greatly enjoy collecting. I have conducted field work in Greenland, Canada, and Alaska, working from terrestrial stations, snowmobiles, a variety of aircraft, and aboard an icebreaker. Detailed observations of the sea ice and ice sheet properties collected in the field are very useful for enhancing our ability to predict future sea ice cover extent and ice sheet melt rates. Such predictions are both important and interesting because sea ice cover and ice sheets are major pieces of Earth's climate system. Sea ice is also critical habitat for ice adapted species and an important factor in human activities within the Arctic while ice sheet melting can contribute significantly to sea level rise.

I am currently involved in several projects trying to understand and attribute ice loss in the Arctic, and better understanding how sunlight interacts with the sea ice and ice sheets to enhance melt feedbacks. Both pieces of work may help to improve how climate models predict sea level rise and temperatures in the future. More information on the projects I am involved with can be found under the projects link at left.