UNCW researcher to head iceberg study

WILMINGTON -- It might be hot and sticky in Southeastern North Carolina these days, but one University of North Carolina Wilmington professor is getting ready to lead a project looking into some of the coldest -- and arguably coolest -- natural structures on the planet.

Till Wagner, a physics and physical oceanography researcher at UNCW, will soon lead a multi-institutional research team to explore the role icebergs play in the climate, with a focus on the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica.

The project includes UNCW, Princeton University and the University of California at San Diego. Grants from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs totaling more than $578,000 will fund the project, which will also involve at least one postdoctoral scholar and one honors student at UNCW.

Wagner said the goal of the project is to understand the impact icebergs have on the environment around them.

Icebergs form when melting, land-based ice sheets or glaciers slide down the coastline into the ocean and massive chunks break off. They can be the size of Delaware and many are so large they carry their own micro climates.

Wagner said that when an iceberg melts, it’s like a river of cold, fresh water dumping into the warmer, salty ocean water. Most people who are concerned about the number of icebergs don’t worry what happens to them once they break off.

“But the thing is, these icebergs are huge and so you can imagine that a moving piece of cold and fresh ice like that can really impact the environment, and that’s what we’re trying to understand,” Wagner said.

The research team won’t be traveling anywhere for the project but, instead, will model the physics of icebergs as they lose mass due to melting and calving. They’ll use satellite observations and computer simulations to monitor the icebergs and track the changes of the environmental conditions around them.

Wagner said a big component of the project is to have individual icebergs represented in global climate models, which predict change over the next hundred years or so. Coastlines, winds, currents, ice and gases are all included in these models, but icebergs are not.

The researches from Princeton University will use the results of UNCW’s research to integrate icebergs into the climate models.

Wagner said the project is a continuation of what he has been working on for years. It is expected to take two years but could be extended to three.

“It’s an amazing opportunity for us to do this, and it’s so cool to have UNC Wilmington leading this project,” he said.

Reporter Bailey Aldridge can be reached at 910-343-2310 or Baldridge@StarNewsOnline.com.